Child injury *pic attached* - does this look well done?

[snowythesnow]

3yo DS fell and hit his head on the side of a tv cabinet today and split open his eyebrow.
Took him to A&E as advised by 111 and he ended up having it glued and steristripped.

I can't help but think it doesn't look right. It might be me but it doesn't look like they closed it that well but I am well aware I am not a medical professional by any stretch.
He's completely fine and was for the entire 3 hour wait too and is happily having some snacks in front of the TV at the moment so I'm not concerned it's bothering him but I'm just a bit worried it won't heal well and leave a bigger scar than necessary.

Can I please get a second opinion or maybe anyone with a bit more medical knowledge than me reassure me it's fine?
It might just be my brain being a bit precious about my child so please don't be harsh.

I'm no medical expert, but it looks OK to me.
Sure it will be fine once the swelling & bruising goes down.

I think I would go back. Zero medical knowledge so I would see what wiser posters say.

Looks exactly the same as my 7 years olds did after glue and stitches. It was red for a few months after but now 9 months on you can only see it if you look really closely. I think the glue makes them look wider open than they are

It doesn't look good - but it's the position, eyebrows are hard to glue ands trip.

Would reccomend getting some kelocote for when it's healed to reduce the scarring (it's expensive but worth it), massage with oil as well three/four times a day to reduce the scar.

Is the glue sealing the wound or is it still open?
When my daughter cut her head open at nursery she just had it glued hit they put a lot of welly into pushing it back together then glueing it
Are steristrips supposed to cover the wound completely? It looks as though their purpose here is to pull the skin back up towards the brown bone?
If you are not sure then perhaps seek further advice from 111 ?

If he’s completely fine please don’t take him back to A&E for another visit. what do you want, for them to split it open and redo it?

My 2 year old had a similar injury recently, her cut was a little wider and very deep (to the bone) and this is what her steri-strips looked like too. But hers was a temporary fix as she was booked in for stitches 2 days later. I do remember thinking they looked really inadequate at the time though. Hope he is OK.

She applied the strips from the forehead down so not to pull the skin up.
And it didn't seem like they paid much attention to making sure they pull the cut together.

The nurse grabbed it with two fingers and squeezed some glue on it then went to put the strips on and was stopped by the other nurse who told her they were way too long and to cut them down first. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time though I was just more concerned with comforting him and getting home since it was snowing quite badly.

It's just when the cut was cleaned it wasn't much bigger than it appears to be now which makes me worry they didn't close it well.

Looks fine to me. It's a clean wound held together. It needs to heal. Sometimes wounds scar however it's done. I think you are expecting too much. Is there anything you can do about the edge he fell against to round it off?

My DD cut her eyebrow hideously. It was glued and stripped very much like your pic. It looked bad for a week or two, and I honestly thought she’d need plastic surgery later, but, over time, the wound has become far, far less visible, and if you looked at her now you wouldn’t even notice it.

Looks fine to me.

Yes it's the swelling, you can't work it out at all whilst it's fresh. Best thing is to distract him so he doesn't fiddle with it and ensure he can't reopen it on the same or similar edge.

Looks fine to me

I can see what you mean, it doesn’t look like the steristrips have got much tension on them or are pulling the wound shit. That might be because of the position of the cut, it would be difficult to pull the wound tightly closed as your son needs to be able to shut his eye and there is a limit to how many steristrips and of what length etc they can use without covering his eye or placing them in a way that would be aggravating to him. That area of his head will also face a lot of movement from blinking/ facial expressions too so harder to close the wound as effectively as on an area which can be kept relatively still.

If you’re really concerned you can buy steri-strips from most pharmacies so could always try and re-administer them yourself which is fairly simple to do, but I would expect you would find it hard to add much improvement due to the location of the wound in relation to the eye.

A&E nurse here, looks like a totally fine and tidy enough job to me but hard to tell without seeing it in person.

They might have been able to make it a bit of a tighter close but it's hard to see in the pictures what's scab & glue and what's wound. Although for what it's worth I wouldn't have used glue and steristrips - but then I'm a minimalist in the world of wound closure and like a tidy little job .

When my DS had his chin glued it looked fairly closed but the steri strips should be helping to keep this closed up. We got his done when on holiday and I got him checked out when he was home so this pic was the next day. It looks fairly well closed.

Looks pretty similar to my daughters, this was 2 years ago and it’s healed really well.

Looks ok but I understand why it’s worrying you
DD did almost the same injury to herself 18months ago - it looked like that & tbh looked far worse a week or so later. Can only see the scar now if you look for it (& she is very very fair so everything shows on her iyswim)

Another parent who has had a child with a similar wound here :waves: with that length of a one waiting I’m a bit surprised that they glue and used steri strips. My son had a similar wait and said they wouldn’t glue because the edges wouldn’t be as neat after that length of time? Anyway, small scar still there but a permanent reminder available on his first school photo

@cunningartificer

If he’s completely fine please don’t take him back to A&E for another visit. what do you want, for them to split it open and redo it?

This. It’ll be fine when it heals.

Sorry, but my son’s was similar and did end up scarring quite badly. When my other child had a similar injury, I insisted on no glue and only steristrips and it healed much better.

Steri strips only hold flaps of skin together with the hope they re join. Tbh dont look like these will re join. I'd go see practice nurse monday and get it dressed in a mepore

Acc on closer viewing there is a bit of skin been held down. Leave for 1 week to see if it re attaches and then see the practice nurse

It doesn’t look like the edges of the wound are very well approximated. Were you given any spare steristrips? It will in all likelihood heal fine, but will scar more obviously than if it were stitched together.

I had similar myself exactly just over a year ago, except the angle was slightly different & traversed the eyebrow itself. The glue makes it look open & looks worse as it darkens and crusts. A year later, I honestly can barely see the scar.