Children suffer, off and on, from minor scratches, abrasions, bruises etc. These are usually minor problems and parents are able to deal with them quite competently. If the wound is having dirt, parents should clean it with soap and water and then apply some antiseptic like dettol, betadine, spirit etc. followed by sterile dressing. In dirty wounds, a small risk of contracting tetanus is there and therefore the child should be taken to a doctor, who will give a shot of tetanus toxoid, unless the child has been fully immunised against it.
Sometimes wounds may be big, lacerated or gaping in nature and bleed a lot, causing anxiety in the parent’s minds. Actually it is quite simple to control bleeding. The golden principle is use of pressure. Put clean cotton, handkerchief or any piece of clean cloth over the bleeding source and tightly compress in with your hands. Sometimes the cloth you have put may get soaked right through and blood may start oozing from it also. There is no need to panic. Over the soaked cloth, put another clean cloth and again apply firm and steady pressure over it. Never remove the soaked cloth and replace it with another cloth. Instead go on layering one piece of cloth over the other. Keep the pressure maintained for at least 8-10 minutes before you ease it to see whether the bleeding has stopped; i.e. the soakage of the cloth by blood has decreased appreciably. Even if the bleeding has stopped, don’t remove the cloth covering over the wound. Instead take the patient to the nearest medical centre.
Fractures
The only first aid required is to minimise motion of the fractured parts to lessen the excruciating pain. Splinting the fractured part does this. A splint can be anything which is stiff. Usually the most common material used is a piece of broad wood. The splint should ideally be supporting the joints before and the joint after the fracture, in addition to the fractured site. For example in a suspected fracture of the forearm, the splint should extend beyond the wrist (i.e. the joint before) and the elbow (i.e. the joint after the fractured part). Don’t try to manipulate the bones or ‘straighten’ them or ‘fix’ them. Instead put the splint parallel to the fractured part and the splint together with clothes. For practical purposes, even three handkerchiefs, one each tied around the two ends and one in the middle will suffice. During transport to the hospital take care that the fractured part is kept as motionless as possible and not jostled too much.
And finally as a matter of abundant caution, in any case of a trauma patient while handling the patient, take great care that you don’t extend or flex his neck and the spine i.e. the backbone should not undergo any motion (flexion, extension or rotation). In other words, the patient should be lifted by at least 4 persons in the same state that he was lying on the ground, particularly avoiding any motion of the neck or backbone relative to the rest of the body. Otherwise it can lead to an injury of the spinal cord and result in paralysis.
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