Coping Mechanisms When Child Gets Hurt

First major owie for us was splitting open a lip on the bathtub.
I am notoriously NOT good with blood.
My husband was out of town. (rats!)
I lept into action, calmed him down, treated the cut, finished his bath, put him to bed then sat in my living room and had a silent break down.
Sorry no good advice here!

It hurts every momma when their baby (no matter how old) gets hurt. But - when my babies get hurt, I remind myself how lucky I am that I'm only dealing with cuts and scrapes when other parents have to see their babies go through so much worse (I work at a hospital so I have daily reminders of this).

I tell myself they are fine unless bones or blood is coming out of their skin faster then I can clean it up.

We also have an ER policy at our house...If we cant get the bleeding stopped or it is an extra lot of blood..we go.

I have had in my six years of being mom..Stitches, Staples, Band aids and numbing medication...We have had to go to the ER ten times alone for my youngest.

It is important to remember...Yes they are breakable...but It takes alot for them to break:)

Have an accident plan.

Know that little stuff is gonna happen daily..be better prepared for the big stuff and it will be easy cheesy for ya.

Stuff to know ahead of time...Where you will take them..who drives...ALL INFO for kiddo in one spot...who will talk to doctors...All that confusing stuff..If planned is not hard or overwhelming.

I want to add when the BIG stuff happens..Take time to cry....Break down fall apart...get it outta the way and outta of in front of small eyes...That way you can be strong standing next to them..They look to you on how to react with things...you probably dont know how much they feed off of your emotions...So if you stay calm..They will be calm(er)

When my oldest was 2 I dropped a knife on his head...seriously! I was carrying a cake outside and the knife was laid across the top. He came running up and grabbed my legs and I wobbled and the knife slid off and clipped him in the head on the way to the ground. I yelled for my husband to get the car (we had 20+ people at our house) and I grabbed my son, went back to the kitchen and grabbed a towel and immediately put pressure on his head. By the time we got to the ER he had quit crying and the bleeding stopped. I had to constantly remind myself to stay calm b/c if I was upset, he would continue to be upset. I see that scar every day and live with that guilt but he loves the scar and tells everyone the story :)
My youngest tripped and fell head first into our fireplace 2 days after his third birthday. He split open a huge gash above his left eye. Again, I grabbed a towel and handed it to hubby and told him to put pressure on it and I loaded 3 other boys into the car and off we went.
The key is to remain calm. The little ones will feed off of whatever emotion you are displaying. We just talked to him all the way to the ER (we live way out in the the sticks!) b/c he kept wanting to fall asleep. We had the other boys sing songs with him and did whatever we could to keep him awake and distract him from his injury.
It's not easy, but I do believe your instincts will kick in and you will do whatever it takes to make them comfortable. Take deep breaths and focus on your little one.
Believe me, after both incidents I did my fair share of crying!!

Oh see, I started off with the mother of all "owies", so I'm totally immune at this point to anything that doesn't involve pools of blood on my kitchen floor. My son was mauled by my parents dog at 6 weeks old...
Seriously, I don't even flinch when the kids fall down the stairs or even bleed. If they are in my possession and responsive, I'm fine.

Just keep in mind that REALLY, they're OK. And they're going ot have scars, whether it's something you didn't intercept in time, or another kid stabs him with a stick.

You just need to deal with the reality of it, I think. You can't protect them from everything, so set the bar a little lower for yourself. If your kids are happy and healthy, you're doing great!

Good question!
I want to cry more when he gets hurt then he does.. If we could just keep them in bubbles~

I take a deep breath and open my eyes wide and say "Uh oh"..

And then go and without saying another word till I am sure I will not cry, yell or say something to make my child react.

The less reaction the better.
It is soo hard.

I hate when I have given a warning they are going to hurt themselves if they do not stop and then the child does it anyway.. But I guess they have to learn.

I don't have 'the' answer but I can say with my first one I was like you and when I left him with my mother and he got his first bruise by hitting his cheek in the bathtub I was so upset. Did I really think he could go through life with no accidents? Well, later he did get stitches and his brother did and then I think I realized doctors help and scars heal and it's part of life. You just need to realize it's part of him being in this world. Otherwise he'd just sit on a 'shelf'. Do you know what I mean? Each time it happens just tell yourself you got scrapes, other people's children do, and your son will. Not much of an answer but time will help you deal with it hopefully. I hope it's before he becomes fearful if he picks up on your feelings. Just do your part to be sure he's safe and realize accidents and scrapes happen even when you are there and careful.

I think because I'm SO clumsy it's pretty easy for me to deal with, though maybe not at first.. My daughter is so tough that I realized as long as I didn't freak out then she was good. As far as worrying about him hurting his face and his face not healing.. I guess it's just the way you look at scars. In our house scars are awesome, they tell a story and I'm proud of all the one's I have.. me and DD will go over my husbands hands, arms, face and point to all the scars and talk about where they came from, etc.. A few weeks ago my daughter (2 1/2) ran full speed into the door jamb and busted her eyelid open, it bled like crazy and she only cried for a minute.. once it healed we got to show her the scar it left and her dad has one in almost the same spot so it was kind of cool.. he helps me a lot to not freak out and once I realize that she's fine I am too lol.. Plus he's a boy, the scars will only be that much cooler for him LOL.

Life has many, many bumps, bruises and scrapes -- literally and figuratively. Our job as parents and mothers is to guide our kids through them. I never feel guilty for my daughter's boo boos, but I am there to cuddle, comfort and teach her to move on an pick herself back up. She's only 6, so I figure I have quite a few figurative boo boos coming up in the future. Of course we hate to see our kids hurt, but if you are honestly (or your husband) not the cause of it, there is nothing to feel guilty about. It's life and if he's 7 there will be many more to come.

Yeah most of us don't worry like you. Part is because think about when you were a kid and fell. Now look at your arm, leg, face, can you actually see the scar? Most people can't, anything that happens to your child probably won't be visible for life. If they are help him come up with a really good story of how it happened. :p

Seriously, people tell me I suck at telling scar stories. Probably because they are all from knee surgery, boring....

I'm not sure how old your son is but the first 3yrs of my son's life were the worst. He is 100% boy so we are use to cuts/scrapes/falls/bruises (you name it). Now we're just use to it so if he gets hurt, we just say "you're fine" go back to playing...lol!
When he was about 2, I think the day care actually thought he was being abused or something. The teacher said the one day, "You know, I watched him while we were outside and he does all this to himself"...lol!
It will get easier as he gets older.

Why do you ask the same type questions everyday? You really need to work on yourself so your kids will not sink into your anxiety.