Have you ever heard that letting your wounds breathe will help them heal faster? Yep, my mom told me that too. The thinking being that air helps a scab form which is the first step to getting that wound cleared up. BUT— scabs can lead to scarring and the faster way to heal a wound is actually without ever allowing a scab to develop.
I know this is true because a close friend of mine had a nasty cut all along one side of her face from a bicycle crash (Hi, Bailey!) and her doctor directed her to do everything she could to prevent a scab from forming. It’s one thing when you pick a scab and get a scar on your leg, but when you pick one on your entire face, you could be regretting that decision forever.
Research shows that keeping your wound covered helps lock in moisture, which prevents scabbing, helping wounds heal faster and minimizing the chances of scarring. It also decreases the chances of infection, because it helps prevent exposure to water, dirt and germs. Especially for kids who won’t stop touching things!
So there you go—cover up to help your wound heal faster. My kids will be pleased because they like to find any excuse imaginable to wear a Band-Aid.
12 more common myths your mom told you, totally busted:
1) Eating sugar before bed will keep your kids up at night
FALSE: Scientists claim that there is no evidence to prove that sugar causes instant hyperactivity, but they do say that overtime, eating large amounts of sugar can cause ADHD related behavior.
2) It takes 7 years to digest gum
FALSE: Turns out gum is indigestible, so it just passes right through you at the same rate as everything else.
3) Going out in the cold with wet hair will make you sick
FALSE: Colds are caused by hundreds of different viruses and you need to be exposed to an infected person to catch them. The reason you are more likely to get a cold in the winter is because you spend more time inside, which is an easier environment for germs to spread than outdoors.
4) Swimming after eating cause cramps
FALSE: When I was little, it was well-known that you had to sit out of the pool for a full hour after lunch. Going in meant cramps which could increase the chances of drowning. But actual science has never proved this to be true.
5) Milk increases mucus
FALSE: Milk can temporarily thicken your saliva, but it does not increase mucus. So it makes sense that singers don’t drink milk before performing, but it won’t actually worsen the symptoms of your cold. If ice cream will brighten up your sick day, go for it.
6) Shaving makes your hair grow back thicker
FALSE: Hair naturally grows out tapered at the end but when you shave it, it grows back from where it was chopped off. So it might feel thicker but that’s just because you’ve introduced stubble. The thickness of the root is the same.
7) Carrots improve your vision
FALSE: This belief is actually just the result of WWII propaganda, when the British Royal Air Force claimed a steady diet of carrots was the reason their pilots had such excellent vision and could locate the German bombers before they reached the English Channel. It was actually due to their new use of radar.
8) Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis
FALSE: The “pop” of a cracked knuckle comes from bubbles bursting in the fluid around your joints, but there is no evidence that it is harmful. It may annoy the people around you though!
9) pruney fingers mean it’s time to get out of the water
FALSE: After you’ve been in the water for a certain amount of time, your fingers start to wrinkle because they are adapting to their environment and improving your ability to grip things while wet.
10) hair products can repair damaged hair
FALSE: The only way to really get rid of split ends is to chop them off. However, certain products can smooth them down, so your hair looks and feels like its in better condition.
11) Reading in poor light worsens your eyesight
FALSE: Your eyes are like any muscle in your body that can get strained or tired, but they bounce back. Reading in poor light will not permanently affect you.
12) Peeing on a jellyfish sting helps allievate the pain
FALSE: Just because it happened on Friends doesn’t make it true. Putting urine or any fresh water on a jellyfish sting actually aggravates the jellyfish stingers to produce more venom. Ouch!
Now, stop spreading these rumors to your kids! Although, you might want to perpetuate the carrot lie. It comes in handy when you want to give your kids incentive to eat their vegetables.
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Just tell me one myth you’ve debunked below.
I’m shocked right now! Going to call my mom out for lying to me all these years and in turn I’ve been lying to my kids! Every. Single. One!!
Vicks VapoRub doesn’t cure everything. (Gasp!)
Thought that still doesn’t stop me from using it all the time…(insert Kanye shrug)
I don’t know about the first one. My child had a fiver cookie before her usual bedtime (the whole day was a normal day for her) and she was WIRED as we tried to get her to fall asleep.
