MN urgent opinions needed. DH has dressed ds's wound but has he botched it?

[Spidermama]

DS is 2.5. He fell and cut his eyebrow while I was away at work today. When I got back this evening I saw the eye-shaped wound, half an inch long, on his eyebrow at top edge of eye socket.

DH then proceeded to do his own version of stitches which involved putting think strips of plaster across it to try to bring it together.

BUT he has put the sticky bit of plaster across the wound. I feel it should come off again. He insists we should leave it to fall off naturally.

What do you say?

I say that I don't think plaster will hold it together. steri strips may do a better job but if it needs holding together I think it might stitching. what do you think?

DO you think it may need glueing or stitching properly? If not then hes done it right if hes gone top to bottom over the wound so the edges meet leave for about a week and try to keep it dry!!

Go to a Minor injuries unit tomorrow. My dad's always falling over and they're always helpful

TBQH Spider, with it being a wound on his face, I would take him and get it looked at by a medical person. I've no idea if your dh has done it right but it would be such a shame if it left a scar that might have been avoided.

I don't know Kbear, probably not a hospital job. At its widest point the cut is about 2-3mm.

Layla' I'm glad of your response because it means my dh isn't completely mad. I just instinctively feel wrong about putting sticky plaster on a wet wound. Won't it just a) prevent it from scabbing and b)pull off any scab which does form?

my feeling is if it needed that sort of intervention probably could do with some glue for neat healing on a wound on the face. Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear, but difficult to say without seeing it

blondehelen - hello stranger!

If the wound was steristripped/butterfly stitches they would go top to bottom so some sticky bit would be over the wound, yes some of the scab could be pulled off but if you leave it and keep it dry it should just be superficial bleeding when you remove them or you could try and soak them off.

If my 2.5yo had a half inch wound gaping up to 2-3mm on a prominent part of his face I'd take him to a medical professional; if not casualty then certainly a GP's practice nurse might be a useful first call. He may need a dissolvable stitch or 2 which will be more comfortable than sticky tape.

Poor spider-boy. DS1 had a wound very like the one you describe when he was about 18mos. We took him to A+E in a complete panic (it was totally our fault - we'd let him play with a paint-stripping tool ). They just steri-stripped it, on the grounds that you'd have to give a general anaesthetic to get stitches into a child that small. He had a follow-up with a maxilo-facial specialist to check that the scar would not be too bad.

Maybe just get it checked out for your peace of mind?

Ouch! Policywonk. A paint-stripping tool? You weren't reading the Continuum Concept at the time were you?

He's looking much better today. DH peeled the dressing off in the morning when I wasn't looking. I think he was scared because of the earbashing I gave him last night. The swelling has gone down bringing the wound together quite nicely. I'm very glad we didn't choose to spend hours with the drunks in A&E in the end.

I now have Steristrips in my first aid box.

A & E i think.

Worse, SM - we were outside having fags. Aaargh! I've stopped now, OKAY??

The doctor who saw him (at the Royal Alex in Brighton) said 'oh yes, classic de-gloving wound'. Of course I had no idea what that meant. When he explained, in that nonchalant way doctors have when they're talking about something completely gross, I nearly fainted. He was pretty foxy though. Might be worth taking spider-boy in just to meet the foxy maxillo-facial specialist.

oh vomit- de-gloving wound.

had the misfortune of looking at at poor blokes 'de gloving' injury which involved the skin from his forearms being peeled down to his elbows.

tiredemma, you have just made the soles of my feet go all funny. And not in a good way.

DS had a very similar wound (quite deep) on his forehead a month ago -- it was steri-stripped with a little tissue glue and is now healing up nicely. There's technique to getting strips on so that scarring is minimised. I second the suggestion to go to Minor Injuries Unit t'morrow.

I thought i was going to collapse- got to be one of the worse injuries possible. He got it from 'rolling' in his soft top XR3i.

bbbbrrrrrggggghhhh

I'd be the world's worst health professional.

A wound, you say? With broken skin, and blood, and that?

• must admit- im struggling onmy current placement as Im traing to be a mental health nurse but have to do a general placemnent on a surgical ward- its interesting- but I have found myself going light headed on more than one occasion ( like watching a below knee amputation last week)

shudder

Tiredmama. Amputation? Fuck!

PMSL Policywonk. Finally a convincing reason for involving the NHS. Foxy facial specialist, here I come ...

Policy weren't you the one in a Regency Brighton property with ugly nighclothes bought by your mum?

Yes, that was me, SM.

The foxy doctor did say that the steri-stripping (profesionally done) would help to minimize the scar. He did also have some advice for minimizing the scarring after the wound had healed - mostly fairly obvious stuff about using sunblock and so on (which of course I have largely ignored )

Anyway, hope DS is doing well.