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Apparently quite a bit if it is a sliver in my son Jackson.
Tonight, (Thursday night – I am now posting in the wee hours of Friday morning) Jackson fessed up that he had a sliver in his foot. He showed it to me saying, “I hid it all day because I didn’t want someone to get the tweezers.”
But get the tweezers I did! I mean what else is a mother to do?
First I applied some topical anesthetic that I had left over from when Jackson had to have some blood drawn. After waiting a bit (not long enough, but it was already way past bedtime) I started the “surgery.” The main part of the sliver was large and easily came out. No pain. No screaming. A dream.
But, there was more in there. And this broken off tiny piece was deeply embedded.
And so the screaming began.
But don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t because I was actually digging around in his foot. No, Jackson would barely let me touch the skin let alone get near the sliver. With one touch of the cool tweezers against his foot, he screamed at top volume. (And let me tell you, my son has the highest pitch, most ear piercing scream you have ever heard. I am not exaggerating. I have taken a survey.) 😉
This insanity went on for over a half an hour. By then my husband Phil was involved too – but there was nothing we could do. We even resorted to Phil holding his arms while I attempted to get near the foot. All we got was a headache and I got kicked. And I am sure the neighbors were considering placing a call to social services as my son screamed, “You are killing me! I am dying!” (Let me reiterate – that all of that screaming happened with no actual tweezing really happening. Pretty much the thought of us going near his foot caused all the chaos.)
So – the sliver is still in there. We are going to camp on Saturday and I am worried about it getting infected and really sore. But what am I supposed to do…
I figure my only option is to take him up to the clinic and see what the doctor says. Maybe I should bring us all earplugs…
What are your kids like for slivers and other such procedures? What do you do for slivers that just will not come out? Do you leave them in there?
(I honestly cannot imagine what my son would do if he had a “real” medical problem. If this what a sliver does to him – oh my word – let’s hope he stays healthy.)
Karen Leonard says
Hi There … This happened to my 1 year old last evening (crawling along the deck and now his feet are full of slivers). If I gave him a warm bath today; would the slivers still work themselves out eventually? We didn’t give him one last night because we didn’t want to hurt the poor guy anymore.
Please help! 🙂
DANB says
INSTEAD OF USING A TWEEZER, USE A NAIL CLIPPER. THEN THE CHILD WILL THINK THAT YOU ARE JUST GOING TO CUT THEIR TOE NAILS. ALSO BY USING A NAIL CLIPPER, YOU CAN PUSH THE SKIN AROUND THE SLIVER DOWN AND THEN GRAB IT GENTLY TO PULL IT OUT.
Wendy says
Nice to know my two boys aren’t the only ones that scream at the top of their lungs when I’m trying to remove a sliver! My 9 year old actually starts screaming bloody murder as soon as I lay a hand on his foot…doesn’t even have to be near the sliver OR have the tweezers in it.
And geee, once it’s all over and they realize it was nothing to scream about, they’re all brave. You’d think they’d remember it’s no big deal the NEXT time they get one!
melody is Slurping Life says
I don’t think there is a good or bad, right or wrong way. I have left them in before, but it ended up really ugly and a trip to the doctor and shots and…I now use tweezers, sterilized needles, whatever it takes to remove them. Oh, and I bribe the boys for controlling the dramatics, wriggling and screaming. 🙂 I’m not pruud, but if a bribe works…
Lauren says
My toddler is this way about getting her nails trimmed. It’s a two-person ordeal.
Stacy says
Oh, I so understand what you have endured. My son, who will soon be 10, is this way about splinters and loose teeth. These events always turn out to be traumatic even though there is no need for it. I just pray he will soon outgrow this. Right now, when it comes to needing another tooth pulled because it is so loose it will just fall out, I have told him he is on his own. You see, he always tells me it’s time to pull it but then won’t let me do it. Nothing I say helps him or makes him feel like he needs to follow the instruction I give him. He won’t let his dad come near it either. He is only this way with splinters and teeth. In every other area he is loving, compassionate, obedient and desires to please us as his parents. So, we are leaving him to manage the situation from now on and will only intervene if it becomes absolutely necessary. Maybe once he sees he can manage the situation he will overcome this fear.
