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what to do w/ a 3 yr old w/ a broken foot


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my ds broke his foot. Went to the dr. today and the break is right at a joint, and it is really important that it heal properly. So we are off to an orthopedic surgeon Thursday.

 

The dr.'s advice to me....

 

"Try to keep him off of it, as much as you can."

:glare:

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I'd park him on the couch with every Disney/Pixar movie I could get my hands on and assign other siblings to wait on him hand and "foot". That would mean playing games with him, reading to him, whatever.

 

I admit, with my kids, I'm sure it would have devolved to them pushing the injured one around the house in my office chair at high speed.....sigh....

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Bless your heart! 3 years ago my then 3 1/2 year old ds had a spiral tib-fib fracture and was in a hip to toe cast for 6 weeks! Yes...non-weight bearing for 6 weeks! I sent out a plea to everyone I knew and asked for ideas! Here are some of our favorites:

 

*indoor "tennis"...blown up balloon and badminton rackets and just keep the balloon off the floor. We all had to find a spot and stay in it so that no one had an advantage. ALL of us had a ball and we did this very often!

 

*I went through all of our toys and pulled out some things he didn't remember. One of his favorites was a set of vehicles that you take apart and put together with a little battery-operated screwdriver. Kind of like this: http://www.amazon.com/Battat-68025-Take-Apart-4X4/dp/B000N5RT2O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1299564593&sr=8-3, but our set had 3 vehicles included. On a similar note, I think the Design and Drill set http://www.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-Design-Activity-Center/dp/B00012O42W/ref=pd_sim_t_7 would have been perfect for this time.

 

*He pretty much watched whatever he wanted on TV, but he's not really a TV lover so that didn't hold his attention too well.

 

*I got him an easy maze book and he loved it. I think it was a Kumon workbook. He flew through it and still loves mazes!

 

*He also was able to do a simple dot-to-dot workbook, although that required a bit more help.

 

*We read lots of books! Good snuggling time! And it was great to get out some of the wonderful picture books I'd neglected because we usually spent most of our read aloud time on chapter books by then. I'm not making that mistake again with my youngers!

 

*We did rent a wheelchair b/c obviously we couldn't stay home for 6 weeks and he was not able to be on his leg at all. He LOVED his wheelchair and people at church still talk about it b/c we had VBS 2 weeks after he broke his leg and all the big kids begged to get to push him around!

 

I know I'm forgetting something, but those are the things that come to mind quickly.

 

It is hard! This ds is my energy-boy (my older ds on the other hand would think it was a dream come true to be forced to stay on the couch and read and watch TV while we all brought him food and drinks and carried him to the bathroom! :)). And dh and I could not imagine how it could be anything but awful, but it ended up being actually a good time. Sounds crazy I'm sure! And, I know that in some ways my situation was probably easier than yours because we had no choice in the matter. Sometimes things are much simpler when you don't have options! At first he was unable to walk and by the time he probably could have figured out a way, it was just the new normal to stay on the couch. But just to encourage you...it really ended up being a sweet time for all of us. It was a great opportunity to talk to my older 2, who were 5 and 7 at the time, about serving others. And we have some really fond, fond memories of that summer. (And it was nice that for 6 weeks I did not have to say, "Stop jumping on that chair!" one time!) Haha!

 

Hope that helps!

Edited by happykate
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This is when I would consider a gaming handheld like a DS or an iPad or SOMETHING! I would even ask my local peeps if they had something I could borrow.

 

Books, books, books.

Movies

puzzles

workbooks

lego/duplos

hotwheels

train table with chair

 

ack!

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My DD broke her foot about 1 1/2 years ago when she was 3. Honestly she was in so much pain at first that she could not walk on it. So, we kept her on the couch. We watched a lot of TV and read books and played games. I carried her everywhere that she had to go. I made sure that she got her Ibuprofen every 6 hours. Once she got her cast on, the orthopedist said that she could walk and run and do anything that she wanted. It took her a couple of hours to get used to it, but she was off in no time. The best part was that the cast was waterproof so she could take a bath in it! We actually had to spray water inside the cast to keep it cleaned out. She only had to wear the cast for 3 weeks, which was nice. Good luck! I hope he feels better soon!

Edited by SBMama
Fixed grammatical error.
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