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ADVICE RATING |
 4.57 (Highly recommend) from 12 votes (832 Visits) |
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pre-first-aid tips for minor boo-boos |
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by lindterbean  (August 2006) (rank 90th) |
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We have often heard people referred to as 'babies' when they express a strong reaction to a little scrape, but if you think about about it, children (and even some adults) of any age could benefit from a little psychological first-aid to keep them calm and level-headed when accidents strike. Of course, keeping yourself calm and level-headed is the first challenge when you see your child plow face-first into the dirt after tripping over his untied shoe-laces or falling off the monkey bars.
A few tips from the family who receives Holiday cards from the staff at the local emergency center:
- Don't panic. Despite how you may feel, maintain a reassuring facial expression, pleasant tone of voice, and measured body movements. These are all panic cues nature has instilled deep within us. If you look or sound worried, anyone around you including the victim will begin to worry too. This will feed on itself until you have everyone quivering and sobbing, and you know this is a great environment to magnify pain.
- Speak slowly and softly. Researchers have found that soothing sounds can reduce the emotional impact of pain.
- Use a dark cloth to wipe away any blood or dirt. Nothing produces hysterics faster than the sight of a little blood. Also dirt can look a lot like blood if you are expecting it to.
- Don't show the patient any medicines or implements you may need to use beforehand. The anitcipation is always worse than the event, and in a hurt child's eyes, every medicine is going to sting and every tool is going to amputate something.
- Warm everything up to body temperature before using. Tuck the tube of Neosporin or the tweezers underneath your leg or in the crook of an arm while you are calming your child down, then by the time you are ready for it it will be all warmed up. This will help avoid any nasty cold shocks that might spur on another round of tears.
- Try to keep your child from looking at the boo-boo. Treat them away from a mirror, tell them they need to lie down so you can get to it more easily, give them a distraction. The more they think about it, the bigger the scrape-up is going to appear to them. And do I have to remind you what comes after that? You got it. . . tears and screams, baby. Tears and screams.
- Kiss it and make it better.
- Before you do anything to the wound itself, gently tap, touch or brush the healthy skin all around it. Do this at least until the child is calmer. This reassures them that they can be touched without their leg falling off.
- Before you wash with soap, wash with no-tears baby shampoo. That you have warmed up a little first, of course. This can often prevent the shock and pain of the intial contact with stinging soap and water.
- Don't underestimate sticky tape. Try this before the needle and tweezers for splinters and the like. If it doesn't work, you can always go back to the scary method.
- Invest in cool looking band-aids or bandages. Tragedy into triumph if you turn a boo-boo into a temporary tattoo or a black eye into a pirate. Arr!
- Be upbeat. Play down the severity. They will be doing their best to amplify things anyway. Make light jokes they will laugh at - not ones about their appearance.
Then if you do end up at the emergency room:
- Be prepared to wait. They usually take patients in order of severity. A dive from a tree could take hours. Plural.
- Help your child regulate their breathing. Counting works great. Have them breathe and count with you: inhale for 1. . . 2, exhale 1. . . 2. this forces them to focus on something other than their fear and is very effective for calming someone down. Any rhythm works. Make it fun. Al-li-ga-tor, croc-co-dile. Mac-n-cheese, pud-din-pops.
- Ask them questions they have to think about to answer. Play a game. Distract distract distract. What do you think Grandma is doing right now? Can you remember how the song goes that starts like this? Tell knock knock jokes. Start every other sentence with "You know what?"
- Rhythmically stroke their hair or their back. The rhythm and the touch are what's important. Just make sure they keep talking to you so they don't fall asleep (especially in case of concussion.)
- Stay with your child as much as possible. Even during testing.
- Explain what's going on terms they can understand. The things we don't understand are what scare us the most. If they are going to get an injection, pinch them first to prepare them for how it feels, and distract them while the doctor or nurses do their thing.
- Shower them with affection. Tell them it's going to be okay. This is the biggest tip of all!
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| ADVICE RATING |
4.57 (Highly recommend) from 12 votes |
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