Expert: Dr. Taher Kagalwala - 7/5/2009

Question
My son who is going to be one year old in a week fell from his highchair. He fell backwards and landed on the kitchen floor which is not very hard but not very soft either. He cried right away for 1-2 minutes, didn't vomit. We took him to emergency room right away, didn't have CAT scan as we were told it contains risk of cancer. It happened about 2 hours ago and right now he's sleeping. I tried to keep him awake for about 1 hour after the fall.
We met an emergency room doctor who said he seems to be okay, looking at all symptoms. I'm still very concerned about possible risk of long-term effect of this, hearing stories about kids with developmental delays related to    fall happened during their childhood. What is the likelihood that a fall/concussion can cause developmental delay in a child, is there any percentage number. Am I correct that we only need to worry about this next step if the child vomits/cry nonstop/sleep nonstop?

Answer
Dear Sandra,

Your second conjecture is right. You should worry only if the child vomits, sleeps more, is unable to use any of his limbs or keep his face symmetrical, has an unusually large black eye or a skull bump, has fits or behaves in an abnormal way. Otherwise, basically, there is no problem.

And no, there are no available percentage numbers, since every fall is different. It is conceivable that even a small fall with no immediate effects may harm some learning or memory centers, and a big fall may not. Hence, no point in worrying about this.

Finally, who told you a CT scan can cause cancer? That is a cock and bull story. You should go for a CT scan if it is available after any head injury.

- drtaher