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Children's health

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Butterfly stitches and wound care for a far-too-curious toddler

2 replies

CBear6 · 07/06/2012 22:41

DS split his forehead open yesterday, scariest 30 seconds of my life was him popping up with a hole in his skin and blood sheeting down his face :(

The hospital have pulled it closed with steri-strips, it was a close call with it being so deep but preferable to a trip to theatre for proper sutures as he's only 2yo (almost 3yo). He's getting it checked by the district nurse on Monday to make sure it's healing and doesn't need further attention.

He has 6 strips holding it shut and they taped a gauze pad over the wound. They said the pad could probably come off today but he's a picker and a poker and I'm worried he might try to pull the strips off if I take the pad away, plus he won't even let me touch anywhere near it and gets really upset if I try. Will it do any harm or affect it healing if I just leave the pad in place until it either drops off or until Monday? My mum is of the opinion that the air needs to get at the wound and I should just pull the pad off.

Secondly, any suggestions on cleaning his hair? I can manage his face with a flannel but I've got the keep the strips dry so I sort of sponge around the gauze pad but he has dried blood in his hair and what I think is milk from this morning, he keeps begging for a bath too. Dry shampoo isn't going to cut it, is it? Hmm

Thirdly, any experiences on the likelihood of a scar? It was 1.5-2 inches long and I don't know how deep, they said very deep but not to the bone, I could see white/yellow which I guess is muscle? I asked the nurse about the chance of scarring but she didn't answer.

Finally, can someone please give me a slap? I feel awful and the nurse we had was so blunt which just made it worse. He's clumsy, he's always been accident-prone and the house is baby proofed but accidents happen. He split his head on the TV stand which we chose because it has rounded corners and no sharp edges, the paramedic said its been an unlucky combination of speed and angle. I feel like he's always at A&E or the doctors. My GP is understanding, he's known him since birth and says the surprising thing about DS is that he doesn't have more bruises than he's usually got but it's getting me down that my child seems to always be the one who is getting into accidents. I feel like I'm being judged for being a bad mother and after some comments to me from family I'm worried SS will be at my door :( I watch him, his environment is as safe as I can make it, short of putting him in a bubble there isn't much else I can do. I remember the day I put catches on all the cupboards, he tried to open one and it wouldn't open fully, he yanked harder, the catch snapped and he smacked himself in the face with the suddenly-freed door

OP posts:
tumbleweedblowing · 08/06/2012 12:29

Well much as we'd love to, you can't have them in bubblewrap all the time.

DD3 ran into a wall in the kitchen and had a similar sounding wound. We had a minor injuries unit at the end of the street (where they knew her name Blush which was handy.

We bought more steristrip from the chemist, and re-applied as she picked them off (she was 18months). She does have a tiny, very faint scar, but she likes it, and it's just there. Nothing we can do about it now.

You might just have to go with the flow a bit with the dressing. Get some spares, and put them on if you think you need to. I think she had to keep the steristrip on for about a week, then it was moisturise moisturise.

Stop beating yourself up!

sweetiesue · 08/06/2012 12:46

Sounds wacky but we decorated a melonin/mepore type dressing with stickers for use when a little extra protection was needed. Also got some extra steri-strips from the chemist for "occasional repairs".
Would he manage a hat as protection or is it in the wrong place? Baseball cap, sunhat whatever works.
As for hair washing I just moistened a facecloth/cotton wool and gently ran it through root to tip around the muckiest bits.

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