Your face will actually not freeze like that. I make faces at the kids all the time. The 11 yr old and I sometimes will have competitions to see who can come up with the most. And sometimes I will hold a silly face until either she or my husband looks, just so they can be shocked. That, at times, takes awhile.
I will not be telling my kids wrinkly skin is a good thing…I’d never get them out of the water!
When travelling, I was disappointed to find out that when flushed, the water does not in fact drain in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere.
Making a face (stretching cheeks and sticking tongue out) if you make an ugly face to long it will still I k that way… Did it to my brother for an hour and a half when I was 10. It never stuck
One myth debunked is trying to figure
Out the gender of your baby before
The gender scan. It’s all up to God and what you see on the ultrasound. ??????
ACTUALLY THEY HAVE A BLOOD TEST NOW! YOU CAN FIND OUT AROUND 10 WEEKS
Your face will NOT freeze like that funny face forever! haha
“Cracking your knuckles will lead to arthritis”… I actually asked my doctor and he said while it’s not recommended to do, there is no proof that it causes arthritis! 🙂
That my face won’t really get stuck like that ;P
I actually had the “let it breathe to heal” debunked when I was 15 after a car wreck. Try applying butterfly strips and gauze next to your eyebrow! I didn’t have to wax my eyebrows the entire summer!
Dry drowning, and the viral posts that happen every year are my nemesis. I was a lifeguard for 9 years and never once even heard of dry drowning. After I became a mom, stupid crap like that appeared everywhere.
Also I hope people believe all the myths you debunked here.
One myth I’ve debunked is “Eating fatty foods makes you fat.” It is untrue! And my favorite because that means I can eat ALL the foods! Lol ?
But really, it’s all about moderation.
If you swallow a watermelon seed a watermelon will grow in your belly. My great grandmother told us that along with swallowed gum will stay in your belly forever.
I’m so glad you posted this. We just went through our first experience with stitches. My son cut his hand open (deeply) on an oyster shell at a Washington beach. I asked the medical personnel specifically about the scab thing! 2 weeks later, I am still keeping it covered. SO many bandaids. Do you know how long a little boy (in the summer) can keep his hand dry and clean? Not long!
Mom has eyes in the back of her head…..the doctor accidentally let the cat out of the bag that it’s not true.
If you drop a cookie on the floor, you can eat it 6 seconds later without dying. 🙂
I have debunked the myth that if I let my 3-year-old stay up later to watch a movie she begged for she won’t whine when it is actually time to go to bed.
Sitting to close to the TV will ruin your eyesight. I’m 25 now and still have perfect vision.
Coffee will stunt your growth. I’ve googled it, it’s not true! Had I known I would’ve enjoyed coffee many years sooner. Now I can’t imagine a day without it!
The gum thing always worried me, even as an adult!
No wonder I still need glasses even after always eating my carrots! And it doesn’t take 7 years for gum to digest? My husband always fusses my kids when they swallow their gum…he actually thought it would stick in their stomachs and block something *sigh* what about sitting too close to the tv will cause bad eye sight? I’m pretty sure if you’re going to have bad eyesight it is because of genetics. ?
Pulling one gray hair out makes 2 more come in. Lol
Need to thank my mother for all the lying she did when I was a child! Haha! The gum one was popular, but she always yelled at us to not to make faces, because they’ll stick that way. Uh-huh, yeah right mom.
Eating too much ice cream or eating it too fast will not make my brain freeze hahaaaa
My mom told me drinking milk will help my boobs grow. FALSE!!! I use to drink milk like it was going out of style and never did get big boobs. It’s call genetics, Mom! ugh….
Coffee doesn’t stunt your growth! (although I AM only 5’2″!}
My mom and aunts always said sitting too close to the tv would ruin our eyes. All the boys sat close up to the tv, girls on the couch – all of us girls wear glasses but none of the boys in our family do.
Blood is not blue while in your veins. Your blood is always red, although its exact shade varies depending on oxygen level.
