Self-Harming Baby

Babies are clearly born suicidal, or at least with a strong tendency to self-harm.

A couple of days ago, Mayuki threw herself off our bed, and then complained vigorously about the result. Actually, I was in the middle of a lesson, so I heard “THUD. waaaaAAAAAA”. Obviously, I excused myself and went to investigate. Yuriko was worried that Mayuki was going to die; I wasn’t particularly worried about that (she fell less than 50cm onto carpet), but, obviously, I was a little concerned about concussion. So, a quick check of the Paranoid Parents’ Primer was in order.

This was actually quite reassuring, as it suggested that, if she never lost consciousness, there was unlikely to be any problem. She had quite clearly not lost consciousness. Things were made slightly complex by the fact that it was after 8pm, and Mayuki fell asleep soon after. Now, excessive sleepiness is a bad sign after a head injury. However, Mayuki fairly often falls asleep around that time… So, I deliberately tried waking her up. This was a complete success. At least from the perspective of maming sure that she could. It was slightly less successful from the point of view of getting her back to sleep again afterwards, but I eventually managed that, too.

Anyway, her behaviour was completely normal yesterday, and so far today. In fact, she’s sitting next to me as I write this, making comments on the blog. So it looks like there were no problems. I didn’t even notice much bruising when I bathed her last night, so that’s good.

However, she did have another go at torturing herself. She decided that it was a good idea to rub her eyes while I was washing her cheeks.

No. She apparently noticed that quite quickly. Of course, I doubt she’ll remember it for next time…