It was a regular day. My daughter was already in her toddler class that morning, and I was sitting in the living room when my phone started ringing. It was Kerrigan’s teacher. Calls in the middle of class hours were never good news so, with just a few seconds to prepare myself for the call, I already anticipated something terrible has happened.
“Hello, Mommy Elle. Sorry to call you but Kerrigan got into an accident. She has a scratch on her cheek… We are in the clinic to clean the scratch… I’m really sorry, Mommy Elle.” While I had my daughter’s teacher on the phone, I was already wearing my shoes and headed to the door. I went straight to the clinic just across the school and saw my daughter frowning by the glass door, wanting to get out of the clinic.
Kerrigan was able to finish her class presentation before the accident happened.
When things like this happen, keeping calm will help your kid feel at ease quickly. But, I had to admit trying to persuade her to have her wound treated in the clinic. Eventually, I decided not to force her to avoid aggravating the situation. Instead, we went back to the classroom for a few minutes to let her play again. I guess it’s a way to avoid anxiety for us. It also gave us a chance to talk about the accident and discuss what should be done moving forward.
How the school responded to my kid’s accident
Kerrigan’s teacher sent me the following photos right away.
From the moment it happened, the teachers informed me about the accident, they were very apologetic and quick to act on the situation. They brought my daughter to the clinic right away. I appreciated the fact that even though the injury didn’t look serious, they went ahead and brought my daughter to the doctor. They also didn’t try to downplay the situation and felt their transparency of the matter. I received pictures as soon as I got their call. The managing director reassured me several times and promised to place child safety measures.
How was my daughter after the accident
After we went home, she told me that her classmate bumped her, causing her to fall and bumped her face on the shelf. She was listening to the whole time her teacher, and I was talking in the classroom. I was quick to explain to her what the teacher saw so she could understand that it was an accident. I reassured her that her classmate didn’t mean it to happen because the last thing I wanted her to think was that it was someone else’s fault. So, I reminded her to be careful next time.
What I did for wound care and scar treatment
Ultimately, to make things easier, the only way to treat the wound is to involve my daughter in the whole process. Forcing her to stay still while I apply the solution on her wound will only harm than good. I grabbed a cotton ball with medicine and applied the moist cotton ball on my face. She then followed through and winced as she applied the solution on her face too. My mom strategy made the whole wound care time easier and even fun when we marked our entire faces with circles using Betadine solution.
I grabbed a cotton ball with a medicine and applied the moist cotton ball on my face. She then followed through and winced as she applied the medicine on her face too.
On July 6, Kerrigan got a new toy to keep her mind off from the pain.
Obvious changes from my daughter’s behaviour after the accident
She was fine during the whole treatment period. She slept well and never complained about pain even though you could see visible swelling on her left eye on its first week. It’s like it never happened. But she would still remind me to be careful when putting her clothes on, so I know she hasn’t forgotten about the boo-boo. It’s just that her threshold for pain was high.
On the following week, she refused to be left alone in class. As she sat with her classmates during circle time, one of her classmates pointed out her boo-boo. Kerrigan told her classmate not to touch her boo-boo. Luckily, one of her teachers was to explain to the curious kids.
When I thought she was fine, she revealed her worries about people noticing her boo boo.
How is the scar so far
The wound healed well. What I was worried about was the scarring. Her wound looked like a crater. Everyone was reassuring me that it won’t be visible as she grows, but when you get to see the scar every bath time, as a mom, you will feel that slight disappointment. So, on the 5th day, we returned to the clinic and checked with a physician if we could apply an anti-scar ointment to control the scarring.
We were advised to try any of those two ointments:
Dermatix and Contractubex 
July 10 at the clinic 
Day 5 of Kerrigan’s wound.
After almost a month of using anti-scar ointment, Dermatix and Conractubex
I am applying the ointment at least twice a day massaging it on her scar until her skin absorbs it. After almost a month of using the anti-scar ointment, her scar turned pink. And contrary to what I have expected, a crater under her eye, her scar is flat and less visible.
And oh! We didn’t cover the boo-boo, as per her physician’s advise. I guess it contributed to the fast healing.
I hope our experience will serve as a reminder to parents to ask your kids’ preschool to childproof because accidents could always happen. We were lucky that it was just a shallow scrape just below her eye that eventually healed well with proper wound care.