My third grade teacher told me that AS FACT. Sigh.
I’ll preface this with the fact that I’m a boy mom and all other boy moms will likely know what is coming:
Your penis will NOT fall off if you take your hand off of it for longer than two seconds.
Now if only they believed me.
Totally busted the cold weather and getting sick myth!
My grandmother used to tell us that eating the crust on our bread would give us curly hair!
I told my 4 year old that when he lies to me, his ears turn red. Now every time he tries to make me believe something, he shows me his ears!
My mum told me my entire childhood that I couldn’t grow an apple tree from the seeds out of the Apple I just ate. I’m 27 now and I just realised this year it was a lie! My daughter insisted back in March that we plant the seeds from her Apple, so I humoured her and we planted them and sure enough they have started to grow! we had 3 seeds and now have 3 apple tree growing nicely in a new bigger pot!
A cleaning myth: do not mix baking soda and vinegar for use as a cleaner. Once combined they react and become water and a little salt.
One myth I was told growing up was the eating a watermelon seed will cause one to grow in your tummy. I figured out long ago it was wrong. But my 3 year old likes to eat apples, and one day my mom and I caught her eating the apple seeds. So my mom told her it would make an apple grow in her tummy. Her reaction was hysterical, so I didn’t correct it. I will one day though…?
Butter on cuts! Luckily I was the last of four kids and I think my mom figured out this was not a great idea …Umm big time myth and a bit sadistic.
My mother elaborated on the carrot myth. She told me that the more carrots I ate, the lighter my brown eyes would be (in addition to my better eyesight). Turns out, my eyes are just lighter brown than everyone else in my family! Also, incidentally, my vision is about 20/800 (not a typo) and I ate A LOT of carrots!
After years of teaching preschool and seeing kids seemingly react to sugar, I was excited to learn about the whole thing in college. Junk food can make kids hyper, but it’s not the sugar but the artificial colors in them that get kids wired. If you ever try feeding kids homemade cookies and milk before bed, they won’t get the hyper activity, versus eating something like Oreos and milk before bed.
If you cross your eyes they will stay that way. I actually told my 7 yr old that the other day, I’ve always been told that, I’m sure it’s not true?
My dad always told me that if I pouted, a bird would poop on my lip! So far it hasn’t happened…. 🙂
My mom told me that when bread bakes all the nutrients go to the outside to form the crust…therefore eating crust was the only way to stay healthy
My mom too!
“If you swallow a watermelon seed, you will grow a watermelon in your belly!”
That carrot one is crazy to me! I always believed it!
Coffee will not stunt your growth. My brother is 34 and 5’8″. He is convinced that the few sips he had as a child stunted his growth and REFUSES to drink it to this day.
Pulling gray hair will only cause more to grow. If that was true I would have been completely gray by the time I was 20!
That moms have eyes in the back of their head!
I love this! I knew some of them and thanks for confirming the rest!!
My gran used to say eating the crust of bread would “put hair on your chest.” Nope. 🙂
If you go out in the cold barefoot or with wet hair you will catch a cold/get pneumonia. I almost never blowdry my hair. I prefer to let it air dry, and so I am always going out with wet hair. Also, I hate wearing shoes.
I was told by a neighbor growing up to put Chapstick on everything….cuts, but bites, rash, dry skin….EVERYTHING! I don’t know if he had a secret deal with Chapstick but if I’m in a pinch to this day I’ll put Chapstick on it!
That spicy V8 juice cures colds….. thanks for that one mom.
Seed in the belly grows! You totally cleared some stuff up for me with this! Lol
Even to this day i always believed the one about the hair growing back thicker. My mom used to tell me if i sat too close to the tv it was bad for ny eyes and i got perfect vision. And if i kept making faces my face would get stuck
The “let it breathe to heal” myth! Every one of my tattoos has healed impeccably because I keep them slathered in lotion and covered up as much as possible!
Not that I ever wanted to try it, but i didn’t know the jellyfish one (I believed Friends!!). Swallowing a watermelon seed will grow one in your belly. And my grandmother was big on eating crust for curly hair. I ALWAYS ate my crust and my cousin never ate his. Guess which of us had curly hair? (hint, it wasn’t me!)
