If your tongue is stuck to the iron. The tongue is frozen to the iron in the cold - what to do, how to help the child

Winter. Many people's favorite time of year. Snow, cold, sleds, skis, snowballs. How great it was to walk with my parents as a child. But there are unpleasant situations that can spoil any wonderful walk.

Remember how in childhood we could lick icicles, snow, pieces of iron? Modern children are also not devoid of curiosity and a desire to lick and taste something in the cold. Children under five years of age are especially susceptible to this.

Do not Cry. A scream can frighten the child even more and provoke a sudden movement, and the mucous membrane of the stuck tongue or lips will be damaged.
Do not force your child away from the icy surface.
Do not use a lighter to heat iron. First of all, it can be scary. Secondly, you could burn your child's face. Thirdly, this is ineffective, since it will not be possible to heat the metal in the right place to the optimal temperature.
You should not water the frozen area with urine, as some extreme sports enthusiasts recommend.

What to take with you for a walk in the frosty season?

Spare gloves or mittens for yourself and your child.
Thermos with warm tea. Again, for yourself and the child.
Napkins.
A rich cream for babies that protects against frost.

What to do if your tongue is frozen to the iron in winter?

So, your baby licked the iron in the cold. You are confused, he is scared.

The algorithm of your actions should include several sequential steps.

Calm the child down. Explain that troubles happen and you are not angry.
Ask your child to breathe by directing air onto the metal. Try to breathe purposefully as well. Perhaps the warm breath will melt the ice and you will be able to free the baby.
You can try to warm the metal with your hands.
If you or other moms have water (not necessarily warm), pour it between the stuck tongue and the iron.
If there is no water and there are no people nearby, try to melt the snow (unhygienic, but better than tearing it off by force).

How can you prevent such a situation?

There are also “preventative” measures that can be used to prevent metal from licking in the cold.

Offer your child an experiment. Take a clean metal object (spoon, buckle) from home. Let it cool in the cold and offer to lick it with your tongue so that the tongue sticks. Since the item is small, it will easily warm up, and you will be able to go home with it.
Or another option. Let the child grasp the cold object with his hand so that he feels sticking with his hand. Explain that it will be even more difficult to peel off the tongue and lips.

What to do when you return home?

But it still happened that the baby twitched and damaged the delicate mucous membrane of the tongue. How to treat such a wound? What can you do to help your child at home?

You have come home. The child is crying, blood is flowing from the tongue or lip. First, wash your hands, take either a bandage or sterile wipes. Give it to the child and try to persuade him to press the napkin to the wound and hold it with his hand. If the child is small or, most likely, afraid of even more pain, blot the blood yourself.
Look at what antiseptics you have, treat the wound (Miramistin, Chlorhexidine).
For several days after the injury, the tongue will swell and hurt, which means that it is necessary to give the child non-spicy pureed food, rinse the mouth with chamomile decoction, saline solution, and soda solution.
It is possible to use children's sprays to treat the throat. They need to be sprayed on the wound.

If discharge appears from the wound or the mucous membrane darkens, you should consult a doctor.

When winter comes, don't skimp on your time. Explain safety rules to your child. You are a mother, and he will listen to you sooner than anyone else. After all, if the child’s tongue is already frozen, it’s too late to explain.

Enjoy your winter walks.

Freezing your tongue to iron in winter is a simple matter: the moisture of the tongue, when in contact with cold metal, itself turns into ice and “adheses” the child to an ice object (swing, horizontal bar, door handle, pipe, lock, etc.).

The baby may accidentally touch the iron with his lips, or he may simply show curiosity; it’s not for nothing that he is so strongly forbidden to lick the swing. Just a minute ago he was laughing merrily, but now he is crying from fear and pain. How to save a child from ice captivity?

The tongue is frozen to the iron - how to save it?

In no case do not pull the child away or tear it away from the metal by force, this can damage the mucous membrane of the tongue, which will take a long and painful time to heal. And try to calm him down so that he doesn’t injure himself.

The only solution is to warm it up.

Breath

The warmth in your breath is enough to help the tongue thaw. If your child is already of school age, explain to him how you need to breathe, exhaling steam on the piece of iron, so that the tongue thaws. When the baby is still very small, you will need to “catch his breath” from the swing. And don’t waste time, as soon as the tongue starts to come off, turn the child away from the metal, because if you delay, the vapor from the breath may have time to cool down and do a disservice - freeze it even more.