Trina says
I’m a bit late on this one but I have something that always worked for us when we were kids and now I use this and it still works. Get yourself some bacon fat…I know sounds gross but get a good fatty piece….It doesn’t have to be big only big enough to cover the spot. Slap it on there and cover with a band-aid and send him on to bed. Almost always by the next day when you remove the bandaid, the little splinter/sliver will be lying on the bacon fat. Somehow it draws it out. I do remember occasions when the splinter was big piece or embedded deeply that it would take a few days of repeating this process at bedtime to get it to surface. Regardless it always worked!
Good luck! :0)
Trina
Sarah S. says
My child, actually, behaves exactly like yours. Well, only one of them does — and it’s the one who ALWAYS gets the splinters! My theory/ advice would be to try the warm water soaking suggestions, then just leave it and keep an eye on it. It will either work its way out, or get red and let you know that it’s going to need some help coming out!
MommaBlogger says
Hehe, reverse psychology works well around here too. Although, we tend to go for noisy tools, like drills and saws. That usually works immediately, along with a silly grin. They almost always calm down after that.
Comfy Denim says
Our then 2year old crawled on some wood and ended up with teensy splinters in his legs and stomach. From crawling. The pediatrician got those that he could get out – but there was much screaming.
The advice of the Doctor?? Leave it alone. They’ll eventually come out on their own. Because there were so many, he gave us a prescription for an ointment to keep infections away – but pretty much we left them alone and he is wood free.
So maybe that helps?
As for getting wood out of the others… it depends on the child. And the parent. My hubby is forever asking them if he can use his pocket knife. So after that, my tweezers look like a good option.
MommaBlogger says
Oh my, that is funny. He’s dying? Too cute.
My 2.5 year old had a pretty big sliver in his foot that had gotten pretty wet after it had been in there a while. It didn’t seem to bother him, so I didn’t notice it for a while. I got out as much as I could, and left what I couldn’t get. It was in a calloused part of his foot, so it basically just grew out.
For the most part, if you get what you can, and cover it with a bandaid treated with triple antibiotic ointment, you’re not likely to have to worry about infection unless it was a really bad piece of wood. Most of the time, it seems to be fine.
P.s. When my now 4 year old son was 2, he split his chin open. When we went to get the stitches out a week later, it took three of us to hold him down, while he was screaming “I don’t like you anymore!” It was so funny at the time, I had a difficult time holding his feet down. The nurses were having a hard time keeping a straight face, too. 🙂
e-Mom says
Oh, ow. I could barely read your story. I’m such a wimp with medical things–even slivers. Poor Jackson! Poor boy! :~)
Catching upwith your blog tonight, and I’m thrilled you’re both having girls. Woohoo! Again, though, poor Jackson. (What shall we do for that boy?) The ulta-sound photo of the baby’s face is totally unreal. Hugs all round!!!
Faerylandmom says
I have yet to have to wrestle/sit on my kids to do the sliver thing. However, the only slivers I’ve dealt with are deep ones beyond the reach of tweezers…I had to use a needle. How? Very very gently, with a lot of hot compress action.
Something about hot water really softens skin and makes things like this ever-so-much easier. Bribes don’t hurt in this case either. Dum-dums to the rescue!
jen says
LOL sounds like Billy
suppose you will have to see the doctor
hope he has more luck
Kathy Gillen says
When my son was 6 he got a 1 1/2 inch splinter in the bottom of his foot. An inch of it pulled out immediately and then the rest broke off. You would have thought we were trying to amputate. Needless to say, my husband and I ran several covert missions after he was sound asleep. It took about five days to work its way out enough for our unsteady, flashlight-lit hands to pull it out. Now, five years later he still has very vivid memories of the splinter…or sliver…I never knew there were regional differences for tiny specks of wood??
onemotherslove says
As if you haven’t already gotten enough advise… VICKS VAPO RUB!!! Slather it over the area where the splinter is embedded & cover it with a band-aid. The Vapo Rub will draw it to the surface! (not instantly, may take a day or more) This method worked on my leg when I had a little twig stuck in there that I didn’t want to dig out. I can’t remember who told me about it, but it worked.
