DH & I are feeling so bad that our daughter seems to get hurt frequently. We are loving, attentive, responsible parents & would even say we can be over-protective at times, and yet she has had several significant injuries--no broken bones, yet, knock on wood, but multiple urgent care visits for peace of mind. We just noticed this morning she has a broken front tooth! We are beside ourselves, though have no idea how/when she actually did it (most likely yesterday sometime). Please reassure us that toddlers get hurt sometimes & that this stage passes quickly! 
Have you changed your philosophy on how you let them play/run around the house/etc?
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I would be freaking out if my LO had broken a tooth! I'm always checking his teeth after a fall. We have had mostly bumps and bruises at 14mo, but he is very active and I worry there will be more. We supervise but let him do things on his own, like we hover when he climbs and descends stairs but don't help him so I think that has made him a bit more stable. He does have bleeding gums today from hitting his mouth on wooden truck when he fell
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My first has always been an extremely cautious kid--I never even had to child proof for her. But even she fell off a kitchen chair--she was just painting on her knees at the dining table and stood up to get down, which she'd done a million times, but wobbled and fell just right--and damaged her 4 front teeth. =/ Two were completely impacted back up into the gums, one has a cracked root, the other two were turned sideways in the fall. It wasn't even a big fall, a couple of feet, but she hit the chair right on her teeth on the way down.
Stuff happens.
Our younger one is a total daredevil and climber. I can't take away *all* her toys, so she keeps having spills and falls. She'll try to stand on the handlebars of her ride on toy, which obviously has wheels, and then she falls on our hardwoods. But the falls don't stop her--she just keeps climbing. She once dragged her play table chair to the bathroom, where she somehow climbed up on TOP of the bathroom vanity. She was only 13 months! She's insane and has had so many major bumps and bruises--including a big, mushy fluid filled bump on the back of her head after her latest major fall. It's taken 2 weeks to start receding. The doctor says it's blood that has to reabsorb into the scalp. Ugh.
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So my little sister was like that- she was a wild child and always had cuts, broken bones, etc. When she was about 2 she decided to do a running flip off of a balance beam and almost lost an eye! She also almost drowned several times and broke her leg when riding her bike because she decided to put her feet up on the handlebars and go down a hill. My parents were equally as cautious with all 3 of us but my brother and I never had an ER visit and she had tons.
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DS1 - nothing really. He was rather risk averse.
DS2 - totally accident prone. Nothing that has caused us to bring him to the ER - but basically daily head eggs from age 12 months to 18 months. Also a bad burn (touched a hot pan when our backs were turned). He's very daring so has had a lot of injuries!
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Yup. Toddlers get hurt. Some more than others. I'm pretty accident prone myself and my son seems to be taking after me. He always has some kind of bruise or scrape or knot on his head.
At 2.5 he fell into the corner of a wall at daycare and had a huge purple lip for about a week. They felt so bad but it happens.
Last year when he was 3 we were at a festival, he was walking next to DH and I when he decided to run down some cement steps... He face planted at the bottom before I could catch him and got a bloody nose and scraped face. That was a trip to the first aid station. He had two black eyes the next day.
It sucks to see them get hurt but as long as you are doing your best, that is all you can do.
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DS is VERY active and is quite the risk taker. He had 11 stitches from running and falling into a table at his preschool when he was just 18 mos. We haven't had any other major injuries but he does hurt himself daily, sometimes even multiple times a day because he doesn't seem to learn from past experiences.
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@kitty: Sorry about the bleeding gums--fortunately oral injuries tend to heal quickly, I hear...except for teeth, of course.
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@Anagram: thank you for sharing. Did they do anything for your LO1's teeth?
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@caterw: oh my gosh! Your poor parents! Lol! My little brother was like that too, and it just wouldn't be fair if I got a kid like he was!
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@winniebee: our LO burned the top of her hand under the oven door. I checked all around the oven and didn't even think to check there when I did my safety check in the kitchen.
DH and I felt so horribly guilty for allowing her to hurt herself that way. Fortunately she healed quickly and it didn't really seem to slow her down from about the second day on.
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@KT326: thanks, I tell myself that, too, but it is so hard to see them get hurt.
@bushelandapeck: so many stitches!
my little one doesn't necessarily seem like she's learning from her experience is either, and that admittedly does worry me a little bit. But on the other hand she does definitely seem to make connections about certain things and the areas that she has hurt previously.
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@GoGoSnoGirl: nope. Since they are baby teeth, basically the only thing that can be done is pull them. So we are in wait-and-see mode. Her dentist said any time between now and when they are supposed to fall out (around age 5-6), the cracked root could develop an infection and it would have to be pulled. But until then, we can leave it be and just not give hard foods. One of the front teeth is slightly gray from the trauma, and the side tooth is still kind of sideways.
