Swollen Toes

Jacob and a friend were playing outside last night. They had the styrofoam and cardboard box from our new vacuum and were playing some kind of a game with the dog. I really didn't think much about it since they were playing nicely and nothing seemed wrong.

I called the kids in to the house to take the friend home after about 20 minutes. Jacob stated that his toes hurt and he wanted six bandaids. I glanced at his feet but didn't see any blood so I told him we would look into it when we got home. About an hour later, Jacob stood up in the driveway to walk into the house and began crying. He stated that his toes hurt very badly and he couldn't walk.

I carried him into the house and realized that the bottom of all five toes on one foot and one toe on the other were bright red and slightly swollen. My first thought was that he had stepped on something and was having an allergic reaction. I applied hydrocortizone cream but it just didn't have much of an effect. If anything, his toes looked more inflamed. I called the on-call nurse but she couldn't really offer any suggestions. She thought maybe they were bruised but it just didn't look like it to me. Especially since it was just the bottom of his toes.

I questioned Jacob several times last night but couldn't figure out what happened. This morning I finally asked him exactly what he was doing when the pain first started. He stated he was rubbing the edge of a piece of paper over his toes. Ah ha! The swelling was down this morning and I was able to see several little papercuts on his toes. I gave him some brand new cushy socks and told him to leave his shoes on today. I also suggested that he not rub paper over his feet and explainied that his toes hurt because of the paper cuts.

Hopefully his feet will feel better tonight. I am grateful it was nothing more serious and hope he learned a lesson from it. Similiar to when M jumped head first into a door and discovered that it hurt. I don't think either will be doing those things again.