9 Month Old Had Hit On Head. No Bleeding, Bruising And Leaking From Ears Or Nose. Should I Be Concerned?

Posted on Sat, 14 Jul 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 Answered on

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello, yesterday my 9 month old niece rolled off a bed about 2 ft high and hit her head on a carpeted floor. It sounded really loud. She cried right away, but after about a minute she calmed down and was back to her old self. I watched her for several hours and she seemed normal. Her pupils were the same size, no throwing up, no unusual fussiness, no bleeding or bruising, no leaking from ears or nose. Not even a bump. I feel so horrible and just want to make sure she will be okay.

Answered by Dr. Santosh Kondekar (10 hours later)

Hi there.
Children head bones are soft and brain has cushion fluid called csf around it that
Protects brain in minor falls. The falls on sharp
Objects,delicate weight babies and falls from above
3 feet usually develop serious complications.
.all babies are potential to develop serious issues upto
2 months from fall following small blood vessel breaks inside brain.
Early sign of such bleeding inside brain is any of the following
Vomiting.weakness.sleepiness.irritability.convulsions.unconsciousness etc.
At times the injury neednot be only bleeding inside or outside
But it can also be due to shear forces causing concussion etc
That usually manifests as alteration of behaviour,sleep and sensorium and
And repeated vomting may be important reasons for further evaluations. Pupil changes are late to develop.
I hope this addresses your concern. Do write backl if any further query.
Sorry for punctuation errors as writing from mobile device. Thank
I
Apart from obvious swelling,pain, such symptoms including repeated vomtting
Is is

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar