walking with a fracture?

Hi

I might be able to help you in two ways.  The first way is about whether anyone can walk with a fractured leg - NO!  I know it's a bit different because I am 68 and your son is 4 but at the end of April I broke my femur into two pieces and there was absolutely no way I could have walked on it.  The second thing is that my son who is now 40 had an accident at about  2years old and he did break his lower leg.  The puzzling thing was that when we took him to A&E they didn't bother to x-ray it but said that they would just strap it up and he would walk on it when he felt able.  We got him home and of course, being a young child he wanted to get up and walk about.  CRASH, SCREAM etc. I expect you get the idea.  We took him back to A&E and this time they took an x-Ray and confirmed that he had actually broken his leg, something we had guessed anyway.  It was put in plaster and a few weeks later he was back to normal.  

I think that it would be highly unlikely that your son could break his leg just by falling on some toys. (My son had a swinging garden hammock hit him very hard across his legs, swung by his lovely young cousin!!!). I know from my broken femur experience that bruising can be very painful and didn't show itself up for several days and then what a huge one it was!  It expect he would be a bit grumpy if he is in pain so maybe it's him wanting to be left to get on with it without too much fuss.  Perhaps you could keep an eye on him and see if he "forgets" about the pain when he's concentrating on something interesting.  If he was in pain from a broken leg he would be more immobile than he probably is.  IF you do find out that he has a broken leg, from my experience, you won't get any information on how much he should be walking on it.  I eventually found out that the more you walk the quicker it heals which is why I have recently been told that after six months it is entirely healed.  Hope this helps.

I am amazed the hospital didn't xray the little chap's leg. This could indeed be a fracture and if so, should be taken care of without delay. Waiting for another week is stupid as the pain he has means something IS wrong. Don't delay. Demand an xray immediately as if he has a little fractures bone he is in agony and it ought not be just left without attention.  Good luck.  Poor little lad.

Most certainly somebody CAN walk with a fracture. An elderly lady I knew had fallen down in her garden. She had a badly swollen ankle and foot but carried on as usual. Only 3 years later when she was at the doctors did she learn she had fractured her ankle!  She was unaware of it. I think most injuries depend upon our individual thresholds of pain. Clearly she felt a lot of pain but just put up with it. Its the same with many of the elderly who have arthritis. Many have more pain than others but perhaps don't feel it as much. Pain thresholds differ enormously.

Hi,

    I would always insist that they x-ray a young one since they really don't know what kind of things they should or shouldn't be doing if he did have a break, walking on it could make it much worse and it take even longer to heal. Young children have only one thing on their minds and that's playing and more playing and I would hate for him to do more damage to the leg, what if he fell again and had another break on top of what could already be a break. I wouldn't wait, take him on doctors will get over it make them x-ray his leg. God bless his little heart. Keep us updated on his condition.

On Nov 1st, day of my birthday, i fell on one of my sons toy trucks coming down hard on my patella breaking it completely into. It was excruriating pain as i felt my knee pancake on my oak floor. I was able to walk on it before my surgery and after my surgery with a knee brace, so yes, you can indeed walk on a broken leg. I cant bend mine due to my tendons being tight, but i can walk peg legged.