Oh dear, please help if you can.... plaster stuck fast to DS's wound...

[Wolfgirl]

like the scab underneath is growing on the plaster patch. It's one of those Melolin big dressings as DS grazed his knee yesterday quite badly. Rightly or wrongly I put one of these dressings on, and totally forgot to change it this morning.

Of course he has been wearing it all day, and now the darn thing is stuck fast. Ive soaked him in the bath for half and hour and now covered whats left of the dressing with antiseptic cream. I can see the wound has tried to heal but attached itself to the dressing.

Any ideas how I can remove the rest of it, without peeling his skin off and making the poor lad scream the planet down ??

Will he get in the bath? That should help it off.

soak it in warm salty water and peel off the loose bits and keep soaking.. it can take ages but does work .. HTH

he's not long come out, just over half an hour soaking. the underneath is starting to go soggy and white, but the middle is quite hard still and scabby.

Hmm. No idea. Is it possible to peel off the top layers of the dressing at all? So only a very thin layer is left,. Then if it forms part of the scab, once the scab falls off so will the fabric iyswim.

I wouldn't try and remove the bit that is stuck at all.

Just yank it off and give DS some chocolate

Baby oil or even olive oil will help unstick the plaster glue. Let it soak in and if you need to keep applying as you remove.

And I am fairly sure that he won't forever be bonded to a piece of dressing

Lol at vocation to avoid nursing, I have one of those too.

Helena... I've been slowly removing as much or the plaster - layer wise as poss, and pretty much thought the same, that the scab would absorb the plaster. But Im not certain that it would. I just don't know what to do now.

As I said, Ive smothered it in cream now and poor lad is sitting cuddling dh... he should be in bed!

Overmydeadbody - ha ha ha, yeah right. You wanna be here when I do it, d'ya think? It'll be me needing the chocolate gin if I do that.

I've just topped up the cream to soak some more, but tomorrow will try another soak in the bath.

Shouldnt it be like a splinter perhaps, that works its way out eventually, but in the case the plaster will fall off with the scab?

BCNSback - my mum said do the hot water and salt thang! she was a nurse many moons ago, maybe your'e right. will try that tomorrow too....

Blimey.. I have no hope for my big sterry strips then

I had keyhole surgery last week on my knee. I have not be able to get the wounds wet and the sterry strips are stuck fast with loads and loads of dried blood underneath. Makes me feel sick even thinking about trying to get them off. Yikes! Ouch! Ouch!

melolin is shite. always sticks.
keep soaking and peeling slowley. also put a wet flannel over the top if he's out of the bath now.

Scabs are not what you want so if the scab comes off it's not a big problem - scabs delay healing if they are large, so if he has a pretty big wound ask a chemist or practice nurse for a better dressing.

For now try soaking with a wet flannel, or if you can squeeze Vaseline underneath that might help to lift it.

Avoid Melolin, it's crap. (but you know that now )

I was joking

i thought scabs served a purpose? i fell over 2 weeks ago (im 37!!) and grazed both knees badly and broke toe....hospital put iodine soaked none sticky things on my knees and then a gauze thing over that...they said to remove them next day to allow air to get to the wounds, which then scabbed over. i thought scabs allowed the skin to heal underneath?

your poor little mite has my sympathies...it bloody hurts!

I did the same thing to my finger at the start of the year.

I ended up going to the practice nurse at the GP - she soaked it in saline and whisked it off.

I could not do it myself and it did hurt, but at least the cut got cleaned up and dressed properly.

i had a problem with dressing adhesive after my cs and a wise MN mentioned Zoff wipes - they kind of soak through the dressing/plaster and lift the adhesive. They were fab, and removed everything after olive oil and some adhesive remover in maternity failed to get it off. I got them from Boots pharmacy.

Helena is right - the dressing will become part of the scap and come off with the scab.

MOrning ladies.. 10 oclock we managed to coax him into bed last night, but wrapped the wound with a bandage to add to the drama of it all.

He's gone to school with it stuck fast, so he will soak in the bath tonight and we shall try again. But I rather think that that's it.... it will come away with the scab.

thanks for all your comments and taking time to reply.

sounds like you have put the dressing on the wrong way round,it shouldnt stick if u put the shiny side against the wound.
soak it with sterile saline solution or cooled boiled water.

Try not to pick the scab off as it will not help.. If the graze did go quite deep then if there is any possibility of slight scarring then removing the swab can make it worse as often extra healthy tissue is further torn.