It is a fairly common gesture between parents pull the children's arms to lift them from the ground, from the cart, climb them to the curb or even to play the plane or swing them.
Even if it is done without any intention of harming them, pulling the arms of children can cause a very painful injury. Abrupt movements and pulls can cause a elbow dislocation, the most common among the little ones, or one shoulder.
A very painful and frequent injury
In young children the joints are still very delicate and run the risk of dislocating, that is, getting out of place. As they get older, the ligaments get stronger and this risk decreases.
Elbow dislocation, also known as extracted elbow or "babysitter elbow" is a radius head dislocation, bone that together with the ulna forms the forearm. Is a very painful injury that prevents the child from bending or turning the arm.
If the child starts crying and cannot move or flex or stretch the arm, it is necessary to take him to the emergency room. It does not swell too much but the forearm will be in a pronation position, that is, with the palm of the hand facing the ground and the forearm rotated.
In Babies and more Experts warn of the increase of sports injuries in childhood: sport itself, but with cautionIf the doctor confirms the dislocation, he has to perform a flexion maneuver (only a doctor can do it) to put the bone head back into the joint.
After the elbow, the shoulder dislocation It is the most frequent among the smallest. By lifting the child from one or both arms the weight of the body can cause the head of the humerus to dislocate from the scapula cavity.
They can also be caused by a fall or when we hold it by the hand and the child turns on himself, so we must be especially careful to pull the arms of the children.
After a dislocation it is likely that the elbow will come out more easily when stretching the arm. If the dislocations are repeated, the elbow is prone to dislocate very easily and in that case a bandage will have to be placed so that the ligaments regain their firmness.
How to lift them?
The most recommended and safe is gently take them from the armpits when we want to lift them or play with them.
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