Eric Fractures Mandible

Eric broke his jaw ("mandible") on the playground at school. He was pushing another kid in the swing while others tossed a basketball at them (some sort of variation of playground basketball) and he got distracted and the kid swung back into him and "clocked" him and sent him flying backwards. X-rays determined that he fractured his mandible in two places. Normal they wire your jaw shut for 6 weeks for these kind of injuries. Eric is young, so his bones are still plyable and he suffered a "green stick" type of fracture and the bone is still lined up. Also, Eric has braces on and this probably help stabilize the fracture at the time of impact. Therefore, for now we are just letting it heal. He cannot chew or open his mouth wide for 4-6 weeks. He will be rechecked in a week and if the fracture has moved, then he may still get his jaw wired shut. Poor kid. He didn't cry much until we informed him that he couldn't play basketball or snowboard for the next 6 weeks, then he was tearful. We are finding ways to feed him only liquids. One has to be creative. He will probably lose some weight.