An emergency room doctor has the warned of the one way parents should avoid lifting their children.
Dr J Mack Slaughter is known for his TikTok videos where he shares what he’s witnessed as an ER doctor. One of his recent videos explained the possible consequences of lifting a child up by the wrist.
“What’s one way you should never pick up a child?” his video started as he asked his viewers. The conversation quickly turned into an explanation of an injury known as nursemaid’s elbow.
The term nursemaid’s elbow dates back to when nursemaids took care of children and were blamed for causing the injury by tugging on children’s arms, according to the Boston Children’s Hospital. The injury is also called a pulled elbow or radial head subluxation.
The injury will occur when the radius part of the elbow joint slips out of place, leaving the elbow partially dislocated. Nursemaid’s elbow is only temporary and can be fixed through a reduction of the elbow to have the radius returned to its proper position. It is most common in toddlers between the ages of two and six and rare in children above that age due to how mature their ligaments are, according to the hospital.
According to Slaughter, one way the injury can occur is when parents “grab their kids by the wrist and just start swinging.” He said children normally love this interaction “until the head of the radial bone gets dislocated.”
The ER doctor even admitted that he’s accidentally given his own child a nurse’s elbow before. “Don’t tell my wife, but I accidentally did this to our child one day,” he told his viewers.
“My daughter was two at the time and started falling down the stairs. I pulled her up by the wrist, saving her from falling down the stairs but dislocating her elbow. The good news is that I popped it right back into place.”
“Nursemaid’s elbow (aka radial head subluxation) affects over 20,000 children per year in the US with over 80 percent of those patients being between the ages of one and three,” Slaughter further explained in his video’s caption.
His TikTok went on to receive over 20,000 views, with many people taking to the comments to reveal they’ve accidentally given their own children nursemaid’s elbow, and how easy it is to cause the injury with simple actions like picking up their child’s hand.
“My friend did this accidentally with my two year old. He felt so bad! Incredible ER staff though!” one comment read.
“This happened once when I was holding my toddler’s hand and they suddenly fell. Super scary but easy to fix once the ER staff told us how to!” another story read.
“My son had nursemaid’s elbow,” a third commenter wrote. “It would pop out just reaching to take his hand sometimes. After a ton of ER visits, I learned to pop it back in myself.”
“I did this to my daughter accidentally. I was terrified that they were gonna take me to jail when we went to the ER. Turns out they see it frequently,” a fourth story read.
