It might feel like you wrangle your toddler a million times per day in different ways — but there’s one way you should never pick them up.
Dr. J. Mack Slaughter, an ER doctor and TikTok influencer, posted a video warning parents of the three ways they should never pick up their child.
Picking them up in these three particular ways could cause an injury known as “nursemaid’s elbow,” which is what happens when a ligament slips out of place between the elbow joint and two bones, according to KidsHealth.
“Nursemaid’s elbow (aka radial head subluxation) affects over 20,000 children per year in the US with over 80% of those patients being between the ages of 1 and 3,” the doctor, who goes by @dr.jmack, wrote in the caption of his video that has over 12,000 views since being posted a day ago.
The three dangerous methods include pulling up on a child’s hand or wrist, swinging a child around by the hands and pulling a child by the hand or the wrist who is pulling away. To avoid hurting your child, always pick up your child from under the armpits and not by the hands or arms, KidsHealth advised.
“Daddy’s love this one. They grab their kids by the wrist and just start swinging,” he explained, spinning around with his arms outstretched, demonstrating what it looks like when parents swing their kids around by the arms.
He said kids are seemingly having a great time “until the head of the radial bone gets dislocated,” he warned.
The doctor said he once gave his two-year-old daughter a nursemaid’s elbow when he grabbed her wrist to prevent her from falling down the stairs
“The good news is I popped it right back in place,” he joked.
TikTok / @dr.jmack
Several commenters below his video said that they too learned this danger the hard way.
“I did this to my daughter accidentally. I was terrified that they were gonna take me to jail when we went to the ER. Turns out they see it frequently — no jail for me,” one person posted.
“I picked up my son out of his car seat by his wrist and his shoulder dislocated… omg the fear I had,” another added.
“This happened once when I was holding my toddler’s hand and they suddenly fell. Super scary but easy to fix once the ER staff told us how to!” a third bemoaned.
The Post reached out to the doctor for additional comment.