Learning Lessons of the Playground

The first sunny day this spring turned into a sad day for Miss Paige.  After church on Sunday 2-1/2 weeks ago, the weather was gorgeous.  The first perfect, warm, non-windy day.  So, we decided to take the kids to the park.  We found the perfect one and had the place all to ourselves.  Kenny was playing with the boys on the big toy, Michelle (my sister, Auntie Shell, aka the roommate) was helping Cheznee on the monkey bars and I was pushing Paige in a swing.  Ahhh perfection, everyone happy, giggling and oh-so pleasant!  Then we did a little switcharoo and I decided to take Paige down the slide.  I climbed up and decided it was safest, because of the steepness of the slide to ride down with her on my lap.  (Maybe because I also wanted to feed my inner child with some playground fun).  With her tightly, safely gripped in my arms down we went.  Somewhere on the way down her poor little foot became wedged between my leg and the side of the slide and I noticed it had twisted a little.  Paige was crying decently and so I just cuddled her thinking it just twisted funky and she would be back to giggling in her swing in no time.  Well, that didn't happen.  She just whimpered and whimpered.  Every attempt to walk, she fell and cried more.  After not showing any improvement we took her to Urgent Care.  After they took an x-ray the Dr. found that her Tibia in her left leg had fractured (weight bearing bone).  Poor baby!  They put a splint on her chubby little leg and sent us home until we met with the Pediatric Orthopedic the next day to have it casted.

All that week I couldn't quit blaming myself.  If I hadn't had her wear those gripper shoes, if I hadn't held her thinking it would be safe, If I just hadn't taken her down that slide she would be our walking happy baby.  I have since gotten over it, but when you see your child in pain from something you could have controlled it is hard to not blame yourself.  Although it is funny because everything I did - the shoes, holding her etc. was supposed to be safe and fun! 

Today I came across an article about slide accidents on playgrounds...I think it was a blessing to calm my troubled heart.  There was a study on Tibia fractures in children and it said many fractures of the Tibia in toddlers, come from being on a slide.  Something like 13%of them were sustained while playing on a playground slide in children ages 14 – 32 months.  All of the tibia fractures associated with playing on a slide were sustained while going down the slide on the lap of an adult or an older sibling and not while riding alone.  Can you believe this, where was this article 3 weeks ago?

Basically the article explained that if a toddler is riding by himself and gets his leg stuck against the side of the slide, he can stop himself fairly easily, but with a parent’s weight added in you have greater velocity and momentum and it is harder to stop and the leg may get wedged and subsequently break.  There it is!  Learning Lesson #564 don't take your kids down the slide while sitting in your lap!