Water

You can also free a child by pouring warm water over a stuck tongue. However, this method can rarely be used - you are unlikely to have a thermos with warm water or a cup of hot tea at hand. But if it is not possible to free the tongue with the help of breathing, it is better to look for water than to tear the child off by force, because this will definitely be a serious injury. By watering a stuck tongue, you will free your child in a matter of seconds.

If an emergency happens on the playground, play it safe by asking one of the walking parents to carry warm water. Don't be shy to ask for help. Of course, it’s difficult to think when your own child is fighting hysterically next to you, but the main rule of every mother is not to panic. There is no need to call an ambulance right away. It is unlikely that they will respond to such a call at all, but even in the positive case, by the time the car arrives, neighbors and random passers-by will already help you.

You may find advice on the Internet to heat metal with a lighter. Now imagine if you are ready to bring fire to your child’s face? Forget about this know-how: firstly, you will not heat the metal in the right place, and secondly, you can injure and frighten the victim even more;
People of the old school sometimes advise, ahem, to urinate on the site of adhesion (analogous to warm water). For aesthetic reasons, we believe that this method can only be used in extreme conditions, if the situation happened somewhere in a deserted taiga in 30-degree frost and there is no way to escape;
Some advise to tear it off sharply, for reasons: it’s better to hurt, but quickly, than longer, but possibly painfully. As we already wrote at the beginning, this is absolutely not worth doing - there will definitely be an injury. But what to do if the child jerked and tore off a piece of his tongue?

What if the tongue is still injured?

Go home immediately, do not apply snow or ice - you will only cause an infection.

At home, rinse the tongue with warm water and blot with a swab containing hydrogen peroxide. If the wound is quite large and the bleeding does not stop, make a gauze swab (wrap the cotton wool in a bandage in several layers), moisten it with diluted peroxide and place it on the tongue. If nothing helps (although this is unlikely to happen), call an ambulance or take the child to the nearest hospital yourself.

For the next few days, until the mucous membrane is restored, you will have to feed the baby with ground food, since the tongue is also actively involved in chewing. Make sure that the food is not hot, this can also cause pain.

If over the next two to three days you do not see any positive dynamics in the healing of the uvula or, even worse, it has begun to darken, immediately consult a doctor.

What can you do to prevent your child from wanting to touch the iron in the cold?

Prohibitions and moral teachings often do not work. Remember yourself as a child: the more they prohibit, the more interesting it is. And therefore, so that the child satisfies his curiosity, but does not end up in this painful situation, there are such brave parents who conduct the following experiment with the child:

Take something metal (a spoon, an iron ruler, a wrench) out into the cold in advance, with which you can then return to the house.
They give him an icy piece of iron and force him to touch it with his tongue.
When the “adhesion” has occurred, the young experimenter tries to pull off the frozen metal. He clearly won't succeed.
Free the child with warm water.
Discuss the results of the experiment. They especially draw the child’s attention to the fact that with a cold spoon on the tongue you can go into the house and warm up, but you won’t be able to get out of the swing.

Such a simple experiment, on the one hand, will satisfy the curiosity of a young researcher, and on the other, will clearly demonstrate what will happen if... Most likely, the child will no longer be interested in freezing to the swings and horizontal bars.

READ ALSO: First aid for a child in emergency situations

Dr. Khabibullin - what to do if your tongue is frozen?

Hello, dear readers of my blog! Today, while walking with one of the twins, we encountered a terrible situation: a child aged 7 years old got his tongue stuck to a swing. I, as an adult lady, had to immediately provide first aid to the victim. Instead, I was petrified. What to do in such a situation?

Since the beginning of 2017, I have constantly thought about this problem. However, instead of looking on the Internet, I came up with other topics for writing posts, did creative work with the children, prepared January delights, met guests, etc. After all, January is made for family vacations. But it was not there.

Where did it all start?

As I remember now, on January 4, somewhere around lunchtime, while meeting my sister with her husband and baby, I slightly stuck my wet hand to the metal door (this happened in a country house). It was not difficult to come off. However, it was then that a question arose in my head: what should I do if my tongue stuck to metal in the cold?

I asked myself the question, but the answer never came. Mother laziness played a cruel joke on me. However, today I witnessed the “terrible acquaintance” of the tongue with iron. It’s not for nothing that they say thought is material. The moisture of the tongue turns into ice when it comes into contact with cold metal - hence the “grip”.

