DD's face - pls tell me this will be ok

[Minnifer]

The week before Halloween, DD apparently slipped off her Tripp Trapp and slammed her face somehow, either on the edge of the table as she went down, or on the floor itself. I was at work and the nanny was putting the baby down so no one saw what happened and DD couldn't really describe it. When I got home, her whole cheek looked swollen and like it was getting bruised, but her eye was fine - it looked like the high point of her cheekbone had taken the brunt of the impact. The next morning she had a slight black eye and most of the cheek was bruised. It all looked pretty bad for a week and a half or so, then started to fade.

We have a mild version of a connective tissue disorder that causes us to bruise easily/badly, and to take a while to heal generally. Because her eye looked fine, I didn't think we needed a dr - my thought was, it's a bruise, we always get them bad, what could they do. Well, fast forward to now, when it's been almost 7 weeks, and there is still good-sized part of her cheek that is mildly discolored red. It looks kind of like how you look when you've been out in the cold and your cheeks are flushed - not hugely noticeable, but noticeable, esp to me. Even with our longer healing, it seems like too long for it to still be like this.

I'm panicking, b/c I feel like I may have made a huge mistake by not taking her to the dr right away, and like maybe now she will have permanent discoloration or something. I feel terrible! I will call the ped tomorrow and am taking DS in on Tuesday anyway so I may bring DD in too but I was hoping in the the meantime someone could talk me down and tell me I didn't totally screw this up and ruin her face for life?????? We've never really had any face bumps/bruises that were bad so I don't know if this is typical for facial healing or something... ugh. :(

[Uno-Mom]

What is the typical healing t pattern for a bad bruise, for folks in your family who have that mild disorder? I know someone who has thrombocytopenia (not sure if I spelled that right!) which also causes easy and dramatic bruising. Their bruises heal more slowly and it would be normal for redness to stay a while.

Is it possible that she always has lingering redness for a few weeks but you've just never noticed it before on other body parts? It wouldnt be noticeable at all on a knee or arm, but it might be more obvious on the delicate shading of her face.

I don't blame you for feeling anxious about any injury involving the face - you're smart to get it looked at. I would bet you anything the pedi will say its fine and will be back to normal soon. I think the real danger sign would be if there was any lingering swelling or pain. (hey, is it possible she's just been rubbing at.the spot becauase of the memory of that bad tumble? My kid's face looks windburned if she even rubs it firmly.)

[buddyleebaby]

:hug: I would take her to the Doctor if you are worried, but fwiw, my daughter fell face first onto the asphalt at school last year, hitting her nose and forehead. Once the initial brusing healed, her forehead/bridge of her nose was red for quite awhile. It did eventually fade back to normal, but it took several months.

[essnce629]

It may just take a while for the color to go back to normal. DS2 fell down our 2 front steps the week of Halloween and scraped his nose and even though it's completely healed, it's still pink nearly 5 weeks weeks later (he looks like Rudolf!)