When the Baby Falls
2:09:00 AMAt some point, this is bound to happen. Some moms will see their babies fall off a chair, the couch or the bed or even someone else's lap. The baby may fall while he's only a few months old, a year old or already a biggie toddler. Regardless, your baby will experience "the fall"; the one that will send him crying from the bottom of his lungs and send you panicking.
There's no knowing when this "fall" will happen, or how but one thing is for sure: You're not a Bad Mom because of it. Unless you purposely watched the baby fall or simply pushed him/her to fall, well then, maybe you should re-evaluate your eligibility for parenting. Assuming that you're not one of those sadistic, rather selfish and possibly mentally absent people, let's discuss about what you can do when the baby does fall.THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Don't Panic. Keep calm, keep your shit together and don't ever lose it. Chances are the baby won't be severely hurt so there is no point in panicking, but should the baby be in some dire situation, let me ask you, Would panicking help you think clearly on what to do next? No, it won't. The scenario would end up with you crying like crazy and walking or running in circles saying "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry" to your baby. This will only distract you from doing the right thing, so do not panic. If the baby gets a lump or injury comfort him/her but as a safety precaution, din't make the baby sleep for at least an hour.
Cold Compress is what you need to apply over a lump to ease swelling. If there's an injury, bleeding or cuts, then what you need is to clean it with a Clean Cloth. In some cases, a baby might become drowsy after having a bump on the head, for toddlers it's okay to let them doze off a bit. During questionable incidents where the baby suffered a rather hard fall, and in the case of infants, Don't Let the Baby Fall Asleep Immediately. It's best if you can observe the baby first for any signs of disorientation or anything wrong with his/her movements. Signs that will indicate that your baby needs immediate medical attention is when he/she is turning blue, has a change in breathing pattern, twitching, vomiting, unconsciousness and extraordinary eye movements.
- WHY you SHOULDN'T PANIC during SERIOUS CASES
- WHY you SHOULDN'T PANIC during MINOR INCIDENTS
- SOMETHING you OUGHT to KNOW
THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH A LITTLE PAIN
Falling and minor accidents are not entirely bad for children. They are inevitable, normal and a necessity in building character. Without experiences like these, babies or toddlers won't learn how to care for themselves or walk, crawl and run right. When a child falls of from climbing a small desk and gets hurt, he won't try and climb on it again. If he still wants to climb that desk, he'll find other ways (safer ways) to climb it efficiently, like using boxes or chairs as stepping stones. Babies learn how to walk and stand in the right form and manner based on experience. How? Simple, they try to stand up by pulling themselves up via the crib or mom's arm and when they stumble they re-position their feet and hands until they master the art of it.
Like grown ups learning from bad decisions and life-changing mistakes, babies need to trip, fall off or stumble from time to time. It's not our jobs as Moms to make sure nothing ever bad happens to them, because honestly, that's impossible. Nothing in the world could ever stop a tragedy from happening, if it has already happened. We moms are meant to help them get up, start over and grow stronger. So if baby gets hurt under your watch, try not to be so hard on yourself. The best way to redeem yourself is by helping baby overcome the pain, forget the moment, move on and not focus on your personal regrets. It's not about you, it's about baby, so do what's best for baby.*the first time my baby fell off he was on a couch and only 3 months old. I swear I just turned for a second to brush off peas from my shirt when I heard that scary Thud! I was alone at home and was harboring a grudge on my husband that time. Not knowing what to do I cried while hushing him and tried to call my husband to come home to check my baby. I tried to keep it in, but as soon as I got my husband on the phone I started crying hysterically, it was terrible. My hubby and I fought over whose fault it was even though our baby was fine. The fight lasted two days but the fall lasted only a second. Based on my calculation, the fight is so not worth it.
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