How to get a dressing off a reluctant child?!

[NaturalBaby]

My 2yr old had a minor operation this week and has a small adhesive dressing on - the type with white padding in the middle and clear adhesive all the way round. It's well and truly stuck on! It's like trying to get the end up on a roll of sellotape but DS is being very unco-operative. We were told to take it off this weekend and think we're going to have to try when he's fast asleep.

Are there any tips out there to get it off, or do we just have to pick at the edges with fingernails and try to peel it off without waking him up??

You can get adhesive remover wipes/spray from the chemist, depending on wound care advice could he have a bath to soften the stickiness?

If you soften the edges with baby oil then it should come off without pulling at the skin. However, I don't know what sort of wound / stitches are there so use your judgement on that or apply it very carefully with cotton wool round the sides.

Oil!

Soak some cotton wool in cooking oil, and apply it to the adhesive, peeling it back as you go. The oil dissolves the adhesive. If that fails to work head out to a pharmacy tomorrow and ask for Zoff wipes - they smell very unpleasant but work very well.

Bathtime?
I wouldn't like to be woken by someone pulling a dressing off me. But, it might work.

I really don't want to do it while he's sleeping.
Oil sounds good, but I'm not sure if it'll get in at all, he's had a couple of good soaks in the bath and it's not lifting at all anywhere.

Oil will work if you let it soak around the edges so it gets under. Might take a few applications - use a cotton bud q-tip thing to push it round the sides so it gets under the waterproof plaster to the fixative glue.

Agree with baby oil. Also soaked a flannel in it and allowed DS1 to rub it gently himself, and also asked him to pull off plaster. Helped as he was in control

DS had same recently...despite repeated attempts to remove, he was having none of it...cue bath and a good rub down of the dressing with oil. When he fell asleep I managed to cut up middle of sticky parts and just whipped both sides of...he did say 'ow' but never woke up...that was over a week ago and he's not noticed it missing yet!

It's off! baby oil worked perfectly. He let me rub it a bit then a side started coming up so I whipped it off. He really didn't want it to come off, even though he could hardly see it under his little pot belly.