Removing a splinter from a 2-year-old's hand

[Alex Franke]

Any ideas?

My boy has a nasty splinter on the palm of his hand, and even with both parents we can't keep him calm and still enough to get it out. He has stong hands and I'm afraid that when he making fists to avoid the tweasers, he's just pushing the splinter in deeper.

Any input or advice would be much appreciated!

-Alex

[gad5264]

I know it took some doing but my ex I were able to get one out of my daughters palm while she was sleeping. My ex held the flashlight and I did the digging. If you don't have them try to get a pair of tweezers that lock when you grip onto it. This is what I did and it kept the splinter from slipping out of the tweezers.

[cgallery]

I use a sharpening plate to flatten the mating edges of the tweezers, which improves grabbing power significantly. Of course, they should come like this, but never do.

[offthemark]

It probably wouldn't work with a 2 year old but a few weeks ago we had the same problem with my 4 year old. I finally told him that if he didn't hold still so I could get it out, we'd have to call the doctor to amputate.

Had it out 15 seconds later.

[LCHIEN]

Part of parenting 101.

Maybe i don't remember 2-yo as well as i should but now is a good time to start training him in the facts of life, e.g. a little bravery now and prevention now will save more pain later. Something we all need to learn. You need to impress upon him that it may hurt but will be good for him. Sort of like persuading kids to take medicine. Its a lesson that has to be taught sooner or later.

Try telling him to look the other way. tell him the truth that it may hurt while you take it out but that after its done it'll be much better. Tell him that you love him and that you will try to keep the hurt as small as possible. Show him the splinter (with a magnfying glass) and tell him in straight kid-level terms what will happen if you don't get it out. and that It can hurt much more.

Kids are much smarter than we realize and you need to teach him the pay me now or pay me later logic. You can't overprotect him.

Good luck. If he's too young to absorb this (thinking now that maybe 3 0r 4 is possibly more suitable for my thinking), never mind. My 2 Y.O. are now 21 and 25.

[Mrs. Wallnut]

Have you tried the wood glue trick? Put some wood glue on it and let it dry and then peel the glue away and most of the time the splinter will come with it. I know that I had one that was deep in the tip of my finger and after digging on it for a while I remembered Mark telling me about wood glue. I tried it and it worked.

And other than telling him that he will get some kind of treat after letting you get the splinter out I don't have too much to offer. Our kids were always pretty good about that kind of thing.

Good Luck

[LinuxRandal]

HUMOR, not to be taken seriously

Haven't we all had issues with the little rugrats? Times when they just wouldn't behave?



I am thinking a stun gun should leave him still for a bit!

[pierhogunn]

if it weren't for the obvious illegal nature of this suggestion it would probably work in this somewhat extreme situation, get em drunk. Something sweet, like a cordial bottle of something that ends in schnapps, peach, would work, just dump that in a sippy of orange juice, and wait for said patient to fall asleep.

I've NEVER done this, but I keep this in the back of the folder just incase there is something drastic that I have to do to help my 2yo.

[jon_ramp]

My grandmother used to put drawing salve and a band aide on it before we went to bed. In the morning it was out. I don’t know if you can still buy drawing salve now as it was probably 35-40 years ago when it happened. I remember it looking like and had the consistency of tar.

[frumper64]

I remember the salve jon_ramp is talking about. My father was a machinist and constantly had metal shavings in his hands. He used a salve called "Ithamal ointment" which indeed looked just like tar. It was great at drawing them out. I haven't seen it in years, though, unfortunately.

[gabedad]

Put an ice cream cone in the other hand!

[Alex Franke]

Thanks for all the great suggestions (well, except for the stun gun idea! ). We'll try the wood glue trick -- sounds like that might actually be fun for him. I really like the magnifying glass idea, too, so he can actually see the problem. If that doesn't work we'll probalby try to do it while he's sleeping, even though that could damage his trust in us.

We've had the "a little pain now = less pain later" talk with him, and he now knows words like infected and puss. He even knows that getting and removing splinters is all a part of woodworking (which is something he admires about daddy ). I even thought about going out into the shop and getting myself a splinter so he could see how I remove it, but then (somewhat conveniently, I might add), I had to go to work.

This morning we reasoned very well with him, up to the point where he said, "OK, I'm ready for you to try now." But I think all those little logical conclusions he made just broke down when he knew I was coming in with the tweasers -- even though he was in his mother's arms looking the other way. I think he's at the age where he's just beginning to understand longer-term consequences, but it just hasn't sunk in all the way yet.

I'll keep you posted. Please keep the ideas coming!

Oh, and pierhogunn -- I think I coupld probably use that cocktail more than him. My father used to tell me that he'd spike my OJ with vodka when I couldn't settle down. I guess I turned out okay [twitch, twitch]...

[Jbridge337]

The first time my daughter (about a year or so older than yours) got one I didn't have anything else going on since we were on vacation so time wasn't a factor, but this is what I did. I spent about an hour or more gaining her trust and showing her what I was going to do and that it wouldn't hurt much if any. I did this by using the needle I was going to use to draw dot to dot pictures on the palm of my hand. Basically just lifted little areas of 1st one or two layers of skin to draw dot to dot smiley faces, names, etc. My wife thought I was crazy and wanted to do the hold down and scream technique. There were times where she would start acting up so I just stopped and got her to settle back down. Patience on my part was a huge factor. If I had other things to do it wouldn't have gone so well, but it turned into my mission to get it out without any screaming or crying on either of our parts. After about 1 1/2 hours it was out. Then next time she got one it only took about 30 minutes and the last time about 10.

I just didn't want it to turn into a big screaming fit everytime she got a splinter. The funny thing was when she got her shots for school she was so brave that I didn't even hear a wimper. She did shead a few tears when the third shot was given. I was so proud of her. Took her for ice cream afterwards.

Jim


I did also explain that if she wouldn't let me take it out we would have to take her to the doctor and I didn't know if he would have to give her a shot and he wouldn't be nearly as concerned with not trying to hurt her during the process.

[Stytooner]

Nothing to add about a wooden splinter. I do get steel splinters in my hands now sometimes. I recently thought about all the rare earth magnets I have. When I did get a pesky splinter that was a little too deep to grab easy, I swiped my finger over the magnet and it was out that fast. That was neat I tell ya. Painless too.

[dsellinger]

A bit of a gloat here, but my 2 year old just holds out his hand. And I dig in with a large needle and tweezers. As long as he can see whats going on he is ok just standing there.