Kids pinky toe -fracture?

[Anonymous]

Urgent Care who will x-ray to confirm and then tape. They may also recommend an orthopedist especially for kids. That's what happened to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD (6) just hit her toe on the bed edge with a cartwheel. The pinky toe looks visibly moved to me,at a slight angle. When I googled picture of broken pinky toe, I came across one that is an angulated fracture. Hers looks like that. Not as dramatic as some of the pictures but a bit. It sounds like these toes benefit from taping. Do we go to the ER? There’s no way we’re going to get into to see an orthopedic or podiatrist tomorrow, so I feel like ER is our only option. DH would prefer to see what happens overnight. I have broken and sprained my toes over the years on suitcases and dropping or tripping on weights but this looks different.

This happened to me as a kid too.... although I was trying to do a "round off" not a cartwheel. I was about 7 or 8. My dad, a vet, took a popsicle stick (must have been a smaller piece of the popscicle stick), taped it to the next toe... and sent me off to YMCA camp. I guess it worked, b/c that was about 45 years ago and it turned out fine.

[Anonymous]

OP here. It was determined at urgent care on Friday that DD had a broken toe. Recommended we follow up with an ortho. My husband kind of felt like this was optional. I didn't. We are doing buddy taping and since the facility didn't have the recommended "shoe" in kids' sizes, I have ordered them off Amazon. Trying to follow up Medstar ortho, which has a pediatric person. Good luck to us. No one is calling back (messages left on Monday and today)!! So we still haven't been seen for follow-up.

Now a new development. Tonight I notice her bruising is spreading. The buddy toe is now bruised. And our taping has not been tight. Perhaps this is normal?

What do I do?? We live near Children's. Do i take her in to the ER tonight? I feel like I don't have a choice but it's like going to the ER all over again. We leave for a three-week vacation/telework tomorrow, so feeling lots of pressure to figure this out! (Canada and Massachusetts so nothing overseas; could be seen in Boston if it comes to that.)

[Anonymous]

Yes, the bruising is normal - it could go right up her foot, don't let that panic you, just give her pain killers, raise it, ice it if necessary. The toe might even turn black with bruise and that is still normal for a break.

I fractured a long bone in my foot and 4 of my toes turned black and the whole foot went dark green. I needed PT and crutches for 6 wks but a toe on its own shouldn't require all that.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

No, do not just leave it alone. A toe break can start to heal in a little as 24 hours, so if it's not back in the right spot, there can be long-term issues. A simple x-ray at any ortho can get you the info you need. Maybe you just need a buddy tape, but maybe it needs to be reset. Randos on the internet can't tell you.