When A Child Has A Big Cut On The Lips...

When a child gets hurt, the mom hurts as well, if not more.

My son fell yesterday and ended up with a big gash on his lip. Took him to the hospital and he ended up having 12 stitches.

As the surgeon arrived and the nurses were getting all the medical equipment ready,  I could see he was very scared. His body was rigid and his fists clenched. The anticipation is always the worst, don't you agree?

The surgeon had to jab him in the lips to numb the area. Blood just started oozing out. Yup, my hubby and me got to watch the whole thing. I'm sure I was more disturbed by this whole ordeal than him. My DH probably found it interesting to see how it was done.

Anyway, the surgeon covered my son's face. Only his nose and mouth were visible. The surgeon said it was a little difficult to stitch because it wasn't a straight cut. It was more like his lips were sliced at an angle and one corner was curved. The stitching took about 30 minutes I think. It felt like a long time. But I think the surgeon did a good job. My son's lips look normal again. I didn't think about taking a picture before the stitching but if you can imagine, that part was kinda detached and sticking out.

Mamas Parenting Tips

• Do check out your child properly when they hurt themselves. I didn't realize he had that big a laceration until 2 hours later. When he just fell, he came into the house bleeding. I took him to the bathroom to wash his lips a bit then gave him some tissue to hold it against the wound. I saw one small cut on his lips and noticed some bleeding from one tooth. So he was holding tissue against his lips the whole time. Later I went out to buy dinner. When I got back, he was on the bed sleeping. He wasn't covering his mouth anymore and the bleeding had stopped. That is when I saw the big open wound. It was at the bottom of his lower lip so you couldn't really see it unless you were looking from the bottom angle.
• To stitch a lip laceration, you need the skills of a dental surgeon. I went to a local clinic and the general doctor couldn't help. 
• Take your child to the doctor within the hour. Because of my delay, the surgeon said very likely there's infection already. He gave my son antibiotics.
• Make sure your child has insurance. This cost us a bomb. We paid about RM1000.