Your child's cut will heal on its own in a few days, so it doesn't need to be closed with stitches or medical glue. A healing cut can get infected, so the health care provider cleaned your child's wound carefully. You can help prevent infection by taking good care of the cut as it heals.

• Keep the wound as dry as possible for 24 hours. You can use a clean, damp cloth to gently wash the skin around it.
• After 24 hours, your child may shower or take a bath.
• If your health care provider recommends it, spread a thin layer of antibiotic ointment over the cut, then cover it with a bandage.
• Some mild redness around the wound is normal. Check the wound every day to make sure the red area is not getting bigger.
• Make sure your child's tetanus vaccine is up to date.
• After the cut has healed, put sunscreen on the scar before your child goes outside. This will help protect the scar from burning and prevent it from getting darker.

• Your child has more redness, warmth, or swelling around the wound. These could be signs of an infection.
• Red streaks are coming from the wound.
• Pus is draining from the wound.
• Your child gets a fever.

Why does a cut get a scar? When a deeper part 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.

Even a small cut can leave a scar. Over time, some scars fade or get smaller.