A medic has revealed the tiny bruise parents should never ignore when they see it on their child - and it has got parents on alert mode.
Bruises on a child are not out of the ordinary, especially if your little one loves being active throughout the day, and while most of them just require a bandaid and a few kisses to make them feel better, others can be the cause of a downward health spiral and require immediate medical intervention.
A healthcare professional has revealed that there's one type of bruise that parents should never ignore if they see it.
In a now-viral video that was posted to Instagram via a popular parenting account called Tiny Hearts Education, a former paramedic has shown parents a potentially deadly type of bruising.
The video, which has now racked up over 25,000 likes, starts off by zooming into the head of a toddler, right behind the ear where a concerning purple-brown color has tinged their skin.
The phrase, "parents don’t ignore this bruising" sits as an overlay on top of the short clip, which goes on to show the bruise from a few different angles.
The caption goes into more detail about the injury stating: "If you see bruising behind your child's ear (called Battle sign), there's a chance that they might have a serious skull fracture."
"Bring them in urgently to be seen by a doctor for assessment," it added.
Have a look at the full clip below:Naturally, a handful of parents took to the comments to express their shock at the news, with many claiming they had no idea what a bruise behind the ear meant.
"New fear. Thanks," wrote one user.
"I never knew this. My son hit his head not long ago and the first thing the nurse on call told me was to check his ears," added another.
A third also recalled a personal incident commenting: "Well this is a bit concerning I had no idea about this. My 6-year-old had bruising like this after a fall at school in March. (I took a photo of it). She kept complaining that her ear was sore so I thought it was just that she hurt her ear.
"Now I feel horrible," she added.
The child in the video had pale skin, but this type of dark bruising may be more hard to notice on darker skin tones, so if you have any sort of inkling that your child may have been injured after a fall or a bump, please do seek medical advice immediately.
