Home Remedy for Splinters

1. This blog post is not intended to diagnose or treat any ailment. It is not a replacement for medical treatment. Please seek the help of a trained medical professional if you feel you need it. This post is intended for reading enjoyment. 
   

   
   

   Home remedy: A home remedy is a treatment to cure a disease or ailment that employs certain spices, vegetables, or other common items.

   
   

   My mom grew up on farm in middle America. She was raised at a time when town was hours away and Doctors and vets made home visits but were quiet costly. She was also raised at a time when people were reliant upon home remedies for simple ailments. Modern medicine is useful and wonderful but every once in a while it is useful to try to rely on a home remedy. I know there are reasons that we have abandoned certain remedies but it is fun to see if they work.

   
   

   With all of that said over Father's Day weekend our family went camping again. We stayed at a place that was having a whole weekend dedicated to Dads and had a lot of fun activities for kids as we were with another family with young children. One of the events was a mini golf tournament. Some how, during the course Little Guy managed to climb up onto a wooden horse that was old and weathered and fit in perfect with the wild west gold mining theme the campground was going for. Other kids were doing it is was funny the staff found it cute and so did I until I realized later that his hand was filled with splinters. He had about six of them stuck in his hand from very tiny to very large. Some of them we were able to pull out with tweezers no problem while other required the use of a sewing needle to open the skin. The were a couple (the two largest ones of course) that were so deep and so brittle that we could not get them out. We tried softening the skin in water. Finally Little Guy let us know that he had had enough and was not going to let us touch him anymore. I couldn't blame him. 

   
   

   

   Before (it is hard to see them but they are there)

   When we arrived home I contacted grandma to find out if she had any special techniques for removing splinters. She told me take a pice of bacon fat and put it against the skin where the splinter was and then wrap his hand. She also noted that bedtime was the right time to do this procedure to keep him from messing around with it and even went so far as to bring me over of piece of bacon since there was none in our house. I found her advice completely nonsensical but did as she told me. Then I tucked my precious little baby who now smelled like smoked pork into bed hoping that he would not wake up in worse condition. 
   
   

   

   The bacon is under wraps but it's there

   First thing in the morning I felt a little body climb into my bed and in the twilight a little face popped right into my face and said, "Are you going to take this thing off yet? It smells like bacon and it's making me hungry!" I stumbled out of bed unwrapped the little hand and discarded the bandage in the trash. I took tweezers to one of the splinters and it came right out. The other required a little bit of work but it came out also. So was grandma's bacon trick helpful? Definitely! I guess I owe her an apology for all the ribbing I gave her about her this after all I may need her advice in the future if she can keep providing gems like this one. Thanks Grandma!

   
   

   

   Again difficult to see but the splinters are out leaving behind only the irritation from being in there for 2 whole days.