Thank you very much to the man who passed by. We both rushed to save the frightened boy. I reassured him mentally as best I could, our savior (I couldn’t have done it without him) “unstuck” my tongue from the piece of iron.

Instructions for saving the language

For the first time in my life I’m writing an article from the words of the hero of a children’s walk. The Internet has slightly adjusted the acquired knowledge.

I am a journalist by training and I had to do a lot of interviews and often. However, I couldn’t make articles so quickly. This incident occurred around 15.00 Moscow time. Within 30 minutes I wrote this post.

So let's proceed to the detailed operation to save languages:

Under no circumstances should you pull or tear your tongue away from the metal. This can cause serious injury to the victim. It is necessary to morally reassure the person and proceed to further actions.

Instead of tearing it off, you need to warm it up. In our case, the child was already big and the “rescuer” explained how to breathe on the piece of iron in order to get unstuck from it. It is necessary to exhale steam on the metal so that the tongue begins to thaw. Luckily it helped. However, sometimes a very small child can stick to the metal. In this case, parents will have to warm it up.

If the warming process does not help, you need to pour warm water over your tongue. Of course, such water may not be at hand. But it’s better to wait and take the cup out of the house than to cause pain and suffering to a curious creature.

If this problem touched my children, I would panic. However, this should not be allowed under any circumstances. “Calmness, only calmness” - as Carlson bequeathed, a man in the prime of life (every day we read Astred Lindgren with our children, so the quotes just beg to be written on a white sheet of paper).

There are enough advisors in our lives. However, not all of them are competent in this matter and can cause unnecessary problems with their comments. For example, there are people on the Internet who advise you to warm up a piece of iron with a lighter. Can you imagine the spectacle? You hold fire to your child's face - a creepy picture, isn't it?

Older people can recommend the old method: pee. This is a kind of analogue of warm water. However, for aesthetic reasons, this method can only be used in extreme cases.

Some still advise you to tear off your tongue. According to the principle, it’s better to hurt, but quickly. They just don’t know how to treat a crippled tongue afterwards. So the choice is yours.

How to treat the victim?

There are cases when the child nevertheless frees himself from the gland, causing serious injuries to the tongue. In this case, you must go home immediately. DO NOT apply snow or ice to your tongue as this can cause infection.

At home, you need to rinse your mouth with warm water and apply cotton wool with hydrogen peroxide to your tongue (by the way, I recently cured a wisdom tooth with peroxide, but more on that next time). If the bleeding still does not stop, you should urgently call an ambulance. It will not be possible to do without specialists.

Over the next week, the child should be fed pureed food and ensure that the food is not hot. If, a few days after the incident, the tongue still does not heal and begins to darken, immediately consult a doctor.

How to prevent your tongue from getting to know metal?

Children are all different and when you tell someone - NO! - he will immediately go and do this. Some sites advise to clearly show children how the tongue and metal adhere.

To do this, take the spoon out into the cold, then take it home and ask the child to lick it. After the “hitch”, they free the child from the spoon with the help of warm water and explain to him that this cannot be done outside with a swing. Would you risk experimenting with your child?

I doubt my 2.4 year old twins will understand this experiment. Today Andryushka got scared when he saw a child hugging a piece of iron. Whether he will remember such an example - the future will tell! However, the second twin did not see this, and given his stubbornness and curiosity, everything is still ahead of us.

I told you about this story and it became easier! I hope my post will help someone become a little wiser. I certainly now know how to act in such situations. The main thing is to warm up the poor curious child without panic using breathing or warm water.

That's all, my dear listeners! Today was, on the one hand, a scary, but educational day. I look forward to your comments and reposts. See you again!

Always yours, Anna Tikhomirova

This problem plagues the minds of millions of parents. Wherever there is winter and snow, people stick their tongues to iron objects. For various reasons, many people have found themselves in this situation at least once, from gray-haired elders to very young children. Some are driven to lick a cold swing by curiosity and the excitement of a discoverer, others by bravery and the desire to show their courage to friends. What should you do when a small child freezes?

Common Causes

There are several reasons why people freeze to metal objects:

Curiosity. The shiny swing stands out from the surrounding snow. Since children experience the world with all their senses, it is difficult for them to resist trying out the swing. Surprisingly, many adults, trying to make up for lost time in childhood, deliberately lick the glands.
Feeling conflicted. As you know, the forbidden fruit is sweet. If you constantly forbid a child to do something, then he will definitely do it.
Bad fall on an iron slide. With a certain amount of luck, if you fall you can freeze tightly.
For a bet. This is how not only children freeze, but also adults. God only knows how many tongues have been damaged by the words “You bet I can lick this swing and not get stuck?”

