Nursing Advice

Burns, burn care for children

If you/or your child has a burn please cool it down for 20 minutes under cool running water to prevent the burn from becoming a deeper burn injury. Then cover the burn with glad wrap to keep the air off the burn. This will keep the nerve endings moist and help with pain. Then seek medical advice.

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Wounds and skin care

Please do not let wounds dry out and develop a scab on them. A scab means your wound it dehydrated. Wounds heal from moist wound healing, so you must keep your wound covered, so it helps to heal the wound. Cells cannot migrate (move) easily across the wound bed to aid healing if the wound is dry. If a wound takes longer than two weeks to heal, then you/your child is more likely to be left with a scar.

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Eczema Care

If you are having trouble getting your child into the bath it could be that bath water  is causing them pain. Try making up a normal saline bath for your child. This means make the bath water the same saline concentration that our body is made up of and then this way there is no movement of water between the cells that will cause pain. To do this adds 9grams of salt to every 1 litre of water.  It takes a little time at first, but if you put a mark on the bath when you have finished, then you only have to do this once. Wet wrapping is very helpful at night time to help you and your child’s sleep. The team at SOS Nursing can teach you how to do this.

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Constipation

If you child has loose motions or marks in their pants, then you should consider if they are constipated. Sometimes they have a solid mass that is not easy to pass and the liquid escapes from around the sides giving the impression that your child is having diarrhea.