Robin says
My boys are TOTALLY like that. This past weekend I had a sliver in my pinky toe and I couldn’t get out. I asked my hubby to get it, and he jokingly asked if I was going to scream and kick him in the face!!!
MorningSong says
My daughter recently had a ‘sliver’ and we too experienced the BEGGING for her life when all I did was firmly grab her foot so I could see the splinter!! When the tweezers moved towards her foot the volume elevated!! I did leave a tiny piece in her foot and watched it closely for a few days to be sure it didn’t get infected. I put neosporin and tried to keep a bandaid on it. My daughter thinks band-aids are the healing balm of gilead!
I too heard Dr Oz on Oprah say it will be ok if you do not get it all out (if it isn’t infected). I bet the warm bath would help too!! I also like the ice trick mentioned above – I WILL be trying that in the future!
Callista says
Hubby just removed a sliver from our 18 month old last week. She never made a peep. However it was easy to get out and didn’t need tweezers or needle. I do remember hating my parents taking them out of me though, although I didn’t scream my head off (like I did with eye drops.)
If it’s not showing signs of infection, leave it be. As some have mentioned, water will help get it out. My parents use to use this cream on me too if they couldn’t get the sliver out that was supposed to help draw it out. Don’t know the name of it but it said it was a “drawing salve.” It did work most of the time. (Then again it may have just come out anyways without the salve.)
Ramie says
Soak his foot….bath time, in the pool, in a bowl or bucket of water…doesn’t matter the source……just keep it moist for a little while and it’ll come out! Good luck!
Look, Mom, Look! says
I am not sure how deep it is but you can always put scotch tape on it if you can see a little of it sticking out. Be sure the sliver gets some “stick” to the tape and then peel the tape off. Tada! The sliver should come out. Of course, my 3 1/2 yr old son just had a deep sliver where the tape trick couldn’t work and he cried and screamed when I tried a tweezers. I ended up using a nail clipper to tweeze it out because he was more comfortable with that tool. He loves to get his nails clipped. Strange, I know, but it worked.
kailani says
Once my daughter had a splinter in her toe. She just refused to stay still long enough to get it out. Eventually, it came out by itself. It wasn’t very deep, though, so I wasn’t worried about infection.
Just last week I had a small piece of wood in my finger. I went home and had my Mom take it out for me!
If Jackson’s one is really deep, then maybe you should take him to the doctor.
Brillig says
Funny! I just went through a similar thing with my five year old daughter. I could NOT get the last little bit out, and oh how she wailed and screamed! It happened during a family reunion so I had all of my in-laws looking on as I tortured the poor dear. But I just couldn’t get it. So I took her to the doctor at the Urgent Care facility (because it was a Sunday, natch) and spent approximately what it would cost to sell my kidney on the black market to have the doctor coax the last bit of wood out. Sigh. At least they got it out, right?
Ginny says
Oops, that is what I get for reading two of your posts at one time, lol
Ginny says
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Carrie says
I just found your blog! Very cool!
As far as slivers go, my oldest, now 9, is THE biggest baby about splinters or anything that involves the use of tweezers. Always has been. We left a few in there depending on the size and a few we had to get out. But it took so long due to his fighting. Now days he insists on getting these things out himself. And I let him!
Jenn in AZ says
My husband says, “Just leave it alone–it will fester its way out.” Yeah, great mental image there! 🙂 Truly, it works, though. As others have said, keep it clean and it will work its way out. Sometimes it swells a bit and you can squeeze it out in a couple of days–not terribly infected–once it is out, there is no swelling or problems and usually no pain when it comes out and not much beforehand.
I remember my son being the same way. I remember my dad coming at me with a sterilized needle to DIG them out. Ugh! “Just hold on, hon. Almost…have…it…just have to move the needle a…little…more.” Yeah, digging was right!
T with Honey says
Pour some Hydrogen Peroxide over the spot. Usually the smaller pieces will bubble closer to the surface or come all the way out. Then try following with the warm bath/foot soak.
Dawn says
I am a nurse and here is what I would do. Put him in the bathtub and let him soak it in some warm water. It will soften the skin enough so that you can get it out. I have a 13 year old who still does the same thing. I wish I could be encouraging that they do in fact grow out of it. It does get better but not much.
summershine says
Thanks for the laugh! I haven’t had to pull the tweezers out for my kids yet. But I remember screaming as a young kid whenever my dad pulled them out. Yep, most of the screaming happened before they even touched me.
