Not only that, but also from Loaded’s post:
It made me wonder what he was doing riding his bike at the airport, dodging planes and baggage cars and whatnot :dubious: 
Heh, we don’t use Neosporin.
You get a minor cut you put some sort of disinfectant (Dettol, Savlon, TCP) on it.
You have a fever or pus or major swelling or redness, you’ll get Flucloxacillin.
You come to Casualty with minor redness and swelling, we’ll send you home and laugh about you behind your back.
The NHS doesn’t believe in using antibiotics indiscriminantly…but that’s state run health care for you.
Maybe not, but I will say that Neosporin has the added benefit that if you put it on a cut, it has a pain killer that numbs the cut.
If you still have any mercurachrome (sp?), *stop using it and dispose of properly.
*
This was waaaay back in the '60s. I’m sure she drew kitties until it was all gone or she ran out of kids and boo-boos.
Why…is it dangerous? I know it hurt like a muthah, but I thought it was good for you!
It contains mercury compounds. Production in the US was halted in the late '90s, but it’s still sold in other countries.
I’m so glad mom never painted me with that gunk!
While one wouldn’t rush a kid with a cut with reddened edges to the ER, seems to me that it’s necessary to watch all cuts for spreading redness, especially if fever ensues. Narsty things can get inside on by way of even the smallest cut and cause problems. I worked with a woman who ended up in hospital with tetanus because she stepped on the little pointy thing on her belt buckle!
Thanks for the link!
That’s news to me, and I dispense a ton of the stuff. AFAIAC, it contains 3 antibiotics and a host of inert ingredients. Got a cite for it having a painkiller in it?
http://www.pfizerch.com/product.aspx?id=364#hd-inactiveingredients
They have a newish one called Neosporin plus pain relief. It has pramoxine in it.
I buy the stuff every year when I go back to the states. Betadine salve or solution is more common here in Holland; I have not seen either neosporin or polysporin salves here. Though they may exist under another name. I have seen bacitracin by itself.
For myself I like betadine just fine but I seem to have a (probably superstitious) belief that polysporin or neosporin speed up healing time which is good for the Wild Boys. They seem to be forever falling (jumping) into a canal or something similar.
Ah, one learns new stuff every day. Never dispensed it, myself.
Thanks, and thanks to Guin for opening the subject so I could get re-educated.
Dang, am I the only person who pulls out the bottle of rubbing alcohol when I get a cut? (Which is quite often, as I’m pretty clumsy …) Sure, sometimes it stings like a bitch but that’s how I know it’s working. Are all these other products more effective, or just less painful and more expensive? 
You’re not the only one, no, but it’s no longer recommended. (Quickey cite - I’m sure there’s more authoritative info out there.) They’ve found that alcohol on a cut or scrape does more damage to the surrounding tissue than good in killing bacteria. It’s now recommended to clean well with running water and soap only, and to then dry and bandage. Alcohol is to be used on instruments (tweezers, for example) only, hydrogen peroxide only under a doctor’s supervision on a diagnosed infection and iodine only for surgical prep (because so many people are allergic to it, and an allergy can pop up any time.) Mercurochrome, as already pointed out, is likewise banned for first aid use.
Makes it all a lot easier, really - just wash it well and dry it. If it makes you feel better or looks red and puffy, try some antibiotic ointment. If it gets red and streaky, see your doc.
(I will admit I’ve used Krazy Glue to hold a cut together, but that’s probably not recommended, either.)
Heh…considering I was threatened to be dragged, kicking and screaming into the ER for an inch-long, blood-gushing cut above my eye – you can imagine it takes more than a little bit of redness or swelling for me to take my kids to the ER.
Truth is, like has been pointed out, many people use the ER as their PCP. And many kids are over’medicated/overtreated. That’s part of why we’re seeing so many resistant strains of stuff pop up.
One thing I don’t get – I assumed from the ads that the kid got taken to their regular doctor, not an ER. Am I the only one who assumed that? I mean, not too long ago, my mom had knee surgery and we thought the incision was looking awfully red and swollen (turned out it was okay, thank Og) but the first thing she did was go to the surgeon’s office. I’m assuming they’d have said, “RUN TO THE HOSPITAL!” if it was necessary, so unless you don’t have a regular doctor, why would a minor cut go to the ER first???
blink Back when I was a kid, and they still made the stuff, I always preferred Mercurochrome because it was the one that DIDN’T hurt.
Actually, I have a bottle of Ten-o-Six Deep Pore Cleanser that seems to be magical. If I get a potential zit and zap it with this stuff, it’ll usually disappear before erupting. If I have a cut that’s looking a little inflamed, a couple passes with this stuff and the cut cleans up and heals well. I used to use Bactine but ran out so used this one day and it worked great.
You say that like it’s a bad thing. We’d all be better off using less antibiotics, especially in junk like topical ointments and hand soap.
I second this–I expect most of my cuts to get slightly red and swollen (if it starts turning green and purple / oozing funny stuff / having chest aliens burst out of it a la Ripley, then I think it’s time for a trip to the ER).
I grew up on a farm, in a family with 7 children.
Mom always told us that if we were injured and if the injury was not spurting blood, if you could still move it, if it wasn’t oozing foul-smelling goo, and if fire wasn’t involved, we’d be fine.
We were.
We all lived through childhood with no trips to the ER, no scars or nasty infections, and no broken bones.
Imagine that.
If we had a particularly nasty cut, scrape, skin ripped open by barbed wire or whatnot, Listerine would be poured over the area, to clean it. We’d have huge bottles of the stuff. Back then, I was always amazed to see that it was sold in a ‘supersize’ glass bottle like that. Apparently, we had a never-ending supply of the evil stuff.
We went through a lot of it, by the way.
Then, after the wound was throughly cleaned with the Listerine, came the red stuff in the little bottle, that had a glass bar-like thing attatched to the cap. It was dabbed onto/into the wound. It burned.
Usually no bandage, either, unless the wound was somewhat gaping, and we had chores to do, like baling hay, mucking stalls or cleaning out the chicken house.
Never used any antibiotic creams back then, either.