Home remedies for abrasions are easy to use and quite effective to aid in a wound’s healing. Knowing how to use natural cures for an abrasion ahead of time empowers a person to act quickly whenever an accident resulting in an abrasion occurs. An abrasion is not a serious injury, but without proper treatment bacteria can infiltrate a wound and infection can occur. For this reason, it is important to assess and treat an abrasion as soon as possible.
Definition and Causes
An abrasion is a scratch or laceration on the top layer of skin, which often results in temporary, slight bleeding. Examples of abrasions include a scraped elbow, rug burns or a scraped knee and happens when a person’s skin is scraped by a rough surface, such as a sidewalk, carpet, asphalt or other surface that has the ability to tear skin. An abrasion can also be the result of a sports injury or some other condition that damages the top layer of the skin, such as a bedsore.
Abrasion Symptoms
Children are most prone to skin abrasions. Often parents will witness a mark on a child’s skin and, without witnessing the cause of the injury, may wonder what it is. Adults often even injure themselves and may not recall where or how the injury occurred. The following symptoms can help in properly identifying an abrasion in order to assist in treating it:
- Pain or stinging
- Bleeding
- Rash
- Red or pink skin
- Swelling
Home Remedies for Abrasions
Early treatment of an abrasion is desirable in order to keep the wound from becoming infected. The initial step in using home remedies for abrasions should always be to clean the affected area. A mild soap and warm water are all that is needed to immediately eliminate any debris or dirt that may have found its way into the wound during the initial injury or immediately thereafter. A few drops of lavender oil in one cup of water is also a soothing, very effective cleansing method, one of the best home remedies for abrasions.
After cleaning, using one or more of the following home remedies for abrasions can help:
- Use cayenne pepper to stop bleeding
- Apply a small amount of garlic oil to help prevent skin swelling
- Honey acts as an antiseptic to protect open skin from bacterial infection
- Aloe Vera gel is effective in aiding the wound’s healing
- Tea Trea Oil is nature’s natural antiseptic. You can use it full strength or diluted (1part tea tree to 10 parts water)
- Applying crushed plantain or parsley leaves, or crushed marigold flowers to a wound aids in the healing process
- Tea can be applied to help stop the bleeding and to resist bacteria
- Turmeric applied to an abrasion facilitates faster healing times
- A lotion made of dock leaves can be regularly applied to the wound to help it heal faster
An abrasion that becomes infected will increase in redness, swelling, pain and emit green or yellow pus. If an infection is suspected, medical attention may be necessary. Further, if an abrasion was caused by an animal or by a rusty metal, medical attention should always be sought in order to assess whether the animal was rabid and to prevent a wound from becoming septic.
Keeping several ingredients useful in rendering home remedies for abrasions on hand in a household assures that immediate attention can be applied in the event of an abrasion and can reduce the risk of serious infection.
