Forget the tweezers! The ingenious way to remove tricky and painful splinters

They may be small but splinters can be a real pain for adults and children alike as they get stuck deep under the skin with seemingly no easy way to reach them.

While tweezers may provide some help with reaching the annoying little piece of wood, sometimes it just won’t budge and other methods are needed to relieve the pain.

That is when it’s time to head to the kitchen for the one item that without a doubt will help to remove the pesky splinter that has found its home in a finger or toe.

While baking soda is usually used in cooking to make food rise it has a myriad of other uses, including helping to get splinters out from under the skin.

Before you start using the popular ingredient on the skin it’s important not to squeeze the area, as this could make the problem worse. Then take a magnifying glass, if you need it, or a good pair of glasses, and try see what angle the splinter entered your skin at.

Next, it’s best to clean the area and dry it thoroughly. Soap and water is all you need and gently pat the area dry with paper towel. Make sure your hands are clean too while working with the area that has the splinter. You don’t want an infection!

Then comes the baking soda. Mix a few tablespoons of it with water in a small container until you have a thick paste that you can spread on your skin. Dab the paste onto the area with the splinter. Gently does it, as you don’t want to push the splinter further under the skin.

Once this is complete, cover the area with a band-aid completely and leave it alone. Hard to do, but you need to leave it on there for a few hours, ideally 24 hours for deep splinters.

When you remove the band-aid the splinter, in most cases, will come out too. If it doesn’t work the first time, try again.

Have you ever used baking soda to remove a splinter? What other ways have you found helpful to remove one?