arnica for a four year old? help please as dd has injured her chin and i dont want her left with a horrible scar....

[cylonbabe]

fortunatley its under her chinn, rather than in front, iyswim. but still, its quite horrible,huge gapin hole with lots of blood coming out. the doctor wanted to glue it but they had run out of glue, so she used steristrips instead. praying she wont rip them off though.
i've heard that arnica helps healing. is it worth giving her some? if so, what sort of dosage please?
once the strips are off, she mentioned using vitamin e oil, but i cant see anyting on the boots website. anyone have any ideas please?
tia.

[HuwEdwards]

see here www.worldwideshoppingmall.co.uk/body-soul/Arnica.asp

[wrinklytum]

Arnica is supposed to be fab for bruising.

Small tip for removal of steristrips-soak with sterile saline/cool boiled water prior to removal,come off much more easily than when dry.

That is my tip of the day

[cylonbabe]

thanks, will go get the 6c tomorrow.

[cylonbabe]

thanks wrinkly. i'm more worried about her keeping them on atm! willg et the arnica tomorrow.

[skatergirl]

I use arnica and reckon it helps, the thing about it is that even if it doesn't help it won't do any harm. You need to get it asap though.

[UCM]

Arnica is only good for bruising. Steri strips for a cut. Sorry if this isnt any help.

[cylonbabe]

km, i was thinking of gettting the little pilly things. not the cream. her wound is all bandaged up in steristrips

[Chopster]

if she pulls the strips off you can get some more from boots. I had the same problem with dt2.

[cylonbabe]

i'm worried that if she pulls them off, and the skin hasnt started knititing together properly, she will break the skin up, and it wont heal cleanly, giving her a bigger scar. i know im being sexist, but i wouldnt worry as much if it was ds. i just dont want dd to have a scar on her beautiful face.
i need to stop thinking about this.

[Chopster]

hope it is healing nicely. Luckily children's skin heals really easily, so it is unlikely. ds1 didn't scar and I had to replace the strips daily.

[Carameli]

DD cut just under her chin when she was 2(blood everwhere and tissue hanging out, yeuch) and it healed really well. It took a good few months for the scar to fade but she is 3 now and you cannot see it at all.

Have aso heard that bio oil is really good for scars so you could always try that when the skin has healed.
But try not to worry to much. I remember how worried I got and she is perfectly fine now.

[abusybee]

chopster is right - their skin so much better than ours at healing so I'm sure it will be fine. I've had surgery on my face and the advice was to stop the scar 'setting' and staying a noticeable red colour you need to put really strong suncream on it (once it's healed obviousy) for a few months until it's turned the silvery colour- hope that makes sense!

The oil is really to stop the raised bumpy part of the scar forming. If she has that then you need some oil - doesn't matter which one actually - to help you really massage it to break down the lumpy collagen. Again this is once it's healed and you need to do ideally a few times a day for the first few weeks. Rub really had as if you are kneading out the hard tissue. (though unless it's a really big cut I'd imagine it's really unlikely that she'll have this)

[edam]

Agree arnica will help. If it's any reassurance, I managed to cut a big hole in my chin and it healed very well with steri strips.

(Did it falling down the stairs, would you believe - smacked into the wall at the bottom and scraped my chin down it).Even though it went through all the layers of skin (you could see the layer of fat underneath. Yuck.) it healed very well. I've got a tiny scar underneath my chin where you can't even see it unless I hold my head at a very odd angle. Hope your dd's heals just as well.

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Though there is, of course, no evidence that homeopathic "arnica" actually works, unlike proper arnica which has been used for centuries.

[kel4mum]

My daughter fell through a glass door at the age of 1yr 5mths. she has 3 very large scars on the right side of her forehead. She had to go to theatre to be stitched up and then went back to hospital to be sedated to have them out again. I was told to wait until the scars had heal for 3/4 months and then I could massage with E45 or something similar. That was 4 months ago. The scars are really red on some days and they sometimes go blue when she is cold. A friend of mine has suggested Bio oil. Interested in this thread for some other ideas.

Cylonbabe, I hope your dd's cut heals fine, and I am like you, as I am more worried cos it's on a girl. I was told by hospital that my dd scars won't be visiable when she is older.
Good Luck[happy]

[kel4mum]

oops that should be

[MaeBee]

its true about vit e....
vitamin e can do wonders for scars. DONT apply it to open wounds, i mean when the cut heals, put vit e on it every day. you can get vit e oil in health food shops, its not too expensive.
many moons ago i did a bit of self harming as a teenager, and the scars have mostly disappeared by putting vit e on them.

[mozhe]

Arnica is a homeopathic remedy....and therefore totaly useless. Go back to your doctor.

[mozhe]

And the opinion of most of the medical community.....

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

They do make brilliant placebos, of course.

[mozhe]

They do.
And naive people feel happier taking them than an actual sugar pill,( except wait minute they ARE sugar pills...).
Actually sometimes when I am stuck as to how to go forward with a patient I tell them to drink 2 large glasses of tap water twice a day....and they nearly always feel better.