How to help a child if his tongue is stuck to the iron?

If it is stuck to a small object (keys or a zipper on a jacket), it is best to take the victim to a warm place so that it thaws from the iron. Unfortunately, more often than not children freeze to the swings and slides; there is no way to move them into the warmth. If your natural scientist is already old enough, then explain to him that he needs to warm the place where the tongue comes into contact with the iron by breathing. This is the easiest and safest way to free yourself from the shackles of ice.

If trouble happens near your home, you can go get water. Contrary to popular belief, even a cold one will do, because it is still warmer than the ice that glued your child to the slide. It is poured over the junction of the tongue and the metal. For obvious reasons, it is prohibited to take boiling water. In the complete absence of water around, it makes sense to try to melt some snow with your hands and pour it on it. After this, you need to rinse your mouth with boiled water.

You can try to heat the area on a metal object next to your tongue: use your hands, a heating pad, or other warm objects. Some extreme sports enthusiasts advise warming up with a lighter, but this is a bad idea, as you can cause even more harm to the innocent victim of the ice trap.

What can't you do?

The main thing in this situation is not to panic. Nothing terrible happened, so there is no need to scare your baby even more. It’s already not so sweet for him, and besides, a frightened child may try to free himself on his own, leaving pieces of his tongue at the scene of the incident.

It is not recommended to tear off a frozen tongue by force; this will inevitably lead to injury. Metal conducts heat well, so a wet tongue instantly freezes to it. Plus, it is well supplied with blood, which is why all more or less large injuries are accompanied by bleeding. Because of this, it is impossible to tear off the tongue without damaging it. Although in some situations this is the only way out, because it is not always possible to free the child in other ways.

What if the tongue was injured?

If after releasing the tongue there is a wound left on it, do not be alarmed. When you get home, rinse it with boiled water, then treat it with a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution. It will remove dirt and infection that has gotten into the wound. A hemostatic sponge is used to stop bleeding. Instead, a sterile bandage folded several times will do. It is pressed to the site of injury and held until the bleeding stops.

After this, the wound can be treated with anti-inflammatory gel and Miramistin. The wound is usually shallow, but if it is extensive, inflamed, and the child has an increase in body temperature, then it makes sense to show it to the doctor. In severe cases, he will prescribe painkillers, antibiotics and suggest hospitalization.

Prevention

It is easier to prevent trouble than to deal with its consequences. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Trying to explain to a child that licking a swing is dangerous to health will only ignite the passion of a natural scientist in his heart. On the other hand, it is even worse if he finds himself in such a situation alone, when no one can help him, because then injury cannot be avoided. It's better if he sticks to the swing under your supervision. You can show him an experiment: wet your hand in the cold and grab something metal. Having felt the sticking effect on himself, the child will no longer want to lick the iron swing.

Common Causes

There are several reasons why people freeze to metal objects:

How to help a child if his tongue is stuck to the iron?

What can't you do?

What if the tongue was injured?

09.02.2014

Winter is coming. The temperature gradually drops below zero. Thousands of large fluffy flakes fall from the sky, slowly swirling, and children run out into the street to frolic with a noisy squeal. But this is where danger awaits the children - very curious children want to check everything and experience it for themselves. So, for example, in winter there is a great temptation to lick ice, feast on snow, or check whether the tongue can really freeze to a pole or any other metal surface.

To reduce the likelihood of such an incident, try to clearly explain to your child why it is impossible to put your tongue on the glands in the cold and grab them with your bare hands. Talk about the dire consequences, but do not exaggerate too much so as not to shock the child.

Well and, what to do if your tongue is frozen to a pole? To begin with, do not panic and make sure that your child does not try to tear off the frozen tongue (or lips) by force. Otherwise, the delicate skin may become damaged and germs may enter the wound.

What will help if your tongue is frozen to metal?

First: warm liquid (not boiling water!). It is necessary to pour warm water onto the sticking site, and be sure to show the resulting wound to a doctor.

Second: frequent breathing at the junction of the tongue and metal. If there are people nearby, you can ask them for help. The more people can be involved, the faster the “prisoner” will free himself from the icy shackles.

