It’s a familiar situation for many parents: Your child is playing in the yard barefoot and comes in complaining that they stepped on something.
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You take a look at their foot. Sure enough, you see a tiny splinter.
Should you grab the tweezers from the medicine cabinet, or take your child to urgent care to have it removed? Or does it even need to be taken out at all?
It’s especially important to have organic material — like a piece of wood or a thorn — removed as soon as possible, as it may become infected more quickly than inorganic material — like metal or glass — says pediatrician W. Kyle Mudd, DO. The splinter should be removed that day if possible, too.
Once you’ve determined that a splinter needs to come out, it’s time to decide if you’re the best person for the job. Most often, you’ll be able to save a trip to the doctor by removing it yourself. But Dr. Mudd suggests leaving it to the pros if:
While getting a splinter can hurt in the moment, there are some alternative ways of removing a splinter with a little less pain.
If the wound is small, pain-free and near the surface of the skin, it may be just a sliver that could eventually come out as the skin sheds. But a deeper, more painful splinter shouldn’t be left in due to the risk of infection. If a splinter is small and isn’t causing any pain or discomfort, it sometimes helps to wait until it rises to the surface of the skin. Then, try removing it with tweezers. Otherwise, be sure to take any necessary steps to remove it as soon as possible.
Regardless of how it’s removed, if your child gets a splinter, it’s important to make sure they’re up to date on their tetanus vaccine, to prevent a rare but possibly serious infection. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children receive their childhood tetanus series, including the DTaP immunizations, at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15 to 18 months and 4 to 6 years old, in addition to a Tdap immunization at 11 to 12 years old. A tetanus booster is required every 10 years after this to help boost waning immunity.
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