Skinned knee - very painful

[Squirrelonwheels]

My DC has skinned his knee, pretty badly. Not the usual playground scrape but a whole layer of skin taken off a big section of knee. It’s exposed and raw and keeps sticking to the bandage. He did it a couple of days ago but says it’s got more painful and is especially painful to bend/straighten. There are no signs of infection but do you think I need to be worried?

Pop out to Boots and buy a hydrocolloid dressing, they’re like blister plasters but you’ll need a big one. Give the wound a good rinse with tap water then stick on the dressing. It should feel loads better almost immediately. Leave it on for 3-5 days and voila, pink fresh skin underneath.

Alternative would be minor injuries I suppose but I suspect they will just put on a dressing so why go to the trouble of waiting around?

If the wound is smelly, pus, red and swollen and the redness is spreading then get it seen as will need antibiotics.

Without infection signs, Id probably not worry too much. Does the pain on bending feel like stretching pain? Is it scabbing over and the the scab’s cracking/breaking? If so, then it sounds normal. If the pain is more internal then I’d be more worried

Are you putting vaseline over the area, then put a bandage over. If the bandage sticks when you take it off to clean, you should put water on the dressing to make it easier to pull off without sticking. It can take over a week for scab to form, but you need to keep putting clean bandage on each day to prevent infection. You could ask pharmacist if there’s anything you can put on it for faster healing.

You absolutely do not need to change a dressing daily - this can often just remove a layer of healing tissue at the same time. Clean it properly with antiseptic , not a non stick dressing on and leave it alone. If the top of the dressing is dry and it doesn’t smell then every 3 days is fine.

Thanks - we’ve been changing it daily but it does seem to pull off a layer of gunk so sounds like I should leave it on. It oozes through the dressing though. No sign of a scab yet unfortunately. G’ah! Hope it heals quickly.

My 12 yo DD did this the other week. Took ages to heal properly. Can you leave it uncovered to dry it out for a few days? That seemed to really help. Also we kept it out of the bath/shower as much as possible.

Also she complained about pain quite a bit so we gave her regular ibuprofen

@snoozingbaby1476 Thanks - I’ve given painkillers today, I wasn’t sure if they’d help but worth a try! It is starting to look like it’s improving now thankfully.

That's good. Hope it heals quickly