One of the best feelings is holding your baby tight into your chest. As a father I can tell you that not being able to pick up my child and hold him tight with confidence or worrying about dropping them is something that I wouldn’t want to happen.
The bond and connection between mother/father and child when you are holding them is something really special but what if you have started to notice that your elbow hurts when you are holding your baby? Is this something you need to worry about and will it get worse?
There are some possible scenarios as to why your elbow hurts when holding your baby.
The first reason is that your child is simply getting heavier and you don’t have the strength to hold he/she as long. The only thing you could possibly do is to start building up the muscles in your arms so you can support and hold more weight. You’d be surprised to learn that there is a significant weight difference of holding a child with a clean and dirty diaper. Sounds foolish but it’s true!
The second and most obvious reason is that you have an injury to your elbow.
But when is your elbow pain at it’s worst? Is it when you reach out to pick up your child or is it after holding he/she for sometime? It is not just the sports enthusiast that is more prone to this condition. People working in different fields are affected with the elbow pain. If proper treatment is not provided, then the condition will become worse for the patients. Proper guidance needs to be provided to get the correct results.
If your elbow hurts when you reach out with your arms extended to pick them up but then the pain goes away, this could be a sign that you have tennis elbow.
To confirm that you have tennis elbow, check to see if you also have:
- None pain and tenderness on the lateral side of your elbow.
- an increase in elbow pain when you grip or squeeze an object. For example shaking hands with someone or simply turning a doorknob.
- elbow stiffness and tightness when you wake in the morning. Have you noticed that just straightening your arm fully sometimes hurts?
These are just 3 typical symptoms of tennis elbow that you need to be aware of besides elbow pain when you hold your baby. You can also read about why your tennis elbow is not getting better or going away, which will give you more information on this condition.
What can you do to help your tennis elbow get better so you can hold your baby with confidence and not worry about dropping them?
The very first thing to do is not to panic and start popping pills to stop the pain. You need to know that there are some very simple steps you can take right now at home to stop your elbow from hurting.
When you reach out to pick up your baby/child, bring them tight into your body and use your legs to lift. This prevents your arms from extending which is causing your elbow pain.