Wrong to tell Dd her leg could fall off

[Oneofthosedaysss]

Dd has had spots on her body for a while, the Dr can’t find the cause and they are fading…if she just leaves them alone.
She picks at them and makes them bleed terribly. I was tired of telling her not to do it, the Dr also told her not to do it. In a moment of frustration and worry today at seeing another awful, bleeding sore, I told her she had to stop or it would get infected and go green and they’ll chop her leg off. Obviously I quickly said that won’t happen with her.
When Dh came home she asked him if it would happen and he got angry at me.
It’s very unlike me, but seeing such sores everywhere is worrying me

Was I being that unreasonable to just try to shock her in the moment (I’ve tried everything else)

I'm biased,
Because my leg did get infected,
Went green,
Nearly had to have it chopped off from groin down 😂
However, this is something my parents would have said to me when I was younger and it didn't damaged me.

I don't think anyone says that now though as its easy enough to be honest and say your pulling a grumpy face - that's annoying.

Did you believe things they said generally though? Or take everything with a pinch of salt?

It’s completely true. She could get sepsis and her leg have to be chopped off. She needs to stop picking the scabs and if that comment does it then good for you!

At 6? Maybe I did believe it?
But the end result did comments like that actually so me much harm? No?
This why kids these days are snowflakes and grow up with 0 resilience and cannot cope with anything.

In my experience kids know you're only joking when you say something like this, she'll be fine.

Oops! I think that many of us will have said similar things. Your DH shouldn’t have got that cross but would be reasonable to point out that it wasn’t a good thing to say.
With my DCs, I cut fingers nails very short, use petroleum (makes their fingers oily/ messy and puts them off).
Also keep the legs covered by wearing leggings.
Epsom salt baths and moisturise with petroleum jelly.
This might be too much but … I also explained to mine how scabs are formed and made them feel sorry for the poor white cells and blood cells and skin cells who were all trying to fix the broken skin but had to keeping starting all over every-time that the scabs were picked off.

Cover her legs as much as you can eg bandages or tights.

Meh, it's not that bad.
When my son was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of 7 I told him if he didn't have his insulin he'd die (he was refusing many times) Now that's Brutal.

It’s weird as things like that were always
said to me as a kid…and worse! I don’t remember it really bothering me, but I feel quite awful, in case I traumatised her 🙈

My eldest told my son that if he kept tugging his Willy it would drop off and they can’t necessarily reattach it - that’s what happened to her.

he was 5/6 but stopped immediately.

silly thing to say but talk about scar, distraction etc and keep it light

Cut her nails super short, i mean really short so she can't pick at them. She might not like that but she'll have to put up with it until she'd older.
Don't beat yourself up about it, you sound like you were just frustrated

I’d just apologise to her op and explain why it happened. I’d also buy some hydrocolloid plasters and put them on. They’re v sticky so not easy to remove or pick, and they speed up healing.

Sorry i am guilty of this 😕 my 5 n 1/2yr old is terrible for biting his nails right down, I’ve told him he will end up needing to get his fingers chopped off, never mentioned with what though. And in my defence the doctor has said it too when he had to get puss drained from his finger blistering round(whats left) of his nail. Tried everything to get him to stop

Extreme for such a young child

Said this to all my boys at some point too, and pretty much every mum of boys i know have as well 🤷🏼‍♀️ keep pulling it and you will pull it off. Stops them for a wee while but not completely

I would have probably give her a real consequence, like if you continue to pick these spots you will have scars, or they will get infected and it will be very sore.

God I say stuff like that to my nephews all of the time. I told the oldest tonight if he didn't stop picking his nose it'd fall off. They find it funny. ( They're 6 & 8)

My generation was routinely told that if we swallowed plum stones we’d have a plum tree growing out of our head.

One of my children is a picker, in a moment of frustration I have told him he could get an infection and end up in hospital. That bothered him more than telling him he could leave a scar. I don't see an issue unless you have a particularly anxious child.

I got him a fiddle rings which has helped but he also keeps his nails very short.

Do you deal with a lot of phobias about Santa and the Tooth fairy too?

Your DH got angry?! Weirdo.

He’d have hated my 80/90’s childhood, every body part had serious potential to fall off according to my parents

Not really, I can imagine posters advising an OP whose husband said a stupid thing to 'go nuclear' or the other favourite ' I wouldnt be able to get over that'

People say stupid things, other people get pissed off about it. Its the way of the world, no harm done in this case, easy to put right.

YANBU, sometimes it's necessary to use scare tactics. I used to tell my (young) kids I'd press the ejector seat button if they didn't stop fighting in the car. It worked, they survived the trauma, all was good.