Head Injury In Children

After each of these serious head injuries, there can be swelling inside the brain, which increases the pressure inside the skull. Severe head injuries - especially those caused by motor vehicle accidents and falls from high places - also can be accompanied by damage to the neck bones or to important organs inside the body. These additional injuries often cause blood loss, breathing difficulties, very low blood pressure (hypotension), and other problems that can complicate the child's treatment and make recovery more difficult.

Symptoms

Head injuries cause many symptoms, depending on the type of injury, its severity and its location on the head and the brain inside. The child's neurological symptoms can include:

• Passing out (loss of consciousness)

• Unresponsiveness

• Headache

• Dizziness

• Drowsiness

• Nausea and vomiting

• Confusion

• Difficulty walking

• Slurred speech

• Loss of memory (amnesia)

• Poor coordination

• Irrational behavior

• Aggressive behavior

• Seizures (convulsions)

• Numbness or weakness (paralysis) of part of the body

In addition, physical signs can include:

• A bump, bruise, or cut on the head

• A visible dent at the site of impact

• A black and blue discoloration around the eyes or behind the ear

• Blood coming out of the ear

• Clear fluid oozing from the nose (this may be the clear fluid that bathes the brain leaking through a skull fracture near the nose)

• A bulging soft spot between the skull bones (fontanel) in an infant