My daughter got her first splinter the other day. I’m not exactly too sure on the details of how or what, but she definitely had a splinter, and was screaming her cute little head off. I assume it hurt. Right on her big toe, a tiny little piece of something was wedged in pretty far. Despite her hysterics I went for my tweezers and tried getting the darn thing loose. No luck. The darn thing was in there good.

I cannot express how upset my daughter was about that either. She was convinced we were going to have to take her to the hospital where they would remove the entire toe. No idea where that one came from. She surely is imaginative. After about a half of an hour with no luck, and my husband giving it the old college try too I called her pediatrician. I really didn’t want to hear them tell me that they wanted to see her. I cannot imagine her reaction. Instead they wanted me to try and glue it out first and then call them back. That’s right, I said glue it. And that is exactly how the nurse described it.

We were told to grab some Elmers school glue. You know, the kind you used to put on your hands then let dry just so you could peel it off. What? You never did that?  Strange. So we popped on a healthy amount to her toe and let it dry. Once It was dry we were to peel it off, and hopefully the splinter with it. I let my daughter peel it off, I sort of felt like it was a rite of passage. And it helped her to calm down and see that she was in control of something. Much to my utter disbelief it worked. The splinter came right out on that piece of glue! Who would have think it? Now I will always keep a bottle in my first aid kit!

-Stephanie Wright