Karen says
My 7-year-old is the same way – we’re killing him before I even have the tweezers in hand. Often if I can get him to look away (read a book, look out the window, make faces in the mirror), I can remove the splinter/sliver successfully. However, if I meet with failure, I just leave it. I’ve always heard that things will work themselves out.
I can recall leaving a small piece of a splinter in (not for lack of trying to remove it, mind you), and we decided just to keep an eye on it to make sure it didn’t get infected. Sure enough, about a week or so later, it surfaced and we were able to easily remove it!
Janne says
Oh my! I have one child (he’s 12 now), who we used to jokingly call Tweezer-Boy, because every time we brought out the tweezers, he would scream like that – without the tweezers ever making contact with him. LOL
I have always been of the mindset that it needs to come out, to keep from getting infected, but my husband ended up getting some slivers of ceramic tile embedded in his finger over a year ago, and it has managed to slowly work its way out — a little at a time. The body has an amazing way of working foreign objects up to the surface I guess.
If it were me, I think I would put antibiotic ointment on it for several days and not mess with it again *unless* it shows signs of infection.
But rest assured, he will grow out of this stage. My child like this is still my over-dramatic one, but he doesn’t quite react THAT way anymore (not to tweezers, anyway) 😉
Ruth :) says
Ohhh .. I’m so sorry .. but a I’m so glad I’m not the only one in this boat when it comes to situations like this!!!
Slivers have a way of working themselves up or out with time – keep the area clean and covered – and even let him soak his foot in warm water for a bit – that has helped ease a sliver out of Lexi’s foot in the past too.
Good luck – and enjoy camp!!!
Ruth 🙂
Adventures In Babywearing says
Oh gosh! You know, though, the body is amazing and will just push it out on its own! I saw Dr. Oz say that on Oprah once, too! He said it about ticks, too! Just pull a tick out and if part of it gets stuck inside, that is not the “bad part” anyway, and the body will naturally push it out over time…
Steph
Dawn says
LOL *I* left one in my foot because it hurt so bad to try to take it out, and yeah, it got infected and yucky. I hold ice over whatever I’m doing to my kid so that they can’t feel anything but the cold 🙂
and I remind them the rest of the time about wearing shoes lol
Karen says
My son who will be 5 in August is the same way…all drama. I would do as the others have suggested and stick him in the tub – it will work its way out within a week or so.
Twisted Cinderella says
trying to get a sliver out of Princess’s foot is an ordeal. She kicks and screams like I am trying to murder her. It usually takes the two of us to get it done with me holding her foot under one arm and turning my back to her to get it done. And that is the easy ones where the sliver is sticking out!
Amber says
Don’t worry, just when he takes a bath it’ll come out…sometimes it takes a day or two, but he’ll be A-OK!! and I’ve got 5 boys who will back me up, well 4, my 2mos. old hasn’t gotten one yet.
When I do get the tweezers out, I have a lollipop or something sweet to follow along…sometimes…depending on how bad it is, but if he’s already gone a day with it the bath should do the trick.
God Bless,
Amber
Carrie says
I’ve heard that you can use Elmer’s glue if the sliver is visible. Spread it on, let it dry, then peel it off…. Haven’t tried it, though! 🙂 Elmer’s is nontoxic.
Jennifer, Snapshot says
I can help you!!! One time when my daughter was a crawler, she got all these splinters on her legs from a deck. Someone suggested soaking her in a hot bath, and it worked. Most of them just came right out. So try that, and if it’s still there, it might come out more easily.
(By the way, my daughter carries on sometimes that way when I’m brushing out her hair after a shower, and she’s almost nine!)
Melissa says
That is too funny because my son, who is 6, is the same way! I can totally relate to the headache. The other day he did have another sliver in his finger that was deep so I just kept putting ointment on it and it finally did come out by itself without any infection or soreness. Maybe Jackson (and you) will get lucky and it will do it on its own. Give lots of baths because the water will soften the skin and usually it slides right out. Good luck!! I am off to sand all the wood around the house because just listening to your story makes me nervous about happening to me!!
Mel