Every summer, my family ends up testing at least one of these injuries firsthand. Somebody sprains an ankle on the trampoline. Somebody grabs the wrong end of a marshmallow stick. Somebody’s kid decides a campfire coal that “doesn’t look hot anymore” is fair game to poke with a bare finger. It happens. So I sat down with Dr. John Tronnes to sort out which first aid advice actually holds up and which advice is just something your uncle swears by because it’s what his uncle told him.
Sprains, Breaks, and the Butter Myth
Here’s the one that surprises everyone: a broken bone usually heals faster than a bad sprain. Bones have a rich blood supply, so your body can knit them back together in four to six weeks. Ligaments and tendons don’t get that kind of blood flow, so a severe sprain can take up to twelve weeks to feel normal again. Dr. Tronnes sees this play out with athletes all the time. “You’ll see, oh they pull the groin and they’re out for eight weeks, nine weeks,” he told me, and people assume a strain can’t be that serious. It can.
Sprains show up everywhere, not only ankles. Fingers, wrists, backs, knees, all fair game. If it happens on a hike or a campsite, splint it and get it looked at. Dr. Tronnes has treated plenty of kids who got told “it’s just a sprain, you’ll be fine” by a well-meaning teacher or parent, only to come in three days later with a broken ankle they’d been walking on the whole time.
On burns, forget the butter. That old trick actually traps heat against the skin and makes things worse. What actually works is cold running water, about ten minutes of it, as soon as possible. That slows the thermal damage from spreading deeper into the tissue. Burns around a joint deserve extra caution since scarring there can stiffen the skin and limit movement long term. And if you’re camping somewhere remote, a burn cream and a clean covering buy you time until you can get real care.
What Not to Pour on a Cut
This is where I learned I’ve been doing it wrong my whole life. Neosporin has ingredients that can irritate skin, and Dr. Tronnes sees people show up convinced their wound is infected when it’s actually just reacting to days of ointment. Hydrogen peroxide isn’t much better for ongoing care. It kills bacteria, sure, but it kills your own healing tissue right along with it. “It’s indiscriminate killing of tissue,” as he put it. Good for a one time rinse right after an injury. Bad as a daily habit.
His actual recommendation? Plain Vaseline or Aquaphor. Both work as a barrier that keeps moisture in while your body handles the healing from the inside. No medication needed for most everyday scrapes.
Puncture wounds, meaning anything deeper than it is wide, carry their own risk. Dog bites, human bites, anything that punches a small hole and seals over the top, trapping bacteria underneath. Those need a doctor’s eyes and possibly antibiotics. And don’t pick your scabs. They fall off when they’re ready.
Building a Kit That Actually Helps
You don’t need the giant drugstore kit with forty compartments you’ll never open. Dr. Tronnes keeps it simple: something you can splint with, an ace wrap, gauze for pressure on bleeding, a burn cream, and a basic antibiotic ointment. That covers most of what summer throws at you. He’ll even vouch for super glue in a pinch on a clean, shallow slice, the kind you get chopping vegetables, though it stings more than the medical version and isn’t right for every cut.
Fireworks deserve their own caution. Older teenagers and young adults account for more serious injuries than most people expect, and sparklers burn hot enough to hurt kids of any age. Campfires cause more injuries than grills too, mostly from coals that look cool but aren’t. A little distance and a little patience go a long way toward keeping summer memories the good kind.
