Cruel to be Kind
>> Saturday, August 15, 2009
An interesting weekend of injuries in number of the children I know, ranging from my own daughters very deep cut knee and shoulder gravel burns to one friends serious hand burn (receiving hospital care).
Today one of my daughters friends, whilst in my care, also received a gravel burn to her arm. It was big but not too bad, no blood, no tears and she didn't 'appear' to be in too much pain.
I thought it would be best to clean it and put antiseptic on it. Now, I always use Betadine on us, it washes into a cut, stings a bit but leaves it clean.
So I dabbed Betadine onto friends gravel rash... she didn't complain that it hurt but winced a little..I told her to breath deep, ride the pain and it would go off...She proceeded to pass out. EEEEEEEEKKKK
I did all the right things, sat her up gently, water to drink slowly etc etc still no tears. I called her mum immediately of course, and as soon as she saw her mum came the tears and angst.
Now I didn't do anything I haven't done to my daughter a 100 times over. In fact I was nicer - I didn't give the friend the usual "well it serves you right" speech whilst I was patching her up that my daughter would get.
Now I know it's important to get injuries clean to prevent nasties, it's back to cruel to be kind BUT IN THE RIGHT MEASURE.
Immediately after the incident I swore to myself that I would never use anything other than water when giving first aid to any visiting child but another friend sleeping over the next night got a dose of Calpol for throbbing pain in burnt hand*... I am not going to go anywhere near the burn though!
*I had previously spoken to mum about the possibility
4 comments :
It's a difficult issue, what to use on others' childrens, unless you've been given guidance by the parents in advance. My mum had a massive falling out with my sister's best friend's mum at primary school, because she gave her some Rescue Remedy (Bach Flower remedy). Just one drop in a glass of water to calm her down when she had a scrape. And then just washed it with water, because she didn't want to put anything on it that the child might have been allergic to (the mum was not in when she called to check).
The mum went around accusing her of being a drug dealer, because she was pushing weird untested stuff on her daughter.
I can see both points of views, now, of course. I think I might be a bit annoyed about someone giving Rosemary something I knew nothing about, but my instincts when dealing with a child who had herself here, would be to fix it up in the same way I would fix Rosemary up. (Usually, a wipe with a flannel and kiss; ocassionally a plaster; ocassionally some Hypercal, Calendula or Arnica cream - all 'weird' things to some people!)
Sorry though I am for friend 1, I am intrigued by friend 2 with the burnt hand that was potentially anticipated...
Top Ender is a wimp when it comes to being cleaned up, and I too pass out at the slightest injury to myself which freaks out anyone near by!
I'm for friend 1 too! She's a lovely girl and I would never make something so awful happen on purpose.
Friend 2 was already injured before being in my care.
My daughter was patched up by Friend 1's mum as we were together when that scrape happened!
They all need to get back to school for a safer haven!!
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