Our Saturday afternoon until night was spent to Sutter Hospital for an emergency happened to Lianne. We’re playing on the bed and I was holding her wrist, not tight and not hurting her, suddenly it pops. I was about to make fun about popping sound but she cries.. cries… and cries.. very unsual. She keep on saying that her arm hurts.. and she’s not moving it. I didn’t think that the popping sound will be that serious for her. Anyways, we decided to rush her to emergency. No marks of bruises or discoloration on her arms but she’s really in pain.

We spent five hours on the emergency.. her case is not serious. What happened was she got “nursemaid elbow”, never heard of it. When doctor explains about what happen to her, it seems really normal that no need to worry. *sigh* I just can’t afford my sunshine crying that hard and in pain :( We went home and her arm was okay.

Here’s some information about Nursemaid Elbows:

Nursemaid Elbow Overview

Nursemaid elbow is a common injury among preschool-aged children. It refers to a condition (medically called a radial head subluxation) in which a child’s elbow bones get partially pulled out of joint and do not line up normally. The injury can occur innocently from swinging a young child by the arms or pulling a child’s arm while in a hurry.

A temporary condition without permanent effects, it can be quite frightening to parents who find their child lacking the ability to use his or her upper arm.

Specifically, a portion of soft tissue, whose function is to hold bones together, is pulled between 2 areas of the bones that make up the elbow joint. The involved bony areas are the radial neck and head of the radius bone in the forearm and the capitellum portion of the humerus, or upper arm bone. Movement of the elbow in this condition results in pain and keeps the child from using the upper arm.

Typically, this type of injury occurs in children aged 1-4 years but has occurred in infants aged 6-12 months as well. As children grow, their bones become larger and more defined. So this injury is rarely seen in children older than 6 years.