About 2 weeks ago my 6 year old daughter got hurt at camp and needed 3 stitches on her face, which I wrote about in a previous post. I took her to a plastic surgeon who covered the stitches with a steri strip type bandage. He said to ignore it and the stitches will dissolve and the bandage will come off on its own. On the way out of the doctors office, I asked the secretary how long to wait until the bandage falls off and she said about 5-7 days. It's been 2 weeks since then and the bandage is still on. However, a small corner of the bandage looks like it's slowly starting to lift. 2 of my friends told me that the longer the bandage stays on, the better so that the wound stays protected. Anyone have any experience with this? I don't want to make a big deal about it and I'd rather just leave it alone but is it true that the longer it stays on, the better? I'm hesitant to call the doctor because I don't want the bandage removed if it's not necessary.
Leave it on till it falls off on it's own.
Tugging/pulling on new freshly healed fragile skin underneath it will damage it.
Call the doctor! We can only give opinions that are based on personal experience. Our experiences are based on a different situations. Your doctor knows what kind of stitches he used, the depth of the cut, and other factors related to his choices for your daughter.
We aren't plastic surgeons. Please call their office and tell them what's going on. I would never have left a bandage on for 2 weeks when it was supposed to come off in 5-7 days unless the doctor specifically told me to. That bandage could be dirty now and introduce germs into the wound.
I don't know if the longer it stays on matters but removing it does. I think my son's was to the point where a tiny corner was still attached, I did remove it then but if it isn't to falling off status, leave it alone.
You want that skin to heal as undisturbed as possible. Tugging on it, messing with it, will make it scar more than leaving it alone.
My son is 28 now, had five stitches, he fell into a pool and hit his head on the side on the way in when he was about 10. Even knowing exactly where he hit you cannot see a scar at all.
Leave it alone!
I would call the doc - you want to be sure that the stitches have dissolved. If they haven't, skin can start to grow over them and then it's a bit painful to have them removed.
Leave it on and let it fall off on it's own. I'm guessing that since it's her face, it's not getting wet as if it were on another part of her body. So it's taking a while to fall off. But call just to be sure.
I was always told to leave steristrips on until they fell off on their own. Even after they start to look grungy and lift at the corners, leave them until they fall off.
When they started to lift, I would actually trim off the lifted end with nail scissors so that I didn't have a flapping piece of strip hanging off, because it annoyed me. You might do that if she starts to fuss with the lifting corner. Just be careful not to poke or pull at all on the part that is still stuck to her skin when you do it.
Leave it. We had a similar experience. It took significantly longer to come off than we were told. Good luck.
I have to agree with the moms who suggest calling your doctor.
One of my kids just got stitches this past weekend - a deep wide gash in knee. Her stitches (regular kind) come out day 10.
How long did they say till stitches dissolve i.e. wound has healed? Will they be checking? If you're going in soon, I'd just wait and let them tell you then. If not, then just give them a call.
ETA: Just back from seeing our doctor - we were there and asked her to check out our stitches. She said joint (like knee) is 10-14. She said a face is usually healed within 5 days. So I'd definitely call. You might have her bandaged up for no reason at this point.
my dd had surgery when she was 11 months old, surgeon said to leave the bandage on and that she would see us in 2 weeks. after the 2 weeks she removed the bandage. so leave it on like the dr said and all should be good
why haven't you called the doctor's office back that put the bandage on? that would be the thing I would do.
Unless your two friends are doctors why would you take their advice on something so precious as your child's skin and healing and care?
SMH :-(
