Hey, I just wanna share my advice to every mama here. If your child fell and a bruise or bump appears, immediately boil an egg (not fully cooked) and take a soft cloth and wrap it around the egg. Place the egg over the bruise until the heat of the egg goes away. The best time to do this is put your child to sleep or a short nap by your lap and just put the egg over the injury. This reduces the appearance of the bruise and bump and its soothing for the child. All those cold ice packs and heat packs are non-sense and makes things worse.
Heat brings blood to the surface causing more swelling which would make a bump or bruise worse, not better. Coldness/ice reduces swelling and bruising. Same reason you ice an injury asap. Wrap an ice cube in a cloth instead. :wink:
Neither works for all kids. Jenna is proof.
ARNICA!!! ARNICA!! Gell or Cream, ARINCA
I use this on myself and the boys brusies, it works great, and
no shady side affects. You can find it at health food stores, and
even some common drug stores.
Isnt' there a "rule" you ice for 24-48 hours, then use heat?
I forget, someone jog my memory.
ames
I was gonna post something cos Kailey is getting so bruised up from crawling and pulling up on things that it's starting to look pretty bad. I just don't wanna take her to the Dr. next week for her check-up and them start assuming things (as they would w/a white, low income, SAHM w/her child on med-cal). Her legs look like over-ripe bananas right now :) But that doesn't stop her!!
Yeah, ice only for at least the first 24 hours. You can use heat and ice after 24 hours.
Oh, I should've taken into account that Jenna has a clotting disorder. We don't know WHAT yet, but we know something isn't right. It's scary and stressful.
Angel Wings...has she been tested for ITP (ideopathic throbocytopenia purpua)? I had that when I was about 2..its a clotting disorder, not enough platelets. A few cortosone injections fixed it in a few weeks. I hope you figure out what wrong soon! That must be so scary! good luck,
Kristina
Where can you get arnica? I want some!!! Isn't arnica made from marigold flowers and really natural?
yup it is marigold flowers... you can get the gell or cream at any health food store, or some common drug store (whole foods has it)
ames
Don't use Arnica if there is a cut. Ouch! Your babe will be clear that it's stinging but it also prevents the cuts from healing which can aggravate it into infection.
We use St. John's Wart oil because it works just as efficiently as Arnica AND you can use it if there are scrapes with the bruises.
If you still prefer Arnica and you're in a clean park/front/back yard and have water available for cleaning the scrapes,pop the flower head off the Dandelion and let the milky juice drip over the cut and bruises. Apply the Arnica when the cut has healed.
**I'm not a Doc or an herbalist but I've been studying herbal remedies for 15 years now. Some day I'll get enough funds together to consider myself amongst the ranks of the wonderful healers that have been advising and teaching me all of these years ;)