The worst part is that the fall may have damaged the adult teeth, but we won't know till they emerge (like they could be cracked or gray or black).
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@GoGoSnoGirl: not to throw my husband under the bus....but I'm throwing him under the bus. I was upstairs showering and he was making breakfast and according to our 4 year old "dad wasn't watching" - his hand got really badly burned. He has a scar from it
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@Anagram: that's what I assumed, that they wouldn't do anything but pull baby teeth (if necessary). I'm sorry there's so much unknown about your LO's teeth--even the adult ones!
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@winniebee: our LO had a scar on her hand, too. I've wondered if I should use Vitamin E or Emu oil on it to help fade the scar more quickly.
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@GoGoSnoGirl: I have wondered the same thing. I might ask at our well visit next month.
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Lo1 is daring, but not wild, knows his limits but is always trying new things. He often does better if I am not right there. He is more carefully and less distracted when on his own. But still, I was close by when he climbed up the spiral slide at 11 months before he was really walking...
Nothing big yet, but I am sure it's a matter of time.
The boy wet share a nanny with falls over all the time... It's interesting how different they are.
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My son hits his head so often! It's terrible. But we've had two significant injuries, one fall breaking both forearm bones and one head injury requiring 4 stitches. My husband is the worrier of the two of us and he was on duty for both injuries. It's really hard to prevent. And neither of them bothered my son too much after the first 24 hours...
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Both of my girls are complete daredevils. I thought LO1 was a risk taker until LO2 came, she has absolutely NO fear.
DD1: we've had 8 stitches in the forehead because at daycare she was showing her friend "how she can run so super fast" and ran straight into the corner of the wall. split her head open. It was so gross. She's always covered in bruises and scrapes from randomly falling or bumping into something. She's a pretty tough kid overall.
DD2: no major injuries, but she's a climber...and I know they are coming. I can't tell you how many times I turn around and find her after 5 seconds of my back turned she's climbed up onto something. She's quick and quiet, a horrible combination!!
I don't' feel bad (I would have had the major injury been on our watch, but it was at daycare) because I know kids will be kids. I was an accident prone kid, it had nothing to do with my parent's parenting skills and everything to do with my risk-taking/I can do anything attitude as a kid. My mom once came out to me walking across the top of our swing set like a balance beam...one of those old metal ones...how I didn't fall I have no idea but I did it several times before she caught me.
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I'm sorry your LO has had so many incidents! Sounds like you're already taking reasonable precautions. I wouldn't go overboard trying to prevent this stuff - the best way for them to learn is by (painful) experience.
LO2 just got a gum injury when he was pushing a plastic measuring cup around the kitchen floor like a push toy and slipped and fell and his mouth hit it. A plastic cup! I mean I'm not going to take away cups from him but hopefully he won't do that again.
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My little brother was accident prone as a kid, and turned into a thrill seeking adult. He works in the field of extreme sports--teaching windsurfing, skiing, kiteboarding, etc. My 14 month old is fearless and reckless, and I worry that she's going to be an adrenaline junkie.
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@Mrs Green Grass: oh gosh! Both forearm bones broken?! I'm glad to hear your son wasn't too bothered by either injury after the first day. I know these things happen, but it's so hard to see.
@LuLu Mom: 2 daredevil girls! At least you have the perspective of having been daring yourself.
I have wondered whether I'd be even more upset if these injuries were on someone else's watch. I feel like I'm the most invested, so maybe another good lesson to me that sometimes these things just happen & kids heal quickly, generally.
@hummusgirl: yes, you are right, we can't prevent absolutely everything, nor should we. She will learn--hopefully we can just minimize the bad injuries. I believe it that seemingly harmless items can cause some injuries. I told DH that when he said we need to really think about how our house is laid out. I told him she could fall & get hurt by tripping on a wide open bare floor, so it would be silly to clear everything out.
@LindsayLou: yes, I wonder if our LO will be an adrenaline junkie, too!
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We have been lucky that it's just been bumps and bruises for both boys but there have been a few scary incidents each. My oldest seems to be more accident prone, just little clumsy things. Like yesterday he tried to stand on a tennis ball and obviously landed on his butt. Two days ago he tripped on something and landed face first in the corner of his train table (nice bruise on his face now). Tonight he was just walking from the bedroom to the bathroom and somehow tripped or fell. Usually his clumsiness increases during growth spurts.
ETA: it's LO2 that is the daredevil bUT somehow had fewer accidents. The ones he's had have been scarier though - falling down the stairs and in the water.
DH and I felt so horribly guilty for allowing her to hurt herself that way. Fortunately she healed quickly and it didn't really seem to slow her down from about the second day on.
I have wondered whether I'd be even more upset if these injuries were on someone else's watch. I feel like I'm the most invested, so maybe another good lesson to me that sometimes these things just happen & kids heal quickly, generally.
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