Illness, Injury and Medical Advice from the Internet

You are reading a single comment by @t-v and its replies. Click here to read the full conversation.

•

t-v
Can any medics advise on the following. 8 year old burned his arm on a hob on Wednesday evening, and a small blister came up. He was treated in a&e, with the burn cleaned and a burn dressing applied. We visited a&e outpatients this morning for follow up, and the burn was cleaned, with top layer of skin coming off, and a new dressing applied. No signs of infection, and a further appointment set for Monday.

My question (that I forgot to ask at the appointment) is what is the likely healing time? He has a swimming course booked in the holidays that starts a week on Monday (11 days away) and we don't know whether to cancel or rearrange. We are going on holiday in 17 days, by which time I hope it will be definitely healed. Any advice?

1 Attachment

•

skinny in reply to @t-v

My knowledge is open wounds are not to get wet (except to clean with clean water). The healing time will depend on the immune health of the patient.

Call NHS phone line and ask.
•

Gewürzt in reply to @t-v

See if you can get hold of some biafine, absolutely magic for burns. In the UK I think Amazon was the quickest option.
•

Rodolfo in reply to @t-v

Just stick those large waterproof plasters on it if not yet healed.
Alternatively if there's still dressing on, there are these plastic arm bags for people with casts that could be of use?
•

IrPOWERranger in reply to @t-v

I suspect that will not have fully healed by 11 days and a public pool wouldn't be my number one place for a scabby wound.

Is he being offered a Plastics review? When I was on my Plastics rotation it was the hospital policy that all paeds burns were followed up in their clinic - your hospital's policy may be different obviously but worth checking.

It will depend on your risk aversion/level of pragmatism as to whether you want to rearrange the swim course. They may not even allow children with healing wounds?

You can get waterproof dressings and a non-adherent intermediate layer which will stop the scab sticking. Check waterproofness daily and reapply if necessary.

Realistically the answer you'll get over the internet will likely be more cautious or less definitive than one in a F2F clinic, as being unable to assess the patient and healing trajectory is a severely limiting factor (as with all questions in the thread).

Illness, Injury and Medical Advice from the Internet

About

LFGSS