2 Year Old Extremely Sensitive to Pain

I am laughing as I read this, as I went through the exact same thing with my two year old, currently three who still does it at times. I used - do we need to go to the hospital? do we need to cut it off? and did go for the scissors or the bread knife. I know some people are probably horrified right now, but it worked. No my little one, nor her 5 yr old sister or 7 yr old brother are afraid to go to the Dr, or afraid of scissors or knives, nor do they play with these things. Give some sympathy, but do not cater to every wince, or cry. I saw a reference to a skipped nap, and little sleep,which is possibly alot of the cause of the drama. Kids learn VERY early what gets attention and will use this over and over in other situations to avoid - going to bed, eating meals, going to school/daycare. However if it does persist and you continue to worry, ask her pediatrician about it, and do not let them push you off if you are really concerned that it may be something more.

Sounds like she is just milking it to me. Loving the extra attention because she got a boo boo. Have you tried just taking care of the boo boo when it happens and then ignoring the rest? Or she is just not sure about what is happening to her body because her knee doesn't look the same as before. My son used to try to wash off the scabs and I would tell him it would go away on it's own. We would look at it every day and then he would be happy when it was gone! Now he tells me that they will go away when he gets a scraped knee or what not!

Just try to be matter of fact about it. If she doesn't need a band aid, either humor her and allow her 1 or don't give her one at all. Kiss it and make it better and send her on her way. I'm not saying don't be under sensative to her needs, but don't play the game either otherwise you'll keep loosing sleep for a skinned knee, then an elbow, etc.

Good luck!
S.

My son is 2 1/2 and he skinned one knee Tuesday night and cried for about 4 hours, he skinned the other one last night and cried for about 20 minutes. He has been hobbling around everywhere but when he forgets about it he is fine. This is just a stage where they are over dramatic and must have all the attention. I have tended to his boo boo's and given him lots of love. He mentioned it this morning and I reassured him that they were getting better and he didn't not mention it again until we got to his sitter's house. He wanted to show her his new boo boo. I would not pay it much attention and don't feed the need for attention. Take her off the meds b/c that is feeding the attention. When she starts hobbling around tell her that she is fine and she must walk or her boo boo's will not get better.

I don't know if this will work with a 2 year old, but I work with preschoolers, and when one of them gets a boo-boo, say for example, on their finger, I offer (deadly serious) to cut their finger off. I even go get a scissors and say "Here, let me cut if off if it hurts you so bad." I try to look like I genuinely want to help. They are usually so distracted by the "crazy lady" that they forget all about the injury. Then I say "Well, I guess we could just put a bandaid on it." Most of them end up saying "No, it's fine. Don't cut off my finger". The nice thing is, once I've done this, they rarely complain to me again! I know it is silly, but sometimes that is just what they need to take their minds off the pain/trauma of even minor little things... Good luck!

My oldest child is extremely sensitive and it was at a high point between the ages of 2 and 3 where every bump or scrape was a small tragedy. Kids respond so so much how you react so I got in the habit of giving her a small amount of sympathy and then saying "you'll live" as a way of letting her know it was time to move on. One day she managed to fall and cut her lip open pretty badly and I was trying to soothe her and give her sympathy and popsicles but she was inconsolable and then she turned to me and said "Mommy, say I'm going to live." After I finished laughing and told her she would of course live she was all better. So remember they feed off of your reaction WAY more than you realize.