Third: a lighter or a large number of matches, with which you need to slowly heat up the metal (the main thing is not to bring the fire close to the tongue/body and do not set fire to the victim’s clothing).

In the worst case, if you find yourself in a vacant lot, and there are no populated areas nearby and mobile communications do not work, you can use urine.

Instructions for saving the language

For the first time in my life I’m writing an article from the words of the hero of a children’s walk. The Internet has slightly adjusted the acquired knowledge.

So let's proceed to the detailed operation to save languages:

If this problem touched my children, I would panic. However, this should not be allowed under any circumstances. “Calm, only calm,” as Carlson, a man in the prime of life, bequeathed (every day we read Astred Lindgren with our children, so the quotes just beg to be written on a white sheet of paper).

Older people can recommend the old method: pee. This is a kind of analogue of warm water. However, for aesthetic reasons, this method can only be used in extreme cases.

How to treat the victim?

At home, you need to rinse your mouth with warm water and apply cotton wool with hydrogen peroxide to your tongue (by the way, I recently cured a wisdom tooth with peroxide, but more on that next time). If the bleeding still does not stop, you should urgently call an ambulance. It will not be possible to do without specialists.

How to prevent your tongue from getting to know metal?

Children are all different and when you tell someone - NO! - he will immediately go and do this. Some sites advise to clearly show children how the tongue and metal adhere.

That's all, my dear listeners! Today was, on the one hand, a scary, but educational day. I look forward to your comments and reposts. See you again!

Always yours, Anna Tikhomirova

Lick an iron swing or a bench in the cold - how could anyone even think of such a thing? Maybe if this “someone” is between one and five years old. Although seven-year-olds often get excited about the idea of trying a piece of iron. However, this is the case when age, height and weight do not matter at all - the result is the same: the tongue or lip is completely frozen to the ill-fated piece of iron. The child is in tears, the mother is in panic. What to do in such a situation?

The main thing to remember is that you don’t need to force your child off the swing. After such manipulations, the mucous membrane is guaranteed to be injured. Blood, pain and prolonged healing cannot be avoided. Therefore, do not act out the scenario of the fairy tale “Turnip”, do not pull the child by the head or other parts of the body, but try to calm him down so that he does not inadvertently break out of the iron shackles.

If a child gets stuck to a movable object (for example, a sled), consider yourself very lucky. You just need to take (or carry) the unlucky experimenter into the heat (along with an iron trap, of course). There the metal will warm up, and the prisoner will be free.

What if a child is frozen to a swing or pole? There will be much more trouble here. First, try to thaw the “adhesion” area with your own warm breath. If the child is old enough to understand what is required of him, let him also participate in the process. There is a chance for a happy ending, but if the frost outside is severe, the plan may not work. In this case, salvation will lie in warm water. It is unlikely that you will have a thermos of hot tea at hand. You will have to run for water - if you are walking in the yard, then home, if in another area, then to the nearest store, pavilion or someone's apartment. It is undesirable to leave a small child alone; ask someone passing by for help. In such situations, people are more responsive than is commonly believed.

So, you have reached a source of warm water (you need warm, even slightly hot, but not boiling water!), now the best thing is to pour it into a plastic bag and tie it (with the help of an improvised heating pad it will be more convenient to rescue the hostage of your own curiosity - you will not get wet and do not get your clothes wet). If there is no package, fill a bottle with water, you will have to water your tongue. It will be wet, but it will thaw faster.

It may also happen that the child jerked and injured his tongue or lip. Then go home, rinse the injured organ with water and blot with a gauze pad soaked in hydrogen peroxide. If the bleeding does not stop, make a gauze swab (wrap the cotton wool in a bandage), moisten it with diluted hydrogen peroxide and place it on the tongue. For several days after the incident, the child should be fed pureed food (in no case hot!) - until the mucous membrane is restored. If after three days there is no improvement or the tongue begins to darken, consult a doctor.

To be discouraging

Trying to warn your child not to lick a cold swing often only fuels interest. Very often it is after them that a rescue operation has to be organized. How to discourage the desire to taste iron during a winter walk? In many kindergartens, a visual experiment is conducted for children: a piece of fabric is moistened with water, and then applied to metal in the cold. The fabric instantly freezes. The most desperate parents go further: they take a small metal object (for example, a spoon) with them for a walk, when it has cooled down properly, invite the child to lick it, and then go home straight away with the stuck spoon to warm up. After such a lesson, boring moralizing is unnecessary.