Adhesive Strips: How to Care for Your Child
Adhesive strips, also called butterfly stitches or Steri-Strips™, are small pieces of tape used to help fix cuts. They can close the edges of a small cut or be placed over stitches to help a wound heal after surgery. A healing wound can get infected, so the health care provider cleaned it carefully. You can help prevent infection by taking good care of the cut as it heals.
As the wound heals:
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Keep the wound clean and dry for 1–2 days for a small wound, 2–5 days if your child had surgery, or as directed. Then allow water to run over the strips in the shower, but do not scrub them. Gently blot the strips dry.
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Don't soak the skin. Your child should not take a bath or go swimming until your health care provider says it's OK.
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Don't let your child pick at adhesive strips. Covering them with gauze can help prevent younger kids from removing them.
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Don't apply ointment because it will loosen the strips.
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Don't cover the strips with a plastic bandage, as this can pull them off.
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Make sure your child's clothing doesn't rub against the strips.
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Gently trim curling or peeling edges of the strips with nail scissors.
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If the health care provider recommends, remove all remaining strips after 14 days.
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Your child has redness, warmth, or swelling around the wound. This could be the start of an infection.
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Red streaks are coming from the wound.
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Pus is draining from the wound.
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The wound bleeds more than a teaspoon.
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You child develops a fever.
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The edges of the wound start to separate.
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The wound is opening up.
The wound:
What will happen to the adhesive strips? The adhesive strips will fall off on their own, usually within 7–10 days.
Why does a cut or a wound from surgery get a scar? When the deeper layer of the skin is injured, the body uses a protein (collagen) to help fill in the cut area. The filled-in area becomes a scar. A scar forms even if a cut is fixed with stitches. Over time, some scars fade or get smaller.