Advice on owies

Culture & Society Forum

I thought we could all share ideas on owies.

For removing splinters, I ice the area, then put some childrens teething ointment on it. It numbs the area and hopefully your kid will not mind the tweezers.

I love learning how other parents handle owies, stitches, ect.

Well, I've dealt with the stitches but it was really hard because my son was 3 at the time and he was so scared. What I do is I bought a first aid kit and all kinds of cool bandaids and whenever the boys get a scratch or cut I play Dr. Mom and we fix it up. They like to have a variety of bandaids to choose from. I also give them the cleansing wipe and let them wash the owie before I put the ointment on it. They like being able to have some say in it, it makes it easier for both us.

Good advice Slender. My son loves his Harry Potter bandaids so much he started inventing owies. We had to have the talk about fibs then. My son had his first stitches at 3 also. He was totally scared and the E.R. doctors didn't help ease his mind. Luckily, he was really brave this year when he had to have stitches again. Thank goodness they make cool bandaids.

Oh, I do stained glass work so I cut my hands often. I use the kiddie bandaids and the kids think cuts are o.k. now and the bandaids are "way cool" cause even mommy likes them.

Teach kids what to do when they get hurt... starting with small cuts and scrathes and building upon that. When they get hurt, the fear is lessened because (A) the problem doesn't seem so bad because they know how to fix it, which causes them to focus on the end result of all-better-ness, and (B) because when they get hurt they will immediately start thinking about how to fix themselves, instead of meditating on how much their knee/arm/elbow/whatever hurts...

...and ethyl chloride never hurts...

mercuricome, ouch!!! I am having a bad flashback to my childhood when Mom put that stuff on all scrapes. Burns like heck. Glad to hear it has a use other than torture.

One of my owie tricks is to down-play the issue and make light of the blood-curdling screaming over what a pathetic injury it is. It's funny how kids get this tunnel vision where suddenly their pinky-toe is the biggest, most important part of their body and they're surely going to die from sheer agony any minute now. Toe injuries are my favorite because I always get a laugh out of "oh no! I'd better call the TOE-TRUCK!" It always feels kind of ridiculous to imagine a 9-1-1 rescue squad moving in for the save over something as silly as a stubbed toe or skinned elbow.

I've also done some funny owie-magic tricks where she had some little sliver of skin bothering her on a finger cuticle (which of course is a horribly big deal when you're three feet tall) and I'd pop her finger in my mouth and bite off that tiniest little piece of skin and suck the itty bitty droplet of blood that appears and then pull her finger out and dry it off an WOW! Amazing! Daddy -actually- kissed my owie and made it better! *Takes a bow* yes, yes, I'll be here all night folks, the next show is at 3!

One of my owie tricks is to down-play the issue and make light of the blood-curdling screaming over what a pathetic injury it is. It's funny how kids get this tunnel vision where suddenly their pinky-toe is the biggest, most important part of their body and they're surely going to die from sheer agony any minute now. Toe injuries are my favorite because I always get a laugh out of "oh no! I'd better call the TOE-TRUCK!" It always feels kind of ridiculous to imagine a 9-1-1 rescue squad moving in for the save over something as silly as a stubbed toe or skinned elbow.

I've also done some funny owie-magic tricks where she had some little sliver of skin bothering her on a finger cuticle (which of course is a horribly big deal when you're three feet tall) and I'd pop her finger in my mouth and bite off that tiniest little piece of skin and suck the itty bitty droplet of blood that appears and then pull her finger out and dry it off and: WOW! Amazing! Daddy -actually- kissed my owie and made it better! *Takes a bow* yes, yes, I'll be here all night folks, the next show is at 3!

Sean...down play is definitely the first most important tool in dealing with owies....if you start this techniques from the very first time they hurt themselves or fall down...owies will be no big deal....