Cut Fixed With Skin Glue: How to Care for Your Child

Some small lacerations (cuts) heal on their own, but others may need to be fixed. Sometimes health care providers do this with skin glue instead of stitches. The glue will fall off on its own in 5–10 days. A healing cut can get infected, so follow these instructions to help prevent an infection and protect the cut while it heals.

Care Instructions

  • Your child may shower without covering the cut but shouldn't take baths or swim for a week.
  • Don't soak or scrub the cut for a week.
  • Dry wet skin by patting it gently.
  • You can give medicine for pain if your health care provider says it's OK. Use one of these medicines exactly as directed:
    • acetaminophen (such as Tylenol® or a store brand)
      OR
    • ibuprofen (such as Advil®, Motrin®, or a store brand). Don't give to babies under 6 months old.
  • Don't put antibiotic ointment on the cut. Ointment can dissolve the skin glue.
  • You can use a bandage if the health care provider tells you to. Make sure the tape doesn't stick to the glue.
  • To prevent infection, your child shouldn't pick at the glue or at the scab that forms over the cut.
  • When you or your child apply sunscreen, be sure to put it on the scar (after the glue has fallen off). This will help protect it from burning and prevent it from getting darker.
  • Make sure your child's tetanus vaccine is up to date.
  • Have a follow-up visit with your child's health care provider as recommended.

Call Your Health Care Provider if...

  • Your child has redness, warmth, or swelling around the cut. This could be the start of an infection.
  • Red streaks are coming from the cut.
  • Pus is draining from the cut.
  • The edges of the cut start to separate.
  • The medical glue comes off before the cut has healed.
  • Your child develops pain or a fever.

 

Go to the ER if...

The cut:

  • starts bleeding and doesn't stop, even after you apply light pressure
  • opens up

More to Know

How do health care providers treat cuts? Health care providers use stitches for wide or large cuts. For small, shallow cuts, they might use skin glue instead of stitches if they feel it's the best choice. Most cuts will leave a small scar.

What happens when a cut fixed with skin glue heals? Skin glue holds the edges of a cut together while it heals and helps protect it from infection. Slight redness or itchiness around the cut is normal. After 5–10 days, the cut should be healed and the glue will fall off on its own.

Why does a cut get a scar? When the deeper layer of the skin is injured, the body uses a protein (collagen) to help fill in the cut area. The filled-in area becomes a scar. A scar can form even if a cut is fixed with skin glue. Over time, some scars fade or get smaller.