I am seriously considering locking my daughter in her room for the rest of the summer. It's not because she's been bad, it's because she seems to be entering a rather clumsy phase -- and I'm afraid that if she gets any more banged up, child protective services might start sniffing around.

Several weeks ago, she fell off her bike and rammed her lip into some rocks. She had one small cut on her lip that I was afraid would leave a scar, but didn't seem bad enough to warrant a trip to the doctor.

Of course, she now has a small pink scar above her lip. (I think it would have been a bigger scar had I not sat with her for at least half an hour and pinched the cut shut -- a human butterfly Band-Aid.

Today, on my way home from teaching, I got a call from the babysitter saying my daughter had been knocked down by a dog. Her mouth was bleeding, and they were on the side of the road near our house. This was just enough detail to freak me out for the eight minutes it took to get home.

The babysitter had the situation under control -- the kids were home, my daughter was cleaned up and was icing her huge, fat, purple upper lip by the time I walked in the door.

My stomach turned when I looked in her mouth at her gum, it was as purple and swollen as her lip. We decided to visit the doctor.

It's times like this when I feel like an overreacting parent, but I'd rather overreact than underreact and find out weeks later that I could have prevented damage.

Our doctor, who we just ran into last weekend and laughed that we hadn't seen him for so long, suggested we see the dentist to make sure the gum laceration didn't need more serious attention. (For the record, he said the little pink scar from the bike fall a few weeks ago should turn white in three to six months and won't be easily visible. Although it will always be there, he assured me it should not affect her senior portraits.)

So off to the dentist we went. After looking at my daughter's swollen lips and gums, the dentist said there was a "chance that the root had been severed ... could make the tooth die ... possible nerve damage ... just pull the tooth as opposed to a pediatric root canal." My head spun.

I had flashbacks of my own monkey-bar accident when I was 3 and hit my front teeth on every bar on the way to the ground and had to get four teeth pulled, as they had been shattered and broken. I envisioned a series of appointments and lots of tears -- both from me and my daughter.

Then the dentist got the X-ray and said it looked fine. Barring an infection, everything should heal up fine on its own.

Relief, calm, breathing again.

For the rest of the evening, I was on my daughter like glue. "Wear your helmet!" "Don't walk on the curb!"

I'm sure I will loosen up again soon, but that evening ended with me carrying her around ... while she wore a helmet.

Kym Byrnes writes from Finksburg. E-mail her at kymbyrnes@gmail.com.

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