Let’s just say there is a burn on a piece of skin about the size of a 3x5 card. Say from scalding water, such that the skin did not break or blister, but just turned a purple color. Alright, let’s say after a few days that skin got bumped, and there is a spot about the size of a quarter from which a single layer of skin has peeled, which reveals a patch of moister, pinker-looking skin (in what was) underneath. Let’s say putting a band-aid on it to forget about it until it gets better probably won’t work, since taking the band-aid off would cause further peeling.
What would be a good way to treat such a wound if an individual wanted to otherwise go on with their day?
I just had a similar (smaller but seemingly more severe) scalding. My mom told me to put some kind of ointment on it and cover it with Telfa (or similar non-stick) gauze. I can’t remember the ointment she said I should get, just that they didn’t have any at the store and I ended up using a tube of Neosporin I had.
Seemed to work pretty well, though take this is all purely anecdotal as IANA doctor and YMMV.
You should be able to find sterile gauze pads and bandages in the first aid section at any pharmacy or supermarket.
Place the pad on the wound and wrap the bandage around the limb to secure it. Make sure it’s tight enough that there is no slack and it stays on (but not too tight).
You must be able to change dressings once a day or so, to check for infection etc. large non compressive sterile gauze is the best bet. It should heal quickly.
In burn wards, the only product now applied to burns is based on silver compounds, everything else has been abandoned or banned.
Sterile soap, with lukewarm water, and a clean bandage.
Anything fishy, change of color, odor, pain, should be immediatly shown to a doctor, burns are fantastic entry ports for infection.
They have these awesome gel bandages now for burns - I’ve also used them for a really bad scrape and can’t recommend them highly enough. If you use one, put gauze over it, though, because you don’t want the edges to dry out.
Aloe hasn’t been “banned”, it just isn’t as effective for burns as popularly thought:
Now, whether it makes burns stop hurting faster (which I have always heard it as) is another matter.
That said, when I get burned (usually from a soldering iron, which can literally burn the skin, not just heat damage, but in a small area), I just cool it down as fast as I can and leave it alone if the skin is unbroken; usually by the time the scab comes off it has healed enough (no raw-looking skin underneath). Obviously, larger burns pose more of a problem with respect to skin prematurely peeling off (luckily I haven’t ever had a burn over more than half a square inch or so, even a sunburn). I have also popped blisters before, which you aren’t supposed to do (but left the skin intact otherwise). And if it itches, don’t scratch it (I did this once without thinking with a burn I got from a big drop of solder on my leg, about 2-3 weeks after I got burned, and it started bleeding when the scab came off; surprisingly, I don’t even have a scar there now from what was likely a third degree burn, taking maybe a couple months to heal in total for something less than half an inch across, and much longer before it resembled normal skin).
Confused, what part of that sounded like an infection? Or did you mean one waiting to happen?