Instruction to parents or caregivers for observation at home of children with head injury:
Bring the child immediately to the emergency department if any of the following signs and symptoms appear within the first 72 hours after discharge. •Any unusual behaviour not considered normal for your child •Confusion about familiar names and places •Worsening or persistent headache •Seizures ("Fits") •Unsteady gait (not able to walk normally or steadily) •Unusual drowsiness (feeling sleepy all the time) •Inability to wake your child from sleep •Persistent Vomiting •Double or blurred vision •Bleeding or watery discharge from the ear or nose
Avoid giving your child any medication that may cause drowsiness (or sleepiness) unless instructed by your doctor.
Nothing can replace close adult caregiver supervision in childhood injury prevention.
Children are not able to identify the potential injury hazards in their environment and they need your care and protection.
Skull X-rays help to identify skull fractures. However, they do not directly show brain injury or bleeding within the skull.
A skull X-ray is not a reliable indicator of bleeding within the skull or brain injury.
Your doctor will examine your child and decide if a skull X-Ray is really necessary. Skull X-rays are seldom necessary.
Clinically abnormal signs and symptoms as mentioned above are much more reliable than skull X-rays as predictors of injury or bleeding within the skull.
A normal skull X-ray does not rule not bleeding within the skull or brain injury.
Close monitoring of the child's behaviour over the next 72 hours of head injury is still necessary even though the skull X-ray may be normal.
If brain injury or bleeding within the skull is suspected, the patient will need urgent CT scan.
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