This one probably isn’t a known one, but my mom told me that if I swore and a dragonfly heard me it would sew my lips together! It did the trick! I was VERY careful not to swear for the longest time.
Well my mom told me that witches lived in storm drained, because of the steam that came out of them. But clearly that was a lie. Up until I was idk 12.. I swore witches were down there with their cauldron. Not sure if that’s a debunked myth but it’s all I got. .
When we would go camping, my great grandpa would tell us that playing in the fire (poking it with sticks) would make us wet the bed. Haha we were so worried, we never messed with the fire. 😉 My grandpa was a smart man!
I’m a science teacher. My job is debunking myths! And the eye is not a muscle. The iris is a muscle. And there are 6 muscles that attach the eyeball to your skull. But the actual eye is not a muscle.
This is an awesome list. Thanks for sharing!
If I step on a crack, it won’t really break my mother’s back. And eating the crusts will give you chest hair. My dad told me that, and then I never wanted to eat the crusts!
This is not exactly a debunked myth, but my dad used to tell me that eating raw potatoes would give me worms. I was on a camping trip in 6th grade where we cooked baked potatoes over the fire but they didn’t get cooked all the way through. I freaked out and told everyone that we needed to cook them longer else we’d get worms. Everyone looked at me like I was CRAZY. I told my dad about it later and he broke out into hysterical laughter. He only told me that so I wouldn’t pick at the food while he was preparing dinner. Nice.
If you eat the seed, you will have a tree growing in your stomach …. gotta love that!
As someone who has suffered through multiple jellyfish stings, the two best things are vinegar and toothpaste! The life guards iN Hilton Head , where we vacation, carry spray bottles of vinegar to treat stings, which are common in the warm water. After the initial sting, toothpaste helps- PASTE, not gel. I think it’s the baking soda.
Lies I’ve debunked: if you cross your eyes they’ll get stuck that way, masturbating grows hair on your palms, butter is good for burns,
Lies I’ve told my kid: I count the candy, so I’ll know if you ate any, I have to test the Halloween candy for poison by eating all the peanut butter cups, eating a little dirt is good for the digestion
What about pregnancy myths?! My mother got so upset with me when I colored my hair while pregnant and swore that I had ruined my daughter’s hair! Apparently coloring your hair while pregnant can damage the baby’s hair. Yes, really. My daughter’s hair is thick and gorgeous (almost like Mazzy’s but a bit wavy). I showed you, mom!!!
Oh Joy! One little myth I tell my son is that if he eats too much cheese, that he will never be able to poop again. Even though we all know that he would only become a little constipated. He doesn’t seem to care when I tell him that though because he still tries to grab another slice from the fridge. I say to him, “You never want to poop ever again?” His response is, “Never, ever, again!”
Your face will freeze like that!!
I debunked a myth for someone that thought that it you reach over your head while pregnant, you could strangle your baby with their umbilical cord.
Also, I’m glad to know I can freely swallow gum now 🙂
After you point at a cemetery, you have to bite your finger or else it will fall off. Although I know this to be false I have yet to personally debunk it. Haha.
Vicks vapor rub may not cure everything, but it’s worked on most of the things I’ve tried it on. Or maybe I just waited long enough for problems to resolve on their own. Dunno. But I’m still keeping Vicks in the house.
My Dad always told me to eat my vegetables because it would grow hair on my chest – since I’m a girl I didn’t WANT hair on my chest! But I can tell you that I eat vegetables all the time and still do not have a hairy chest!
There’s apparently a degree of truth to the carrot myth, but only as it pertains to nutritional deficiencies and overall eye health- eating a lot of carrots is probably not going to let you ditch your glasses!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-carrots-improve-your-vision/
Your toes will not actually turn into raisins if you stay in the bath too long. I tell my kids this all the time but they are still afraid that it will happen.
My dad would say if while sitting around the campfire smoke got in your face to say “I hate white rabbits” a bunch of times. That never worked :p
My dad would say that if I ate my hair I would have hair grow on my tongue.