2nd Skin, Burn Treatment

Mr. Zack is 18 months old and yesterday we went to see the pediatrician.

His development is faster than mine. He’s moving chairs where he wants them to be and climbing on top of stoves, tables, cabinets, dressers, and desks. In my mind, he’s still can’t reach things, like the butcher knife I used to cut the watermelon – and I don’t realize he can reach it until I walk into the kitchen and find him hacking away at the watermelon with a knife. That’s when I freak out about the near miss and say a prayer of thanks that I found him before something terrible happened.

So when he pushed the chair over to the stove while I was stirring the chicken curry I thought it was Ainsley. I was deep in thought and didn’t notice my companion was Zack until he’d already put his arm on the pan. I feel terrible. My only excuse is that my motherly mental development hasn’t caught up with his actual toddler development.

The burn didn’t seem serious, but then he was picking at it. The nursery workers at the gym put some stuff on it and re-bandaged. The band-aids kept coming off so I put some New Skin on it. He shrieked in pain. Then he started trying to pick that stuff off. It was getting slimy. I started worrying about infection. The blister burst and the skin was hanging off. My Grandma had these Spenco 2Nd Skin Moist Burn Pad, Size: Medium, 2 In X 3 In – 4 ea. I put those on and decided to take him to see the doctor. It was time for 18 month vaccinations anyway.

She said I had accidentally happened on the new generation of burn treatment. They are sterile and have a chemical in them that speeds the healing process. You leave them on for about one week without changing the dressing and they transform as the burn heals. They keep the wound moist and prevent infection and act literally like a second skin.

I think I’ll keep a box of these in the medicine cabinet.

By the way, yesterday my daughter turned six. You can read a little love note I wrote for her over at So Sioux Me.