Should I Worry About the Dent in My Daughters Forehead?

Kids are often resilient, but I hope you realize that you made a bunch of mistakes here.

Your daughter hit her head and was upset about leaving her friend. Okay, but did you follow concussion protocol? She knew what was going on, but did you conduct the proper tests every 2 hours for the next 24 hours? I'm guessing you did not. Did you contact your pediatrician by phone to at least mention it? And when you saw black eyes, you didn't realize that this meant there was a brain bleed of some kind, and again you talked to friends and got a half-answer ("blood draining or something") but, again, you did not contact the pediatrician? You are so incredibly lucky that this drained into her eye sockets and didn't pool elsewhere.

Now there's a depression in her forehand and, again, you are online. You are more worried about her being scared than you are about her being in trouble. That's a red flag and is pretty close to neglect.

Your pediatrician has a phone number that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Use it. Please call and report the fall and the black eyes, and find out where you can take a pediatric first aid class and learn more about how to care for your child. You'll learn a lot about how pediatric experts (x-ray, urgent care, emergency rooms, dentists, etc.) work to keep little kids calm. They are professionals and they've done this before. If you do not like the pediatrician, find a new one that you like and trust, and start working cooperatively to learn more about child care. You're worried about taking her for x-rays when you haven't even talking to your pediatrician, and that's a huge problem.

Your daughter face-planted, woke up with black eyes, and you listened to friends and people online about whether or not to take her to the doctor? And you STILL didn't take her?

I can hardly believe what I'm reading...

Stop thinking about your daughter being scared and do the right thing by her and get medical help rather than just hoping for the best. The only way she will get used to doctors is by you doing your job as a mother and taking her.

Children need to understand that there are some things that are NON-NEGOTIABLE. And going to the doctor is one of them. You as a mother need to understand that her health is more important than her feelings. You aren't her friend. You are her parent. Parenting means doing the hard thing, and in this instance, that means getting her medical help.

If she hit her head that hard... why on earth did you not take her to a Dr to be checked out?!?

She could have had a concussion, brain bleed or worse.

Geesh

Well its a little late now to be concerned about this don't ya think? 2 1/2 months later? Going to the doctor for "nothing"? My son has had 3 concussions. Sledding, skiing and car accident. I don't mess with the head.

She could have had a skull fracture and this is how it healed. Not sure if anything can be done now. Personally, I would have taken my child to the doctor immediately for evaluation. However, you did not. If you are now concerned, I would go ahead and take her and have it evaluated.

Parenting is not easy. Sometimes you have to make the difficult decisions and taking your kid to the doctor is one of those. There are few things in life that I won't negotiate with my kids but doctors is not an area I negotiate. I'm the parent.

I'd call the pediatrician and go from there. I have not personally seen a dent.

I hope your daughter checks out ok

ETA:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who was upset by this. All I thought was head injury also:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/childrens-health/head-inju...

S.

Welcome to mamapedia.

You REALLY need parenting courses. Your daughter could have a brain injury and you are worried to get her an xray? Are you FREAKING kidding me??

Take her to the DOCTOR!!! Get her examined. Sweet mother of God. It's her HEAD. Not her foot or hand - her HEAD!!!

you posted about it ON-LINE and trusted people over a DOCTOR?? Damn.

You mean she has a skin dimple as oppose to a dent in her skull, right?
A skin dimple wouldn't worry me.
A dented in skull would worry me a lot.
I would have taken her to an emergency room immediately but it seems she just got a goose egg bump that went away on it's own with no concussion.

A dimple in her skin might just be a feature she lives with.
I would not even consider talking to a plastic surgeon about it and there's no way I'd do any sort of botox on a toddlers forehead.

your daughter has a potential brain or skull injury and you accepted 'online and from friends' diagnoses?

getting an X-ray and finding out that everything is fine is somehow a worse proposition than either finding a problem or getting the peace of mind of knowing there's not a problem?

i have no words.
khairete
S.

What does your doctor say?

I'd be more concerned about a dent in my kid's head than any possible side effect of an X-ray.

Well, when the black eyes showed up, I would have been at the doctor's office. When ever it comes to a head injury, it helps to call the doc. When my almost 10 yr old was about 2, I had gone to the basement to wash clothes. I did not know she had figured out how to open the kitchen door. She decided to follow me. I was putting stuff in the dryer when I heard a bang and crying. Her little ride on car was by the back door and she decided to go for a ride....down the stairs. I found on her on the bottom of 4 cement stairs. She also only cried from being scared more so than from pain. I called the doc, spoke to the ped on call and he asked questions about her behavior etc. He told me that unless she shows signs of dizziness, she should be fine. At 10, she does have a line in her skull about 2-3 inches long, a bit jagged at one end and only shows when she raises her eyebrows

Have you talked to her dr? I would have them check it out and see what they think. If they say x-rays if you feel you need to take her to cook children's in Fort Worth or Children's in Dallas. They will know how to try to keep her calm to do them.
Add: There are also 2 Urgent Care's in Mansfield that are awesome and just pediatrics. Bumps and Bruises (Which I have heard great things about) & Cook Children's Urgent Care (Which I have taken my son to and they where excellent) Both are not too far from Methodist on Matlock Rd.

Good luck!

I'm not going to get into what you did at the time - that is water under the bridge. But my advice for you now is to take her to your ped and tell them what happened. My doc had us get an x-ray after a fall like the one you describe. Our ped said it was important to know if there was a fracture. A healed fracture could be a weak point and we needed to know if and how it healed in case of another fall or if my kid wanted to play sports when he got older.

Just call the doctor and ask.