My son, age 12, broke his collarbone in gym class today doing the obstacle course. I know you just have to let it heal on its own - the docs says 3 months!! Anybody else have this problem? Is it really 3 months? He says no gym, no actvities till it heals.

By Luv2fly on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 05:43 pm:

I broke mine when I was about 7, three months sounds right to me. I wore a soft brace all summer. Big hugs to him, poor guy!

By Cat on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 05:59 pm:

Robin broke his when he was 3. He wore a soft brace (looked like a figure 8 on it's side) for 6 weeks. We had a girl when I was in basic training break hers doing the obstacle course. They ended up sending her home (5 weeks into 6 weeks!). Hope he's not in too much pain and it heals quickly.

By Trina~moderator on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 06:04 pm:

My sister broke her collar bone as a child and wore a brace, as described above, for a few months. She fell while ice skating.

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 07:45 pm:

My middle son did this, also at age 12. The doc put him in a figure 8 harness (the soft brace Laura mentions) to hold the bone in place while it healed, but there is nothing else to do but antinflammatories and evenaully aspirin.

I will say, he had terrible posture (for which I nagged, nagged, nagged) before this accident and ever since wearing the brace for 3 months his posture has been superb.

By Melanie on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 08:21 pm:

My 7 year old broke his back in September (October??). I was initially told 4-6 weeks in the brace, with many kids bouncing back to their old selves within three weeks. Sure enough, three weeks after the accident he had resumed all normal activities (including gymnastics). There is still a bump, but that is going down.

The first few days are the worst. My Griffin couldn't lay down to sleep and was just miserable at night. But after a couple of days he found moving around much easier.

I will keep my fingers crossed for a very speedy recovery!!

By Melanie on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 09:37 pm:

Hi again. I looked up the posts I made when my son first broke his, and found I posted about it around September 9. Which makes it three months right now since he has broken it. Since the third week after the accident he has been in gymnastics, gone wake boarding, gone skiing (black diamonds), and is back in roller hockey. I would keep the three months in your head since all kids heal at different rates and it *may* take him that long. But he may surprise you.

By Marcia on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 10:19 pm:

My daughter fell down the stairs and broke hers when she was 2. She also had the soft brace, but I know she was fine a lot sooner than 3 months.

Ginny, that's interesting about your son's posture. Nicole was too young to really know what hers would be like, but she is so nice and straight now, at 11. Hmmm, maybe all kids should get a chance to wear a soft brace for a while. :o)

By Cocoabutter on Wednesday, December 8, 2004 - 10:27 pm:

Yeah, Ginny- where can I get one of those braces for my dh?

My dh broke his collarbone when he was little. He isn't here for me to ask for certain, but I believe he wore a brace. Peggy, ask you Dr. again about this. It seems to me that if his shoulder/neck isn't restrained in some way, it won't heal correctly.

By Palmbchprincess on Thursday, December 9, 2004 - 12:34 am:

Hugs to your DS, broken bones suck!!

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, December 9, 2004 - 04:25 am:

I agree with Lisa. If your doctor hasn't talked about the soft brace I would definitely ask. I suppose to some extent it depends on whether the "break" is a crack or a full break, but I would certainly want my son having some kind of restraint to keep him from moving the wrong ways while he is healing.

I don't really remember the time frame for Greg, but I know it was at least 6-8 weeks.

By Peggy13 on Thursday, December 9, 2004 - 06:29 pm:

Hi everyone - thanks for your well wishes. Yes, Alec is in a soft figure 8 brace - I guess I didn't mention that in the post. He stayed home today from school - just trying to work out the carrying of the books for tomorrow - he isn't suppose to lift any heavy backpacks, so I'm working on an extra set of textbooks for home (for now). He's doing OK with the pain - he's my one that has a very high tolerance for pain.

By Mrsheidi on Thursday, December 9, 2004 - 06:35 pm:

Being a former teacher, you might want to look into books on CD. Usually teachers have CD's that the kids can check out and that can eliminate him having to take home heavy books at all. But, the extra set at home is nice too.
He can also have a friend carry his books for him while he's at school.
Ugh...3 months...that's like 3 YEARS for a 12 yr old! Poor guy...we will pray for a fast recovery!

By Peggy13 on Friday, December 10, 2004 - 06:40 pm:

We were able to bring all his textbooks home today - he can use the extra copies in the classrooms and yes, he has help carrying to/from classes. He made out OK his first day back.