fractured femur

[LivinOnAPrayer]

My 3 year old has a nondisplaced fracture of her upper femur.
what sort of impact could cause this injury???

[c38]

I'm sorry to hear this. What happened??

The femur is considered one of the strongest bones in the body so it is quite hard to fracture without quite a significant impact.

[LivinOnAPrayer]

yeah thats what i thought. well i have a story...
friday just gone i got a knock on the door at 6am and a random stranger was standing there. i didnt grasp the situation straight away but then he said 'is this your little girl'? :0 she was outside!!!!!!! I have no idea how she got out, or how long she was out there, but that day while she was at day care i went safety gate mad. When i picked her up from daycare i noticed she was walking weird so took her to the gp. we couldnt see any swelling or bruising, so he booked an xray for today. well, the xrays show the fracture, right through the bone, and i have no freaking idea how it happened :'(

[LivinOnAPrayer]

i must add, dd has a lot of medical and developmental issues, and when we're at the rch for a week in 2 weeks seeing all her specialist, im going to speak to orthopedics and get them to do a bone strength test.

[c38]

Just did a quick sacn of your recent posts to see if you had posted more info elsewhere, and saw that your daughter has special needs. I didn't snoop round enough to see what her particular needs are. If she is not fully ambulant, or has metabolic problems then it's possible that she could have bone density issues which make femural fractures quite common. eg Old people with oesteoparosis, can eaily break their femur witha simple stumble or fall. Similarly oesteoparosis can also occur in young people who are not fully weight baring

[LivinOnAPrayer]

yeah alex actually does have a malabsorbtion syndrome, also a lot of balance issues and didnt walk until about a yr and a bit ago. it sucks if we're adding another issue to the list :S my theory is that she tripped on the stairs, and she has a major high pain threshold so i dont think she even cried out (or i would have heard her!!!). arrghhh i just wish i knew what caused this :(

[c38]

SNAP: just read your last post.

Yeah it's definately worth getting it checked out. I've know a few special needs kids who have had similar fractures due to poor bone density. It doesnt take a lot for it to happen and often there is not the amount of pain you would expect, as being undisplaced the fracture is quite stable. And as you say they are often tough little cookies having had to "fight" and put up with pain most of their lives.

Otherwise, an incident that would cause a femural fracture in a 3 year old with normal bone density would generally not go unoticed....ie one would imagine significant tears. They are not unknown in adventurous 3year olds though, espescially those who are climbers or bike mad. Though generally in those type of accidents there are other injuries such as burises or scrapes and scratches.

I hope it heals quickly for her.

[LivinOnAPrayer]

thankyou, i will deffinatly get the specialists onto it when we're in brissy. its so scary,and thats what had me confsed, theres no bruising or scrapes ect!! weird. im hoping its not too painful :(