July 16, 2010
By Jessica Forbes MS, CCN
We have a baby in our household, which is like a beacon of light attracting all the children in the neighborhood who want a living toy to play with on summer vacation. I definitely don’t mind it – our little boy loves the attention and spends most of his visiting time smiling and laughing.
An unanticipated side effect of all of these visits is that my house has also become the band-aid dispensary when one of the kids scrapes their knee after falling off their bike. There are a couple of tricks I use in these cases, and I wanted to share them with you to help you prevent scarring after skin injuries.
- First, wash the area well with soap and water. I am not a fan of antibacterial soap, as most of it contains triclosan, a know hormone disruptor. I just use regular castile soap and plenty of warm water. The action of washing removes debris and bad bacteria without also destroying all the good, protective bacteria on the skin the way that antibacterial soap would.
- Most skin injuries repair better if they are kept slightly moist with ointment, but I don’t keep antibacterial first aid ointments in my home for the same reasons mentioned above about antibacterial soap. For light scrapes, I rub a little bit of coconut oil onto the wound to promote softening and healing of the skin. For cuts or scrapes that are a little more intense, I actually apply a dab of extra strength diaper rash ointment (I keep Desitin or Balmex in the house). This might sound like a weird thing to do, but diaper rash ointment contains zinc, which helps skin to repair and has the added benefit of being a natural sunblock (avoiding sun on scrapes also helps to prevent scarring).
- Finally, cover the area with a bandage to be sure the ointment soaks in rather than rubbing off on clothes.
These instructions work well for all kinds of mild skin injuries including cuts, scrapes, and even injuries associated with acne and blistering sunburn. For deeper wounds, cuts requiring stitches, skin injuries that may be infected, or puncture wounds, please consult your doctor!
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