Friday, December 23, 2011

How to remove fiberglass splinters

You'd think that we'd have all these lessons down by child number 3, but the Pixie presented us with a whole new injury today.
We have one of those "Go slow, kids are playing" type turtles that we put out in the cul-de-sac when the kids are playing so the neighbors know they're out there. Said turtle holds a little flag. I didn't know it before today, but the stick that the flag is on is made of fiberglass and has gotten splintery.
The Pixie got a hold of that stick and got herself some fiberglass splinters.
I remember getting them myself as a child, from a friend's mailbox. They hurt, and they're practically invisible so it's not like you can grab them with tweezers and pull them out.
I had no idea what to do for her. She was crying, of course, and I tried pressing packing tape to her hand to pull them out, but that didn't seem to work because she was still crying. I sprayed it with some numbing stuff, put her in a bath, rubbed cream on it, wiped it with a rag... all crying, crying, crying. Poor baby!
So I went hunting online for other ways to get splinters out. I found an eHow article suggesting putting glue on, letting it dry, and peeling it off. But how do you do that when the child in question is only just 3 years old, and is super offended at the horror of hurting hand? John thought to try using the hair dryer to speed things along. Her face was so pitiful, I had to grab the camera.
 
She didn't fight too hard once the glue was on there. It must have been soothing.
 
And it doesn't hurt so much when it's obvious that Daddy loves you very, very much.http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6560294869_d0fda43ee0.jpg 
So she gritted her teeth and dealt with it.
 
And eventually decided to go ahead and have some lunch, until...
 
Success!
She stopped crying, so we must have gotten whatever splinters out. And don't you love how gently those big daddy hands cradle the tiny Pixie hand? He's our hero.

3 comments:

Grumpy said...

Glad you got them all! Beautifully captured!

Unknown said...

Unbelievably helpful and brilliant! Thank you- we used this technique on my five year old son with huge successs. He had grabbed a snow-plow pole that are placed at the end of driveways. Thank you thank you!!!

Maryo said...

You are right on the money with this. I've. used this method for years. My five year old granddaughter loves it. Thanks for putting it out there in this format. Great job.