How to Treat a Child's Skinned Knees

Print this article

It's a dreaded but common occurrence when a child comes inside from playing with tears and skinned knees. The sight of this is usually looks worse than it really is. Typically, abrasions received by a child on the playground are not serious. They can be treated effectively with typical supplies on hand in the medicine cabinet. Read on to learn more.

Instructions

Something to clean the abrasion
Antibiotic ointment
Bandages

Suggest Edits

- 1
  
  Calm the child. The child is apt to be very upset after having fallen and gotten all skinned up. In order to effectively inspect your child's knees, you must get them calmed down so they don't fight you when you look at and attempt to treat their knees. During this process, this will also give them confidence in you to fix their knees. This is important because this causes them to be more cooperative and willing to let you touch their injured knees.
- 2
  
  Clean the abrasions. Peroxide is the best chemical to use for this. However, there are many over the counter treatments that both clean and help alleviate pain that are designed for use on children. If only soap and water is available, that will work just as well, too. However, if soap is not available, just water can be used to clean the scrape. It's important to clean off the skinned knees to avoid future risk of infection.
- 3
  
  Inspect the abrasions. Check to see if there is dirt, gravel or any other foreign objects embedded into the scrape. These objects, if present, will need to be cleaned out of the injury.
- 4
  
  Treat the abrasion with antibiotic salve. Spread the salve over the injured area generously.
- 5
  
  Bandage the abrasions. Depending on the size of scrape, your child's skinned knees might be able to be bandaged with typical adhesive-type bandages. However, larger abrasions may need to be covered with larger gauze pads and taped on with medical tape. Covering the injured area is necessary in order to keep it clean.
- 6
  
  Keep the child from picking it. As the scabs form, children are very prone to picking off the scabs, making an even larger sore, often with infection present. When the scab is ready, it will fall off on its own.