One of our country’s greatest pleasures is to enjoy a hot summer’s day swimming with our kids at the beach. Unfortunately, there are a few hidden dangers lurking in the water that can spoil your fun, particularly for your children. One of the more common dangers is a sting from a Jellyfish.

The most harmful stings are those from tropical Jellyfish such as the Box Jellyfish, but a sting from the cold water Bluebottle can also be painful.

This article is NOT intended to cover treatment of severe Jellyfish stings such as that of the Box Jellyfish. They will require immediate medical attention and anti-venom.

Every time your child swims in the ocean, they’re at risk of being stung. After all, humans are the aliens in this natural environment, though a jellyfish doesn’t ‘attack’ to protect itself. It simply floats around and its tentacles will sting in defense when they touch something.

Treatment for Jellyfish stings

• First, get your child out of the water (remember the ‘D’ in D.R.A.B.C.). Where there is one jellyfish there is usually a swarm.
• Make sure you stay calm, and try to keep your child calm, too. Moving around a lot will make the pain worse as it encourages more venom to flow from the tentacles.
• Next, pour vinegar over the tentacles. This helps to deaden them and calm the effect of the sting.
• Remove any tentacles but be careful. If possible use a stick or thick rubber gloves to do this.
• If you don’t have vinegar to hand, then rinse with salt water. NEVER rinse with fresh water, as this will activate the stingers on the tentacles and increase any symptoms.
• Watch out for allergic reactions and anaphylaxis. If you see any of the symptoms associated with this, carry out the necessary first aid and call for an ambulance immediately.

Finally, for Bluebottle stings place the stung area of the body in the hottest water possible, and if the pain doesn’t subside then use cold packs.

IMPORTANT: Test the temperature of the water yourself to make sure it is not too hot.  The victim may not be able to feel the heat of the water due to the sting which could lead to a severe burn.

Remember, non-tropical Jellyfish stings are a common occurrence in many parts of Australia. Our lifeguards and lifesavers are there to help. They’ll always have vinegar on hand and will be able to let you know if further medical attention is required. Don’t be afraid to ask for their help.

If there are three things that are certain in life they are death, taxes, and grazes on children’s knees and elbows. Whether out riding their bikes, playing football, or simply at the local park, your child is bound to get the odd graze or two. Children fall over.

The good thing about grazes is that they are easy to cope with. The bad thing is that they can be painful and become infected. They also scab over and create a temptation for children to ‘pick’, which can cause further bleeding, scabbing, and scarring.

Steps to the treatment of a graze

• Clean the graze with warm water. There will probably be dirt particles in the abrasions which can be easily removed with the gentle use of a soft cloth or flannel. Be warned – little ones probably won’t like this part! But it’s a necessary evil.
• Once the wound is clean, dry it with a piece of lint or other clean dry cloth that won’t leave fibres stuck to the wound.
• Use an antiseptic cream or lotion on the wound to sterilise the area.
• Cover with a light non-stick dressing. You might also want to put a dab or two of wound healing gel on the graze.
• If the dressing becomes wet then you’ll need to change it. Don’t tell your child this – it will simply be an excuse to miss bath time!

Dealing with an infected graze

If a graze is infected, it may become filled with puss and the area will swell and redden. An infection like this could lead to the child suffering a fever, perhaps with symptoms similar to flu. The grazed area might be warm to the touch and become more painful. If these symptoms do appear, you should seek advice from your doctor who will probably prescribe antibiotics.

Finally, be careful of sticking bed sheets – dressings fall off in bed and the sheets will stick to a wet graze as it dries. That’s going to be painful when child gets up for school in the morning.

A laceration is a split of the skin caused by an impact of some sort.

It’s a bit different to the everyday cuts and grazes that we as parents can sometimes become accustom to seeing (well, those of us with adventurous little boys at least!).

With cuts and grazes the injury is caused by a sharp or rough object, but because a laceration is caused by force and not the object itself, they can be caused by about anything.

Children fall off bikes, walk into tables, and trip over their own shoelaces. They run, jump, and play. And they fall over. Then the blood flows, and never seems to want to stop.

Some of the worst bleeding can be from lacerations to the head, because the head receives so much blood in the first place.

Fortunately, children are built pretty tough and have thick skulls as if they were made for the occasional tumble. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be checked out by professional in the event of a head injury, but the immediate concern has to be the bleeding and how to stop it.

How to treat a minor laceration

Even when the blood is flowing in what seem to be gallons, the likelihood is that the wound is small. The secret to stopping bleeding is to apply pressure directly to the wound. Use a dry, clean cloth to do so. In the home a tea towel will work perfectly. Elsewhere use a t-shirt, or scarf, or something similar.

