Before lunch

On the subject of removing splinters from children, my dr has this to say:

If your splinter does not fit any of the descriptions above, it should be safe to try to remove it yourself using the following method.

  1. Wash the skin around the splinter with warm, soapy water.
  2. Using sterile tweezers, grip the splinter as close to the skin surface as you can.
  3. Pull the splinter out directly. Don’t pull too hard or fast or the splinter may break.

With no mention of a child who has just shouted so loudly and for so long at the merest mention of you just having a look at his hand, that the neighbour from over the fence and down one has just called out is everything all right in a tone which suggests that she believes you should call an ambulance.

0 thoughts on “Before lunch”

  1. Who can forget one’s mother coming towards them with a needle, still black from the match she used to ‘sterilize’ it…

    teach the child to chew them out.

  2. Wrap Gladwrap around it. This causes sweating which opens up where the splinter is and it’s easy to wash out or grab with the tweezers. The only thing is not letting them take off the film to see their skin opening up, the thought of which seems to take away any pain involved.

  3. Or a bread poultice. Which is bread dipped in warm water to make it soggy. Then wrapped around the splinter and secured there for as long as possible with duct tape/sellotape/something sticky. It’s the same as the gladwrap really.

  4. Hello, just jumped here from Pea Soup.
    When my son’s most recent splinter required the needle for digging as well as the tweezers, I showed him how I used to thread a needle through the first layer of skin so that it looked like I was holding it up my magic. He forgot to worry about the needle after that

  5. Half the splinter is out – it seems to be working itself out. I’ve got buckley’s of getting near it with any kind of poultice…unless off course I can get the duct tape on his mouth first.

    Which of course I would never do. That was just a joke.

  6. Does My Doc say anything about the removal of wobbly teeth? I was always being threatened with a piece of string and the doorknob when I was a kid…

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