Nursemaid's Elbow
Nursemaid's elbow is an idyllic name for a not-so-bucolic condition. It is a partial dislocation of the elbow. It mostly affects children under the age of five, but older children may occasionally suffer from it also.
Your child will most likely cry out in pain immediately after the dislocation occurs. After a few minutes he may stop crying but still refuse to use the arm. Most commonly, he will bend his arm at the elbow while the other hand holds the injured arm at the wrist. Since holding of the wrist is a common posture, many parents mistakenly believe that there is an injury at the wrist. Of course, the real location of the pain is at the elbow.
As long as the elbow remains dislocated, your child will not move the arm. The fingers and wrist can move normally, but the toddler usually cannot reach out and grab anything with that arm. This can go on for days if the dislocation is not corrected.
Alert!
If you need to pick up your toddler, never pull her up by the hand or wrist. Put your hands under her armpits or around her waist when lifting her. Many caring parents unwittingly injure their child by lifting the body by the hands, thus dislocating the elbow.
Luckily, this problem has a quick and easy fix. The doctor will first evaluate the arm carefully to ensure that there is no fracture or other injuries. After the doctor feels confident that the diagnosis is nursemaid's elbow, all it takes is a fast bending and rotating of the elbow joint to snap the ligament back to its proper location. This maneuver can trigger some moderate discomfort, but the pain goes away immediately after the elbow joint is fixed.
The arm may regain its function in just a few minutes, or it may take up to a few hours, depending on how long ago the dislocation occurred and how motivated the child is to use the arm. On rare occasions, the dislocation may require more than one attempt to get it fixed. If your child still doesn't use the arm a day after the fix, bring him back to the doctor to get rechecked.
