How can a child remove a splinter?

Splinters on children's arms and legs are not at all uncommon, because little researchers all the time try to touch and explore everything on their own. Handling a splinter to the doctor most parents do not seem the most successful idea. Moreover, there are many ways to quickly get a splinter from a baby as painless as possible. We will talk about them in this article.

Splinter is an acute foreign body that penetrates under the top layer of skin. This usually occurs during outdoor games and classes with wooden objects or products made of glass or metal.

The foreign body can be very small, the child will not even feel it. It is these tiny splinters that usually come out on their own; the body can reject them rather quickly and painlessly. But if the thorn is noticeable, it gives the baby pain or discomfort, if she goes deep, then you need to pull out the “intruder” as soon as possible to avoid inflammation, decay, joining a bacterial infection.

All manipulations with the damaged area should be carried out only previously cleaned with soap and clean hands. Wash and, if possible, pour boiling water on all the “tools” that you plan to use during the manipulations. If it is not possible to treat with boiling water, wipe the items with an antiseptic.

First of all, you should evaluate your strength and the degree of the problem. If the splinter has gone too deep, and redness and swelling have formed over it, you should not try to handle it yourself. It is better to contact the nearest emergency room.

If the splinter entered where there is a congestion of nerve endings, then not to do without anesthesia. Therefore, it is also desirable to remove a foreign body from under the nail in a medical institution. If a child “acquired” a splinter a few days ago, but the fact of its existence became known only now, when the affected place got sick, inflamed and rotted, you will have to use some pharmaceutical preparations with anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects.

For the bath you will need warm water, baby soap and some baking soda. The steaming time is about 10-15 minutes.

This is a traditional way, familiar to everyone from childhood, for which a sharp thin needle is used. Do not use sewing needles for manipulation. It is better to use a needle from a disposable sterile syringe. Antiseptic (alcohol or «Miramistin») need to handle the hands, needle, tweezers and the injured part of the skin.

The needle gently pry the skin right perpendicularly above the splinter.by inserting it horizontally under the topmost layer of the epidermis, slightly tearing it, then catching the tip that has appeared with tweezers and removing it as carefully as possible without squeezing so as not to break. Then the injured finger or palm is treated again with an antiseptic.For several days, it is worthwhile to carefully observe the place of extraction in order not to miss the signs of a possible infection.

This method has several big drawbacks. First, a sterile needle and antiseptics are not always at hand. Secondly, not every child voluntarily agrees to be poked with a needle on his finger. If the one-year-old child can still be held somehow with the help of other family members, then for a child older it is best to choose an alternative method, without using a needle.

A great way for a small child who "gathered" several small splinters at once, for example, when falling. The affected area should be treated with antiseptic, trying not to press on the place of occurrence of foreign bodies in the skin, so as not to drive them deeper. The skin must be allowed to dry, after which stick on the affected area a piece of wide scotch.

Sharp movement should unstick an adhesive tape. It will remain the lion's share of small splinters. The procedure must be repeated until all small splinters are removed.

Also, this method cannot be applied if there are areas with abrasions around the small splinters, this will bring pain and increase the risk of infection of the wounds.

You can try a deep thorn that is seated in a hard-to-reach place, for example, in the heel or in the center of the palm, which you cannot reach with a needle or by other means. extract using ordinary baking soda, which is in the kitchen of each housewife. On a tablespoon of soda take about half a teaspoon of warm water, make soda gruel and put on the place of entry splinters. A cotton disc or piece of gauze is placed on top and carefully fixed with a patch.

If it does not come out, it will be very easy to get it out of the softened skin with a sterile needle. Manipulation will not bring pain, if carried out correctly.

Cons of this method lie in the fact that a soda, which is rather aggressive in nature, on the tender skin of a baby can cause an allergic reaction, and the likelihood of removing a deep splinter is not 100%.

A school age child and teenager can remove a deep splinter. with iodine. To do this, an antiseptic, applied to a cotton swab, moisten the wound every three to four hours. If the splinter is wooden, then it will “burn out” as a result and come out.

A child's body too quickly is able to accumulate iodine from outside; in a baby, this method of extracting a banal splinter can cause more serious consequences than inflammation and wound festering, for example, iodine overdose. And this is already shaped sadism and barbarism.

This way will surely please the parents of the little ones, since it does not have such a strong traumatic effect, as all listed above. In order to remove the splinter from under the skin on the arm, the leg of a small child, you need to put on the damaged skin a bit PVA glue.

