Maybe your grandma used to tell you to pour hydrogen peroxide in your scrapes. Maybe last time you burned yourself, your friend told you to rub butter on it.
Whatever it is you were told to do, chances are it was incorrect—maybe even dangerous. Here are some first aid tactics you should really just forget about.
- Have a burn? Rub some butter on it. This comes from the belief that any kind of oil or ointment can actually treat a burn. In reality, oil-based anything will just slow the burn’s ability to release the heat trapped in it, making the burn more damaging. To take care of a burn, run your hand under cool water for up to 20 minutes immediately after you burn it, then keep it dry. If you want to protect it, cover it in plastic wrap.
- Something in your eye? Pick it out with your fingers. This one is something you’ve probably just never thought about. But rubbing your eye when there’s something in it will not only rub what’s in it all over the surface of your eye, but it’ll introduce the bacteria on your hands to your eyeball. Instead, clean your eyes under tap water or contact solution.
- Get a scraped knee? Pour hydrogen peroxide on it. This is one my dad used to subject me to. He’d tell me that the bubbles were the hydrogen peroxide cleaning out the cut. Sure, they were, but hydrogen peroxide doesn’t just kill damaged cells—it kills anything it comes in contact with. It kills the healthy cells surrounding the cut that were going to heal it, and makes the healing process that much slower. Soap and tap water is just fine.
- Got a splinter? Let it fall out on its own. Your body doesn’t do this. The longer you leave the splinter in, the harder it’ll be to get out. Get it out ASAP with tweezers. If it’s an extra big, deep one, go get medical care for it.
