Homemade Bandages
 

I guess it started when I worked in construction. When I would cut my hand, I’d just cover it with a bit of napkin and wrap it in duct tape. I found it was much more effective and durable than a band-aid. Not to mention cheaper, and quicker than going to find a band-aid.

I realize that sometimes you need a band-aid, quick! Like when a kid gets hurt, and is crying. But when it comes to dressing one of my own wounds (even a small one) I prefer to cut a piece of gauze, cut strips of medical tape, and build a custom-sized bandage.

Do you build your own bandages; and if so, what special techniques etc. do you use?

Depends on the size of the wound. Only do-it-myself if the size or position warrants innovation.

Besides, I have a large collection of Hello Kitty and other character Band Aids.

weirdo

:wstupid: x 2 for me and Dazza. :)

I've improvised my own bandages many times, but it always involves cutting or shaping existing bandaids. Like when I hurt the tip of my finger, which I often do: you take a normal bandaid, and make a cut halfway down the length of each sticky part. Then when you fold the pad over the tip of your finger you can take the two little legs you've created and swing them to wrap around your finger. It stays on, and you don't have to waste a second bandaid just to hold the first one on. Or sometimes I'll cut off one sticky part entirely and stick it along the short side, so the resulting bandaid is V-shaped. Perfect for in-between-the-fingers cuts.

another weirdo

Band-aids are for sissies. Real men are happy to bleed.


(So, I use band-aids, then).

Clod is ready for the coming economic armageddon.

During one of the many first aid/CPR courses I've endured I picked up this little gem for stopping serious bleeding: maxi pads. Designed to soak up huge amounts of blood? Check. OK let's roll!

For lesser cuts? That's why they invented super glue. (true fact)

It only works for really sharp superficial clean cuts like a superficial knife or paper cut. Doesnt really work for deeper stuff and not safe for cuts that get dirt in it. We started to use superglue in the field about 3 years before it hit the market in the public medical sector, superglue gel works the best. You do have to reapply it every day or so. Now they sell it to hospitals for single use only at about $100 a pop. Dude who thought that up is making a pretty penny.

Yeah, agreed. That's why I said lesser cuts. I figured I'd cover the two extremes: Paper cuts and "messes"

They glued me after my last c-section, because I had an allergic reaction to the SteriStrips (adhesive tape) they used the first time. It was awesome, everything healed up much faster and cleaner. But I always imagined the medical glue was somehow more magical than your basic consumer superglue. You're saying it's the exact same stuff?

Tampons for nosebleeds. Cut the string off, though, because you'll look stupid otherwise.

Superglue was invented so construction workers could hang from girders by their hard hats. Everybody knows that.

The medical use was an afterthought.

I remember when the ERs started using "dermabond." Up until that point the appearnce of superglue in the ER was confined to the need to unsuperglue unfaithful husbands' dicks from their legs.

Yep. Well, there is a difference. It's like the difference between tea and zen tea. The tea will cost you around a buck. The zen tea will cost you $50, but the enlightenment is thrown in.

And that little packet of the stuff that the ER squeezes out onto your head or whereever started out sterile.

homemade bandages are no good unless they're torn in strips from a fallen rose's petticoats

and I wish I could find bandages (aka plasters) that the adhesive doesn't make me break out in a red rash immediately. The rash marks last longer than the owies!

Is it the adhesive or the latex?

the only difference is the price and the hoops that company X went through to get it into the OR for an inflated profit.

it's the adhesive

Depends what you are using a plaster for. If it's just to staunch the blood until a scab forms then I suppose anything will do. I'm a big believer in moist wound healing, and have plasters to this effect (hydrocolloid dressings). Then again, the nastiest owies I get tend to be what moist wound healing deals with - bits of missing skin. Burns and grazes are my usual injuries.

Okay, my burn plaster didn't do too well with the last one, but I took it off far too soon. The only icky thing about having a wet healing plaster on a graze is being able to see the open wound underneath (they are mostly transparent). Still, it's good for sympathy/ grossing people out :)

Question is, Flint - would you duct tape a bit of material to your kid's leg if they took the skin off their kneecap while running? I'd like to hope not. Some dressings help prevent scars after all.

but only the physical ones

Aye, there's the rub.

@SG: Please, at least, skim through the original post before tail-posting. I'm sorry that your parents didn't put a band-aid on your damn knee and scarred you for life. Quit trying to take it out on the rest of us.

Sorry for forgetting 5 words after reading 2 pages of posts.

However note that I asked a question in a polite manner.
That's what well brought up children do when they become adults.
Carry on taking offence if it eases the hurt inside you though.

Yeah, keep giving your awesome parenting advice.

I just can't understand why you'd get so worked up about an off the cuff comment.
I also don't understand your definition of tail posting - I always understood it to mean posting one comment after another.

And how is simply saying, "I'd like to hope not" in any way insulting to you, or even pretending to be "awesome parenting advice"? Okay, it's obvious I hadn't read or (as the case is) hadn't retained the information you wrote in your first post. But why the vitriol? I didn't post, "OMG, Flint is a bad parent, call Social Services!!!"

It was a valid post about why I would use a shop-bought product rather than making my own. I even qualified it by stating that my injuries are well suited to the products I buy.

The majority of my post was my personal experience as an adult as regards bandages/ plasters, and in no way referenced you. The second post was a quote from Hamlet's soliloquy and was meant in good humour - if anything it referred to my own upbringing as I escaped without physical scars, but I'm not sure I can say otherwise.

type too much = you lose

I lose = okay.
I was trying to understand is all.

It's not a competition.

Tampons were invented for nosebleeds -the menstrual use was an afterthought. These days they go for inflatable tampons for nosebleeds in the ER. One size fits all. it's meant to apply pressure directly to the spot rather than soak it up. i have too much recent experience in this field and all i can say is next time I'll choose bleeding to death.

nappies/Diapers also work for big bleeders, plus they are shaped and taped in a way that makes them easy to apply and get to stay in place no matter where the wound is. A must in any emergenct first aid kit -newborn size is perfect.

tail posting is joining in a topic at the end without (properly) reading what went on before... not really the case here

Bandaids require blood in our household

I'm allergic to latex and the adhesive, cloud. I find the cheap "water resistant' "breathable" ones have an adhesive I can tolerate for a few hours. they don't stick much longer than that... Often with allergies, I find the allergen is one of the products they leave out in cheaper versions (contrary to what they'd like you to believe)

Is.