The wonderful magical healing power of kissing your child's hurt better for every little bump and bruise works wonders for calming them down and making their worries go away. However, there are some nasty little situations where kissing something better is the last thing anyone should do. When 
we kiss our children's hurts better, when someone they care about is hurt, many thoughtful children want to be the one to give that healing kiss... which has the potential to be totally disasterous. I'll give some theoretical - but very realistically possible - scenarios, and then I'll give a simple solution to the problem of how we can continue to safely deliver that healing magic and avoid the complications of the situations given.
Scenario 1: Two very young children are playing happily in the back yard. One child is biten by a snake. Of course, it hurts, and the child cries. As Dad notices what has happened and runs over to get the children safely away from the snake and deal with with problem, the other child, who is closer, kisses the sore better - and gets residual snake venom on her lips. Now we have two poisoned children instead of one.
Scenario 2: Mother and child are playing happily in the shallows at the beach. Mum is stung by a a jellyfish. It hurts, and she picks up the child and quickly gets out of the water and runs up the beach. The pain has become so intense that Mum puts the child down and cringes on the sand. The child asks what is wrong and Mum cries that her leg hurts. The child sees the redness and promptly, without warning, kisses the wound better. Mum, unable to concentrate properly from the pain doesn't realise what the child is trying to do until too late. Some jellyfish barbs stick to the child's lips and now the child is screaming in pain as well.
Scenario 3: Two small children at a playground meet for the first time. As children do, they begin playing happily together. One child falls over, skins his knee, and starts to whimper at the sight of the tiny dots of blood seeping to the surface of the graze. The other child kisses his knee better and those tiny dots of blood come into contact with her lips - even though the blood isn't visible on them, and she licks her lips soon after. The blood is then transferred inside her mouth past the small wound where she bit her cheek earlier that day. Unknown to anyone, the young boy is carrying a contageous blood-borne disease (such as HIV or Hepetitis) which he contracted a few months before when he stepped on what he thought was a prickle. Now the little girl has it too, and no one will know unless she starts to show symptoms.
Scenario 4: The other thing to consider is that our mouths carry a lot of bacteria - and kids do tend to put the strangest things in their mouths. Not to mention that many people use lipsticks, balms, creams, etc; on their lips, and what is harmless for one person can be a major allergic reaction for another. Kissing a wound, even when it is harmless to the kisser, can result in causing the wound to become infected.
Solution: When your child gets hurt, instead of giving them a kiss directly on the sore, put a cold damp towel (or other clean fabric such as a t-shirt) and put the towel to the wound, folding it over a few times if possible to create a bit of soft padding. If ice, or something frozen such a packet of vegies, is available, wrap it in the towel first. For wounds where a foreign object is deeply embedded into the wound, carefully wrap the towel in a ring around the object - you don't want to push the object in any further than it already is by putting the towel on top of it. Then kiss the outside of the towel (that is not touching the sore). Your magic kiss will empower the towel to make the sore better - and the beauty of it is - most of the time it actually works!
Now a cold damp towel won't cure all ills, but it is completely suitable for the most common things a child is likely to encounter, and it doesn't hurt much else. It is the best first-aid for cuts and scrapes, bumps and bruises, burns and scolds, and reduces swelling. This even includes the extremes of severe third-degree burns, broken bones, and amputations. It is also good for helping control fevers and heat-related illnesses. As for all kinds of stings and bites, it won't really help most of them, but it doesn't cause any real damage either (except for Redback spider bites - again, it's actually the best thing for it). The only thing it can potentially cause more harm with is frostbite and hypothermia, but chances are, anyone suffering from the effects of extreme cold are not going to let anyone touch them with anything that isn't warmer than they are. Having the towel between your lips and the wound will make the transfer of things like poisons, acids, and diseases unlikely.
If we can use the kiss-a-towel method with our children, they will learn to do the same to others. It is better for wounds, safer for everyone, and just as magical.
(August 2007) (
