9 Must-Know Steps in Giving First Aid To Skin Abrasions

As your baby turns physically lively at play, he is more prone to bodily accidents ranging from skin bruises, grazes, small cuts, deep lacerations, or even bone fractures and dislocations. Small kids may acquire such injuries inadvertently during a fun-filled activity with neighbors and day care friends, while more mature young children can get injuredthroughout sporting activities.

The most typical injury acquired by children is a skin graze or abrasion. The skin is the largest organ of the body that serves as the body's first line of protection. It is soft and can be stretched to enable movement, but strong and resilient to resist breaking. Thus, it is made up of 2 layers: epidermis and dermis. The dermis is the innermost lining of the skin that contains protein fibers, nerves, blood vessels, hair follicles, sebaceous and sweat glands. The epidermis, on the other hand, is the outermost coating of the skin that is made up of a number of layers of firmly bounded cells. This is the layer that is violated or broken in skin abrasions.

Skin abrasions are sometimes referred to as grazes, gravel rash, or carpet burns. It is also known as 'scrape' because the top layers of the skin are scraped off, like when your kid stumbled on his knees and hit a rough surface. Though bleeding is not normally severe, skin abrasions are quite painful. It is advisable that all people, not only parents, who look after children, must know how to do proper first aid management for this kind of skin injury.

1. Clean your hands before starting to deal with the wound to avoid the likelihood of transmitting any infecting microbes to the broken skin. (Infecting the site can lead to delayed healing.)

2. If there is continuous bleeding, just apply pressure to the wound with a clean dressing, or a clean cloth, or a clean tissue paper.

3. Wash the injured area with clean water and soap. Take away any dirt like small rocks and various foreign matter that is embedded in the wound by using sterile gauze to decrease the chance of infection. (If the dirt can not be removed, cover the wound with a sterile dressing and seek professional help.)

4. As soon as the wound is already cleaned, apply antiseptic solution, cream or lotion. (Do not use hydrogen peroxide or one consisting of alcohol.)

5. Cover the wound with sterile non-adherent dressings. Dressings that stick to the wound should be avoided because getting them off is hard.

6. After several hours, a yellow crust will form on the surface of the wound. Do not clear away this as this can serve as a protective layer which will eventually harden. At this time, it is best to leave the wound open to the air and kept dry for faster curing. However, if the kid is most likely to have yet another injury or likely to pick on the crusting, it is best to keep the dressing on.

7. Let the crust (or scab) fall off by themselves.

8. While the wound is curing, it becomes itchier. If the kid could not resist scratching the sore, it is better to carry on covering it with sterile gauze until the wound is fully healed.

9. No matter how little the wound is, it is important to evaluate your child's tetanus immunization status. Bring your child to the doctor without delay if he has not had the full number of tetanus injection, or it's been 5 years or longer since his last tetanus vaccination.

Keep in mind, any breaks on the skin can be an entry site for any micro organism and other infecting germs. Suspect an infected wound if curing does not start in 2 days. Indicators of wound infection include increasing pain, heat, swelling, and redness around the wound, pus oozing out from the wound, enlarged and painful lymph nodes in the groin or armpit, and fever. In this case, you must have your little one see a medical doctor for appropriate analysis and management.

If these simple first aid steps are followed, skin abrasions should heal quickly.

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