Preventing Infections in Your Child’s Cuts and Scrapes

10 May Preventing Infections in Your Child’s Cuts and Scrapes

As most parents know, when it comes to rambunctious kids, cuts and scrapes are just part of life. Whether it’s a scraped knee from falling off a bike or a fresh scrape from climbing on the playground, these little wounds are bound to happen in kids of all ages.

The good news is, while these cuts and scrapes can seem serious to a young child in the moment, many times they are easy to treat right at home, with the right First Aid kit and a little extra care and attention.

Here’s how to easily and safely treat cuts and scrapes at home.

1. Always make sure that you wash your hands ahead of time before you start treating your child’s wound. The cleaner you and the environment are—the better! After all, you want to prevent infection. Encourage your child to sit down or lie down so they are calm and relaxed.
2. If your child’s wound is actively bleeding, apply pressure with a sterile gauze or clean cloth until the bleeding stops.
3. Hold the wound under cool running water, or bottled water. Do not use hot water, alcohol or iodine. Water is the best solution to cleaning any wound.
4. If the wound is relatively shallow, but has dirt in it, use rubbing alcohol on a pair of tweezers and remove any large pieces of debris from the wound.
5. Use a bandage to cover your child’s scrape until it has dried and forms a scab. At this time, you can use an over the counter, antibiotic ointment such as Polysporin to help protect against infection. This will also prevent the bandage from sticking to the wound.
6. Monitor your child’s wound or scrape and refresh the bandage regularly to keep it clean.
7. Once the cut or scrape has formed a scab, you can start leaving it open to some fresh air, if the wound is at risk of becoming dirty during this delicate phase, make sure to cover it.

Keeping the wound clean is an essential part of preventing infection. You should also make sure that your child is up to date with their tetanus shots.

If you have more questions about what you can do to properly take care of your child’s cuts and scrapes, contact the experts here at Continuum Pediatrics to learn more. We are here to help with all of your wound care needs and to make sure that those little cuts and scrapes haven’t developed into something more serious. You can call our office directly for an appointment at 817-617-8600.