healing skin and avoiding scarring

[twoGsinBuggerOff]

hi there

ds1 (5yo) took a nose dive into a windowsill yesterday. s'not broken, and he seems to have escaped the two black eyes i thought hed have today, which is nice...

but hes taken a fair proportion of skin off the bridge area of his nose. he wouldnt allow anything to be put on it at the time, and it looked clean so i didnt push it.
it has sealed/dried up ok, tho it looks a wee bit yellowish for my liking... so what i want to know, oh wise ones, is what cream to get on it. i was thinking calendula/hypericum whatever its called. or maybe the magic sudocrem? germolene? would any of those help avoid him scarring?
what about bio-oil, would that hurt? would it help with the scarring (have heard thats what its for)?

i await your wise responses gratefully

Ah. I have just written about healing cuts. You actually - and I know this runs counter to a lot of what we've been told as kids - do not want it to dry up too much. You need to seal it, and keep it moist with something neutral like petroleum jelly, because that speeds up the healing - if it dries, there is a hard ridge that the cells have to get past/round, and also it means that there is a greater chance of scarring.

If it isn't infecting, don't put on antiseptic cream as that too can inhibit the healing process.

Seal it with a plaster, I mean. Plasters help. 'Letting the air get to it is' - and I was amazed to realise this - not the best thing, on account of the drying up.

no way, really?? makes perfect sense actually, but its a bit like 'crusts are good for you' isnt it, you just dont question the conditioning

right, so i'll try to get vaseline on it if i can. if i have one of those little green tins of it with aloe vera in, is that ok you reckon? or will it be like antiseptic? its too awkward a spot for a plaster (whole bride area of nose and forehead)

so will bio oil or something (i assume now that they work on nthe same 'keep it wet' basis) hurt/sting?

However do not seal with a normal waterproof plaster and then leave the dressing unchanged for 2-3 days because your child screams when you try to touch it as it will go pussy & horrid

I reckon bio oil would be worth trying.

aw, thanks mb. ds1 says thanks too, for telling me to put 'cream' on that doesnt hurt

i found a small tin of badger chamomile baby balm (olive oil, caster oil, beeswax, calendula basically) and used that.

My dd just smashed her head open as we were about to board a plane.
Have been advised to put sunblock on it at all times.

wide brim hat too id say. is that to avoid the sun tanning the skin and not the scab/scar area then? would that make a permanent difference in appearance then?

MI - progress report and advice if i may;

ok, so the wet scab is now a big yellow wet thing... the balm im putting on it is yellow tho, so thats to be expected i guess... it smells a little bit... how would i wash it, do you think? given that hes a messy lively feral 5yo whose been diving about the joint,playing splashing in puddles in the garden etc etc?

do i just gently shower over it with nowt but water and then reapply some balm? thats my guess but i could be wrong (been known)

thanks!

wouldn't put the sunscreen on the scab itself - will just make it soggy, Cover up it other ways and when the scab falls off protect the new paler skin with sunblock

Ooh ouch. I have stickers that will make him smile

No advice, but stalking you - can you come on gmail please

Oh, I would just shower with water btw

oh hello! been out... boys in bath now but will pop on gmail anyway

I really am no expert on this - eek - if it's looking truly crummy I'd say wash and indeed disinfect it, but otherwise apparently it's just a question of cleaning it with water. Apparently.

wicked, thanks.
just a bit of reassurance/discussion is all i needed really... am far too stubborn and opinionated not to do whatever i think is right anyway, no matter how qualified the advice may be, so you are absolved of any guilt you may be feeling about assumed responsibility or owt

The don't allow to dry up stuff isn't new. I took most of the skin off my face aged 5 by going over the handlebars of my bike onto a gravel road.

After it'd been picked clean in hospital (and I'd stayed in for 3-4 nights ) I was sent home with instructions for my mum to keep it moist. Some kind of thick cream (consistency of Nivea/Vaseline) was applied regularly.

If I look really closely I have scars on my upper lip and I've always blamed it for my nose going very red in cold/when I cry. But nothing that a casual observer would notice.

You can get dressings from the pharmacy. Hang on - will dig out instructions.

doh, forgot about (yet another) silly namechange... tis i.

would be intereated in dressings sue, but tis such an awkward spot that not sure thered be anything that would work...

From nurse friend I spoke to nasty graze DD got a while ago. I remembered I'd also got my ankle stuck under one of those roundabout things on play parks and had to dress it with some special non-sticky dressing. (Remember that well as went on school residential and had to sort myself out aged 10. Do you see a pattern in my childhood?! No wonder I was referred to as Calamity!! I did get out and do stuff though!)

best dressing is mepitel - v expensive and not sure if you can buy it but guess you
can which is a primary dressing (wound contact layer) very comfortable - patients rave about it - the holy grail of dressing manufacturers for years has been to make a non stick dressing and this is the first that truly truly works

you then have a plain old mepore or similar over the top - no advantage whatsoever in letting the air in - best healing conditions are warm and moist and changed as infrequently as possible

Yes, probably an awkward area to dress. Like my face was hence going round looking like a shiny-faced thing until all was healed.

Hope he gets better soon. It will prob look worse before it looks better iyswim.

oh thanks sue!

will look into that immedialtey.

wow the face thing sounds painful. glad it worked out well. fwiw i get horribly red nose when i even think about crying too. oh, and i was permanently grazed and painted in gentian violet most of the time too as a kid.