If your child were scratched on the face with a rusty nail, how would you clean it? Would you use hydrogen peroxide, mercurochrome, or rubbing alcohol? Those familiar products are what my mom used. But, did you know that they could harm the tissue and slow healing? I didn’t until I looked up how to clean a wound on WebMD. Apparently, the best way is to flush the wound with water for five minutes and clean it with a mild dish washing soap.

I know all of this because my son recently was the victim of a rusty nail and Oliver*, my son’s 18-month old playmate. I guess Oliver wanted to show my son his interesting find and ended up scratching him down the left side of his cheek. Normally there aren’t rusty nails in our yard, but we just had a new roof put on and it seems that the roof guys didn’t clean the yard before they collected their check. Thanks roof guys.

*name has been changed to protect the identity of the nail wielding toddler

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