When the glue dries, it is carefully removed. Often a splinter goes with it, because its tip is firmly glued. Minus this way - the probability of breaking off the splinter when only its part is released, which was located closer to the skin surface.

Undoubted plus - psychological comfort of the baby, since no one will force him to walk with a bandage for several hours and poke needles into the injured place.

If the question arises how to remove a thorn from a child’s finger without using any traumatic devices, then you can consider such a well-known drug as ichthyol ointment. It is applied to the damaged area, put a cotton pad, a bandage on top, and fix it with a plaster if necessary. After 10 hours, the bandage is removed, the splinter is very likely to be released even when removed.

Cons of the method consist in an unpleasant smell of the ointment itself, the child will definitely not like it. In addition, children do not like fixed dressings, especially for such a long time.

Despite the fact that many parents claim that they used ichthyol ointment and for one-year-old babies, manufacturers indicate that such experiments can be dangerous. "Ichthyol" can not lick, eat. Make sure that the child does not get access to the contents under the bandage.

“Fresh” splinter, which the child received no more than an hour ago, can be removed using salt water. In a glass you need to dissolve the salt (per 250 ml of water 2.5-3 tablespoons of salt). Water should be hot, but not so much that it could not be a child's finger.

In salt water, lower the leg or arm (depending on the place of injury), hold for about 15 minutes. Then the splinter will easily come out with a slight slight lateral pressing, like on a pimple. Significant minus The method consists in the fact that it will be quite difficult for a restless child to keep at the glass with salt water for more than 3 minutes, and the time interval here is crucial.

This is a method based on the imposition of compresses. "Push" properties banana peel and Birch tar. With these components one by one or combining them together you need to apply a compress on the damaged injured skin at the place of entry of the splinter. The compress is closed with cling film, tied with a bandage and left overnight.

In the morning, the foreign body is usually at the very top, at the entry point and the splinter is easily removed using tweezers. Convenience way in that, as bananas, and tar - readily available ingredients. Minus - The fact that traditional medicine is not yet able to clearly explain the "pulling off" effect of banana peels. Therefore, this method is considered more popular, which means that there are no guarantees that it will help the next morning.

This way is loved by many generations of mothers whose children who are restless often “earn” splinters of all sizes and depths of penetration. Only need to extract several leaves of aloe. This plant is available on the windowsill of almost every apartment.

Freshly cut aloe leaves are cut along stripes and tied to a splinter penetration site. It is enough to hold the plant, which is famous for its healing juice, in an injured place for about 4-5 hours, and a splinter appears on the surface. After that, it is easily removed with tweezers.

Plus way lies in the fact that aloe disinfects and moisturizes the affected area, prevents the multiplication of pathogenic bacteria. Disadvantage - still the same. It is necessary to ensure that the child during these few hours did not remove the bandage with a leaf of aloe, and this can be very, very difficult.

This method will require unsalted lard and hydrogen peroxide. First, a piece of fat is applied to the injury site, carefully fastened with a bandage. After 2-3 hours, the bandage is removed and abundantly watered at the site of penetration of a foreign particle under the skin with hydrogen peroxide. Along with the "hiss" will come to the surface and a splinter.

The process is completely painless, the child can feel only a slight tingling at the time of the action of hydrogen peroxide.

Here such tricky tricks are sometimes resorted:

• Parents of infants know how difficult it is to remove a thorn from such small children. They do not agree to wait, remove the bandages, resist manipulation with tweezers. To remove the thorn baby, you need to do everything at the moment when the crumb is sleeping. Optimal use of anesthetic spray, and choose the traditional method with a needle, so as not to keep the child with a bandage, or give preference to another method that does not take much time. Remove the thorn need to the moment when the baby wakes up.
• A dark strip on the nail plate does not always mean that a child has a splinter under the nail. Sometimes the appearance of such strips indicates the development of a fungal infection. This condition requires a completely different treatment.
• The splinters from plants are most easily removed by the above methods - spines from cactuses, roses, bushes and wooden splinters - shavings, sawdust, pieces of wood. It is more difficult to remove the metal and glass splinter. In some cases, such foreign bodies require the use of a medical instrument.
• In the home first aid kit should always keep a small set of tools that can be useful, if the child comes from walking with a splinter. These are antiseptics - iodine, alcohol, formic alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, "Miramistin". Ointment - Ichthyol and Vishnevsky Balsam, as well as antibiotic ointment "Levomekol". Related products - tweezers, disposable syringe, patch, bandage, cotton pads.

About how to pull a splinter, says Dr. Komarovsky in the next video.