Broken foot?

My tough as nails boy fell down 2 steps Saturday night before bed. I didn't think much of it but gave him some Motrin as he was in some pain and refused to walk on it. Sunday when he wouldn't walk we took him to urgent care where they did 3 xrays which showed no fracture. They said he sprained it but there is no swelling or bruising. He still wont walk on it. It hurts him if he forgets and tries to walk on it. If hes still in pain Friday he will have a 2nd set of xrays as per the pedi...

Has anybody else had this happen
TIA

 

Sarah hurt her foot pretty bad (neighbor girl was swinging her in circles and swung her foot into a rock). I talked to the on-call dr. at our practice. He was the guy who had been there for at least 30 years. He said in all those years, he's literally never seen a kid broke their foot. Their bones are more elastic than a grown-ups and don't tend to break easily. He said some of those included kids whose feet had been run over by school buses and cars.

He did set a time limit for when Sarah should be able to walk on it before getting xrays (it was about 5 days). He recommended non-stop ibuprofen for at least about 2 weeks. Even past when the swelling went down so we wouldn't re-aggravate the foot. He recommended alternating ice and heat.

Sarah also hurt her foot on a Saturday night. She hopped along with it for several days at school. I don't remember when she was finally able to wear her correct size of shoes again or when the swelling finally went away. She also had swelling for about the next month whenever she ran around too much on it.

Marissa

 

Not on a foot, but my nephew hurt his wrist at soccer. First set of xrays showed nothing, so they just wrapped it and told my sis to give him motrin for it. She followed up with her dr about a week or so later, my nephew still wasn't using his wrist right and it was still bothering him. I can't remember if it was on the second set of xrays or possibly the third set that finally showed I think it was called a hairline fracture? Anyways it was impossible to see and it took a radiologist trained in pediatrics to see it. I can't remember it was something really strange and doesn't usually happen.

Long story short, yes, he did have multiple xray's done before they caught it, they finally just put it in a brace. This was last summer. He recently reinjured it and I think he's in a brace again this summer.

 

My cousin's little girl had this happen, not to her foot but her leg. It took several sets of x-rays for the hairline fracture to show up. If I remember correctly (this happened around Christmastime), where the hairline fracture was, it was already starting to heal on it's own, so I don't think she needed a brace or crutches.

 

This happened to an 18 month old boy whose mom I know. He stopped walking on it and was crying in pain so they took him to the ER on a Saturday, x-rays showed nothing. He cried and wouldn't walk all weekend, went to the ER again on Monday and sure enough there was a fracture in his tibia.

 

At just shy of 3 years old, my daughter fell and hurt her wrist. Picture non-stop screaming for hours. X-ray showed nothing. She was put into a brace and the next day GRANDMA took it off and she was fine. GOod luck.

 

Yes, when Isabel was 5 she rolled her ankle pretty bad. She was able to limp to school, but when we picked her up from daycare at the end of the day it was huge and she could hardly walk on it (nobody bothered to call us!) She had 2 sets of x-rays, but the fracture didn't show up until the 3rd xray. It was very tiny and it was right at the cartilage, but it was the orthopedic Dr. that ended up spotting it almost 2 weeks after it happened. She got casted that day for 4 weeks. We paid extra for the waterproof cast as we were leaving for Florida in 2 days. She also ended up having a brace for about a month after the cast was taken off. It still bothers her at times to this day and when she plays softball, she wears an ankle brace because it can get sore and also seems to roll easier now. I think that if she had gotten casted as soon as it happened, it would have healed better.

 

So for the 2nd set of xrays I was thinking Children's Hospital... should I go to a pediatric orthepedic doc?

 

My son fell down a couple steps at basketball practice, said his ankle hurt, he made it through practice but was kinda limping. Coach let him sit for last 15 mins. When his dad brought him home he asked him to take out trash Jack did so but was limping. His dad thought nothing of it because Jack hadn't complained at this point. I got home 2 hours later. Jack told me his ankle kinda hurt. So I go look at it and I my jaw just dropped! It was black and blue and very swollen. His dad had NO clue...
So we waited till the morning because if there is one thing I have learned with my oldest being in gymnastics and seeing so many injuries is that so many times there is too much swelling for the xrays to show anything. So we went to the ER in the morning. The told us possible fracture, put him in a brace type thing said he could wear it if he wanted and gave him crutches if he wanted. After 5 days the swelling had not gone down and bruising was still there. So I took him to a ped orthopedic specialist. They took one look at it and told me it was broke but did xray to be sure...and sure enough xray showed a break in the ankle and he was casted. He said so many times they have seen breaks missed by ER drs. My son almost never complained of any pain, in fact he complained more about the cast being on and not being able to play kickball. If it is still swollen or bruised I would def take for more xrays. Otherwise a sprain can take a while to heal. Some say a sprain hurts more than a break.

 

Immediately after the injury the swelling can cause a break to be hard to spot. DD has broken both her finger and her foot and in both cases we had to wait a couple of days from original x-ray at her doctor to the orthopedist (hand) and the podiatrist (for the foot) so the swelling could go down. Her doctor was pretty sure he saw something on the x-rays, but she had to be seen by the specialist. I would skip the ER and go to an ortho if possible.

 

That's who we ended up going to. He was the one that caught it.

 

Some fractures are so small, they are hard to see until they start healing. Once they start to heal, they show up brighter on the x-ray.. My DD fell & broke her arm, the urgent care found a green stick fracture just above her wrist. I followed up with ortho 3 days later for the hard cast, and that break had already healed, but they found another fracture on her growth plate near her elbow. Sent her for an MRI to check for displacement. Found none, and put her in a hard cast. When we go the cast off, and re x-rayed, they found calcification for another fracture the previous 2 x-rays and MRI had missed. Obviously all the fractures were small, which is why they are easy to miss.

I'm surprised to hear that a broken foot isn't common in children.. I can think of three kids I know that have broken the bones that lead up to their toes (meta-something or other).

 

OMG, this sounds like a lot of redo on the cast since they miss it. I hope evrything goes well during the casting.