The Hulk Leg Chronicles (or 12 Ideas to Keep a Toddler Off a Broken Leg)

This happened in January:

The “Hulk Leg” joined our family…it weighs about 25 lbs and has become a nuisance to a little boy who loves to “go fast!”

To make a short story short, my sweet, sweet husband slipped while carrying S down the steps. By the grace of God, S only injured his leg (he was face-down, silent, and unmoving when I got to both of them. He quickly started screaming, though, much to our relief!)

My hubs is fine other than the guilt he’s carried with him for the duration of the Hulk Leg’s existence. S fractured his leg, but has otherwise been fine – even pushing his limits with the Hulk Leg the past week or so. Yesterday, he decided to “clean his pigs” and, luckily, I stopped him right before he poured water all over his cast and toes (eek).

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This post came from my friend, Cindy, at “so the cook said” when she mentioned the idea of blogging about how I have managed to keep S off of the Hulk Leg for 5 weeks, so far. I am hoping no one else finds themselves in a similar situation of keeping a 2 year old little boy off of his leg, but just in case, I’m giving you some ideas. (Especially if your doctor suggests “pull him in a wagon around the house all day…” like ours suggested…. what???

1.) A Chalkboard

Not just any chalkboard, a big chalkboard. We already had one, so I was thankful it became such a great distraction. We have used it for everything from practicing letters, numbers drawing pictures, to drawing race tracks for our cars to follow. Chalkboard and cars = happy boy.

2.) Rocks.
My parents were thoughtful enough to think of giving a little boy some trucks and rocks (duh!). These rocks entertained him for two days. He made pictures with them, lined them up, but them in his tent (i.e., anything covering his head, usually a blanket held over your own head and his). Buy a bag of decorative rocks (if you don’t want dirt all over your house) and you have a happy boy, off his leg!

3.) Balloons
While the balloons tempted him to move and chase them, he enjoyed crawling around with them and hitting them once they started to sink (attach extra long strings so he can reach them).

4.) Visitors

Visitors were essential!! We invited family and friends to play. Seeing new people kept his mind off wanting to be on his leg. He could show them all of the toys he was bored with and they became new. Visitors also gave this mommy and daddy a break so our backs could rest from the heavy lifting of toting him and The Hulk Leg around…

5.) New Art Supplies

You’ll see in our pictures of our visitors that colored pencils were a hit. I didn’t have to buy these, but because I hadn’t trusted our “go fast” little boy with colored pencils yet, they became a treat once I had to keep him off his leg! The same goes for stamps and ink. My genius mother brought out stamps and ink around Week 5 of The Hulk Leg. These distracted him for hours – creating pictures, and even using the stamps as blocks. His hands were dyed blue from the ink, but at least he was happy!! We gave him 6 different colored shoe laces, and he played for the longest time! He would make shapes, roads, ladders, etc on the floor. I was amazed.

6.) iPad and Movies
S has spent much more time than I like to admit playing on our iPads and watching movies. But, when The Hulk Leg is swollen and little boys are fussy from dragging around it’s weight, these are the only things to keep him entertained and still. We introduced a new show to him (“Team Umizoomi”) since he’s interested in letters, shapes, and colors now. He loves it.
We also purchased a few new apps for him to play.

7.) Dr Kit
You’ll see in the above picture, a stethoscope. S has spent SO much time playing “doctor” and listening to everyone’s heartbeats. My mom had a real stethoscope – he’s been on Cloud Nine with it. We’ve taught him to check out his animals with his kit. He’s a fan of getting check-ups from us. Whatever keeps him off his leg is fine with me!

8.) Flashlights
I’m not sure what little boy doesn’t like flashlights! He has spent SO much time playing in our aforementioned “tents” and looking behind our couch cushions with his flashlights.

with his best friend, Frosty, by his side!

9.) Window Clings
Really, any magnetic toy for the fridge or clingy toy for the windows. He’s been entertained by these. I like the idea of the paint in a freezer bag and taped to the window, but I never got around to doing it. Perhaps in this last week with The Hulk Leg, I’ll break that out for him…

10.) Random Toys
This isn’t really an “idea,” but I found that he sat and played for the longest time when I gave him a bin filled with random small toys and musical instruments. This bin is part of my organization in attempts to contain the clutter in our small townhouse. He’s used to pulling out these bins and playing with the toys inside, but when I mixed up the random/extra pieces into one bin, he loved it!

11.) Picnics/Play Food
S loves stuffed animals, “I love ALL my animals”. So, we’ve spent lots of time having picnics with his animals. He’s spent quite some time playing with his kitchen and pretend food. We moved his toys to his level, and we’ve found he can entertain himself somewhat with little help.

12.) Lastly, Spoiling.
We have spoiled this child to no end during these last 5 weeks. I’m sure it’ll be incredibly difficult to get him to play by himself after The Hulk Leg leaves us. But, for now, we spoil. We cuddle, carry, play, whatever we can to keep him off of his leg.

he lives a rough life… 😉

3 thoughts on “The Hulk Leg Chronicles (or 12 Ideas to Keep a Toddler Off a Broken Leg)”

Cindy says:

March 1, 2014 at 7:30 pm

Great Ideas! These are even creative ways to entertain little boys without broken legs 🙂

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Ana says:

July 26, 2016 at 10:19 pm

Hi! I know this post was a couple of years ago but I wanted to ask how did your son do after they took the cast off? Any issues or anything you suggest looking out for? My little boy is 20 months and just broke his leg on Sunday going down a slide. I’m heartbroken everytime I see him try to get up or when he wants to play with other kids, and am so worried about everything constantly, including how long it will take him to walk again and if he will now be susceptible to future breaks! For now, its only day 3 and we’re trying our best to keep him off of it, just hoping for the best. Thank you for the ideas!

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1. missmiao2 says:
  
  July 29, 2016 at 1:54 pm
  
  Hi! So sorry to hear about this!! I honestly think it’s harder on us than them. My guy had his cast for 6 weeks. He adapted to it and only seemed frustrated with it when he couldn’t run. But, he figured out to crawl “super fast” instead.
  After the cast came off, he was frustrated because his leg was so weak. It was heartbreaking to watch him wobble and fall. But, like toddlers do, he adjusted and learned to run and walk with a limp. He grew tired more easily than before and seemed more irritable because of his weak leg, but it strengthened up after a few weeks. It seemed like a long time of struggling at the time, but it was really only a month or so. Our doctor said that because he was so young when it happened, his bone would heal just as strong as before. I’m not sure what kind of break your guy has, so it could be different. But I was told that young bones are resilient! We’ve not had any problems with his leg since!
  Thanks for reading! Prayers for healing for him and patience for you 😊
  
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