My child hit their head at the playground. What should I watch for?

Watch for a headache that keeps getting worse, repeated vomiting, confusion, slurred speech, unusual drowsiness or difficulty waking, weakness or numbness, unequal pupils, a seizure, or clear fluid from the nose or ears. Any of those means get medical care now. If you are unsure, call your pediatrician or a nurse line. This page is general information, not medical advice.

Should I move a child who fell and cannot get up?

No, unless leaving them puts them in further danger. If there is any chance of a head, neck or back injury, keep them still, keep them warm, keep them talking if they are conscious, and call 911. Moving a child with a spinal injury can make it worse, and a second adult should keep other children away from the area.

What should be in a playground first aid kit?

Gloves, assorted adhesive bandages, sterile gauze and tape, a roller bandage, saline or clean water for irrigation, antiseptic wipes, a cold pack, blunt scissors, tweezers, a CPR barrier, an emergency blanket and the site's emergency contact sheet. Programs should also hold any child-specific medication, such as prescribed epinephrine, per their medication policy.

How do I tell 911 where a playground is?

Read the site name and identifier off the playground sign, then give the nearest street address and the entrance you want the ambulance to use. If there is no sign, give the park name, the cross streets and a landmark, then send someone to the street to flag the crew down. Site identification is the most common delay on park emergency calls.

Do we have to report a playground injury to anyone?

It depends on your setting. Licensed childcare programs and schools generally must report serious injuries to their licensing agency or district within a set window, often 24 hours. Every operator should keep an internal incident record regardless. Serious product-related incidents can also be reported to the CPSC through its public reporting channel.

Playground first aid and emergency response

The plan, in one page

Most playground injuries are scrapes, bumps and a bruised wrist. The response plan exists for the small number that are serious, and the failures in those cases are almost never about first aid technique. They are about delay: nobody knows who is calling, nobody can say where they are, and nobody stays with the child.

A working plan has five parts. One adult stays with the injured child. One adult calls 911 and then meets the crew. One adult moves the other children away. The site identifier is on the sign and in the staff phone. The incident is written up the same day.

After a fall

Falls to the surface are the leading cause of playground injury in US emergency department data, and they are the mechanism behind most of the serious cases¹. The background is in what actually injures children on playgrounds.

The first sixty seconds:

Look before you touch. Is the child moving, crying, responsive? A crying child is breathing, which is useful information.
Do not move them if there is any chance of a head, neck or back injury, unless they are in immediate danger where they lie.
Check responsiveness and breathing. Call 911 for unresponsiveness, breathing difficulty, a seizure, severe bleeding or an obviously deformed limb.
Control bleeding with direct pressure through a clean dressing, wearing gloves.
Keep them still and warm, and keep talking to them.
Clear the area. Other children crowding in makes everything slower.

Head injury: the signs that matter

A bump on the head is common and usually minor. What matters is the pattern afterward, and the signs are the same ones federal concussion guidance asks adults to watch for².

Timing	Warning signs	Action
Immediately	Loss of consciousness, seizure, repeated vomiting, unequal pupils, fluid from nose or ears	Call 911, do not move the child
First few hours	Worsening headache, confusion, slurred speech, unusual drowsiness, weakness or numbness, balance problems	Seek medical care now
Same day to 48 hours	Irritability that is out of character, sleep changes, light or noise sensitivity, memory trouble, a child who "just seems off"	Contact a clinician for advice

Head injury warning signs described in general terms. Any concern at all is a reason to seek care, and a young child who cannot describe symptoms deserves a lower threshold.

Two practical points. A child too young to report a headache needs to be judged on behavior: feeding, alertness, tone, and whether they are acting like themselves. And a child who was knocked out, even briefly, should be seen by a clinician, not watched at home on the strength of a website.

Fractures and suspected spinal injury

Fractures of the forearm, wrist and elbow are the most common serious playground injury in US data. Suspect one if there is obvious deformity, the child will not use the limb, there is rapid swelling, or pain is severe and localized.

Standard first aid: support the limb in the position found, do not try to straighten it, apply a cold pack over a cloth barrier, and get the child to medical care. Do not give food or drink in case surgery is needed.

Suspected spinal injury is the one where doing less is doing better. Keep the child exactly where they are, keep the head and neck still, keep them calm, and wait for the crew. Signs that raise the suspicion include neck or back pain, numbness or tingling, weakness in the limbs, loss of bladder control, or any fall from significant height. Fall height is the variable that drives this, which is why fall height and use zones is the page that prevents these calls rather than manages them.

Heat illness, stings and choking

Heat illness. Flushed skin, heavy sweating, headache, nausea, dizziness and unusual fatigue point to heat exhaustion: move the child to shade, cool them, offer fluids, and seek care if it does not improve or gets worse. Confusion, fainting, a seizure or hot skin with no sweating are emergencies. Call 911 and start cooling. More detail on prevention is in sun, UV and heat illness, and on contact burns from hot equipment in heat and burn risk.

Stings and allergic reaction. A single sting usually needs the stinger removed by scraping, cold applied, and observation. Watch for signs of a severe reaction: swelling of the face, lips or tongue, trouble breathing or swallowing, hives spreading over the body, a hoarse voice, vomiting, dizziness or collapse. That is an emergency. Call 911, and if the child has prescribed epinephrine, use it per their care plan and still call 911. Ground nests in play equipment are a recurring source of multiple stings, covered in insects, animals and contamination.

Choking. A child who is coughing forcefully is moving air, so let them cough. A child who cannot cough, cry or breathe needs immediate intervention using the technique you were taught in a certified first aid course, and someone should call 911 at the same moment. This is the clearest example of why certification matters: reading about back blows is not the same as having practiced them.

The site identification problem

The single most common delay on a playground 911 call is the caller not being able to say where they are. Parks are large, entrances are many, and a mobile location fix is not precise enough to pick the right gate.

Fix it in advance:

Put the site name, a unique site identifier and the nearest street address on the playground sign. See playground signage.
Give staff a laminated card with the same information plus the gate the crew should use.
Send an adult to the street to flag the ambulance down and walk them in.
On a school or childcare campus, agree the access route with your local emergency service before you need it, including gate codes and keys.

The kit and the training

Category	Contents
Barrier and cleaning	Disposable gloves, CPR barrier, antiseptic wipes, saline or clean water
Wounds	Adhesive bandages in several sizes, sterile gauze pads, tape, roller bandage, blunt scissors, tweezers
Injury support	Instant cold packs, triangular bandage or sling, emergency blanket
Paperwork	Emergency contact sheet, incident forms, the site identifier card

A workable first aid kit for a play area. Programs hold child-specific medication separately per their medication policy, and kits need checking for expiry and restock on a schedule.

Training expectations depend on the setting. Licensed childcare programs are usually required by their state agency to keep staff currently certified in pediatric first aid and CPR, and schools set their own standards. Certification through a recognized provider is the baseline³, and the practical part matters more than the card. Childcare playgrounds covers the licensing side, and supervision that actually prevents injuries covers the positioning that gets an adult to the child quickly in the first place.

The incident record

Write it the same day, while people remember. A useful record contains the date and time, the location on the site down to the piece of equipment, who was supervising, what happened in plain sequence, the condition of the equipment and surfacing at the time, what first aid was given, whether emergency services were called, and who was notified.

Record near misses too. A child who fell and was fine still tells you where the surfacing is thin.

What to do next

Write the plan down on one page, post it where staff can see it, and put the site identifier on the sign this month rather than next year. Then work back up the chain: insurance and risk management for what your carrier expects, and the inspection schedule for the checks that stop the call happening at all.

First aid and emergency response