Today, I saw a piece of news on a popular microblog: A mother sprinkled salt on the wound of her one-year-old daughter who had just been scalded by boiling water because she heard that saline can diminish inflammation. As a result, the doctor gave her a notice of critical illness.
According to netizens’ comments, when I was a child, my mother sprinkled salt, vinegar, soy sauce, flour, garlic and sesame oil on my scalds. It sounds like garlic mashed white meat instead of treating scalds. There are also people who apply toothpaste and soap, which are all unreliable methods for scalding.
Why can’t salt be sprinkled?
People will say that hospitals often use saline to clean wounds? But the hospital uses 0.9% normal saline, Because the osmotic pressure is equal to the osmotic pressure of human plasma, it will not produce hyperosmotic environment. Moreover, salt water only plays a role in cleaning and cannot be used for disinfection at all. One is that the salt water prepared by oneself cannot meet the concentration requirements, the other is that it cannot meet the sterile requirements. There are impurities in salt and it cannot be used as normal saline at all.
The mother on Weibo, Edible salt is directly sprinkled on the wound surface, Water in the blood permeates from the place of low concentration to the place of high concentration, which will cause dehydration of human tissues. The principle is basically the same as that of bacon at home. In addition, salt will also be absorbed into the blood, causing hypernatremia, and serious cases will also lead to hypovolemic shock. This is also the reason why doctors have given notice of critical illness.
How should scalds be handled?
General scalding treatment principle everyone remember five words: flushing off the bubble cover. Flushing-gently flushing or soaking the scalded part with clean flowing cold water for about 10-30 minutes, cold water can quickly disperse the heat to reduce the damage to deep tissues. Be careful not to use strong water flushing, so as not to cause skin damage.
Take off-If the scalded part is covered with clothes, it should be removed quickly. You can cut clothes with scissors, and never forcibly peel off any clothes to avoid breaking blisters.
Soak-For those with obvious pain, soak in cold water for 10-30 minutes.
Cover-Cover the wound with clean or sterile gauze or cotton cloth. This can reduce external pollution and irritation, help keep the wound clean and relieve pain.
Send-Transfer to a specialized burn hospital specializing in burn treatment for further regular treatment.
How can’t handle burns and blisters?
Blisters mainly depend on the degree of scalding. Generally, scalds are divided into three levels:
The first-degree scald will cause skin redness and burning sensation, which will heal naturally in 3-7 days. After healing, the skin will have short-term pigmentation and then will generally disappear.
Obvious blisters will be seen after secondary burns occur. To avoid breaking blisters, small-area burns can be treated and applied with external drugs under the guidance of doctors.
Third-degree burns will lead to skin ulceration and blackening. At this time, medical treatment is required, including large-area severe second-degree burns. If conditions permit, treatment should be carried out in nearby hospitals and clinics before transfer.
If you still can’t remember the above five-character principle, then remember this sentence:
First, cold water is used to cool down, then infection is prevented, and a doctor is seriously sought.
Again, Do not smear oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, toothpaste, flour, herbs and other things on the wound. Such articles are useless for scalding treatment. It may also cause bacterial infection in wounds, And when the doctor deals with it, The first is to clean the wound surface. These things are smeared on the wound, It will affect the doctor’s judgment and may delay the treatment time seriously. Doctor friends often say that the biggest headache in scalding treatment is to remove these flour and toothpaste. Like the mother in Weibo, because of her lack of common sense and blind belief in folk remedies, she finally led to her child’s critical illness, which everyone does not want to see.