Procedure
Your child has a small pocket of infection under the skin called an abscess. Your doctor will make a small cut over the abscess and clean out, or drain, the pocket.
Sometimes, a small piece of tubing is left in the cut to let drainage come out. This drain may fall out by itself. If not, it will be taken out by your doctor at your next appointment.
Incision
Do not put any medicines or creams on your child’s cut. This cut is also called an incision. This incision will need to be cleaned well. Soak the incision in a bath tub twice a day. Make sure your child sits in a bath tub instead of taking a shower. This allows the incision to soak. If the incision is near your child’s bottom, do these baths after your child poops.
Sometimes an incision needs to be washed out more often than twice a day. This will happen if you have an infant or young child that poops multiple times a day. You will be given a syringe. Fill the syringe with soapy water. Squirt the soapy water into the incision. Allow the water to drain out. Repeat this 2-3 times a day or whenever your child poops. You will still need to soak the child in a bath twice day.
Watch your child for signs of infection. Look at your child’s incision each day. Call your doctor if:
- The incision has more redness
- The incision is warmer than the rest of the skin
- Your child has a fever of over 101 degrees F or chills
- Your child has behavior changes, such as being more tired, fussy, or eating less
- Your child has color changes, such as being red or pale or gray
- Your child has more pain than he or she did in the hospital
Activity
Your child may return to his/her normal activity as is comfortable. Continue to use your child’s car seat and hold your child as normal.
Pain
Your child may have some pain after surgery. If the pain is not controlled well with medicines, please call us.
- Follow the directions given for the pain medicine. Do not give more than the directions say.
- Give pain medicine at set times. Pain is harder to stop after it has started.
- If your child needed pain medicine during the day, he may need it at night too. This may mean waking him up.
- Some strong pain medicine has Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in it. If the strong pain medicine prescribed by your doctor has Acetaminophen (Tylenol), make sure you do not give more Acetaminophen (Tylenol). Acetaminophen (Tylenol) can be found in other products like cold medicines. Call us if you have a question about these medicines.