Apply the pressure for 5 minutes, and if the laceration is to the arm or leg, elevate the bleeding limb above the heart while pressure is applied; this will help to slow the flow of blood.

After removing the pressure, the bleeding should have slowed to a trickle or stopped altogether. Now you can inspect the wound properly.

If it’s a small wound, clean with water (saline if possible) and then use a little antiseptic before covering with a band aid or small bandage (your child will love the ‘war wound’!).

What if the laceration is deep or won’t stop bleeding?

It may be that the wound is deep, possibly even through to underlying tissue or even the bone. If this is the case, don’t panic, simply pick up the phone, call the emergency services and while you’re waiting keep applying the pressure.

Don’t let your child have anything to eat or drink: there may be a need to apply stitches or glue or even have some surgery.

That’s about it: easy isn’t it? Though there are one or two other things you should be careful about.

First, if the wound has something sticking out of it, perhaps a piece of glass or a stick, then apply pressure around the area of the wound. Don’t try to remove the offending item, but take your child to the hospital straight away.

Second, if the blood is spurting rhythmically then it may be the wound is to an artery. Apply pressure and get the child to hospital immediately.

Children love playing in the sun, so we make sure that our little ones are covered up correctly, with a hat and t-shirt and factor three billion sunscreen on any exposed parts. When we’re happy they are properly protected, we let them go and play.

Five minutes later, their hats have been discarded and their tops are being used as goal posts or cricket wickets; so much for our precautionary measures!

At the beach it’s even worse. Sunscreen goes on, and then the children are immediately in the water washing it off!

No wonder children so often suffer from sunburn.

How to treat sunburn

If your child is less than a year old and has signs of sunburn, then be extra careful and call your doctor.

However, for older children, and just as with other types of burns, the first aid to apply is to cool the area under cool (not cold) running water. If your child has sunburn that covers a large area, then pop them in the shower with the water running cool and make sure they stay there for twenty minutes.

If the skin is blistered, or your child feels ill or perhaps a little nauseous, then you should get more professional help by calling your doctor or visiting the closest hospital immediately.

Soothing the burn

For ongoing relief from soreness, you might try moistening a cloth with witch hazel and gently wiping on the affected areas. The tannic acid in cold tea also has a positive effect.

The skin will dry out very quickly because of the sunburn, so it’s important to moisturise in the days after becoming sunburned. Eucalyptus creams will help to protect and replenish the skins natural elasticity. If using aloe, test a small area first.

Finally, take on board plenty of liquids, particularly water and fruit juices to help put back the liquids lost.

Remember that the effects of sunburn aren’t always visible immediately. In fact, it can take up to twenty-four hours for the redness to appear. Whenever sunburn appears, treat as soon as possible. Any treatment given within three hours of exposure will have a positive effect.

Nosebleeds are common for many children.

From a young age, we learn to associate blood with pain, making nosebleeds a scary experience for parents and children alike.

In actual fact, the dribbling blood always looks and feels more than it is, and can be caused by a variety of things. These include foreign objects being shoved up nostrils (always seek medical advice if this is the case – surgery may be needed), as well as an infection, nose-picking, and knocks or blows to the head.

Some children seem to be prone to bleeding noses. This is usually because of allergies, hay fever, or even dry air.

Fortunately, nosebleeds usually only cause minor discomfort if any. Nonetheless, it’s important to respond correctly to avoid making matters worse…

What to do with a nose bleed

First, make sure your child is calm. A bleeding nose, especially for the first time, can be a little traumatic. Crying and screaming will only make the bleed worse.

Instead of leaning back (as you might naturally assume), get your child to lean forward and pinch the nostrils between forefinger and thumb just below the bridge of the nose. That does the same job as applying pressure to a laceration.

If available, apply a cold pack to the back of the neck and the forehead. Lowering the temperature in these regions will shrink the blood vessels in the area and decrease the amount of blood flowing.

Keep the pressure on and the cold packs against the skin for up to ten minutes, and once the bleeding has stopped make sure there is no nose blowing or sniffing for at least a further fifteen minutes.

Tell your child that it’s going to feel a bit uncomfortable for a while. The broken vessels have to clot, and picking them will cause the bleeding to start again, in the same way that scratching a scab will make a cut bleed.

In nine out of ten cases, these steps will solve the problem.

When to seek medical attention

If you can’t get the nose to stop bleeding or the bleeding starts at will, speak to your doctor or visit your nearest hospital. Other situations when you should seek further medical attention include:

• If your child is having frequent nosebleeds
• If your child is on new medication
• If your child bruises easily
• If you child has excessive bleeding from small wounds (for example, bleeding gums)

If you have any further questions about nosebleeds, please ask your child’s G.P.

To learn more important first aid skills for parents, join us at an upcoming Kids First Aid workshop. Click HERE to find out more.