On Dakin's Solution

                

This is a bottle of commercially prepared Dakin's Solution.

                Recently, I was in Wal-Mart buying supplies, and when I got to the check-out, the woman who was scanning my purchases, had a rather significant bandage on her arm.  All these years of being a nurse hasn't yet taught me to mind my own business, and so I asked what she had done.  She told me that she had cut the arm recently, and that due to the COVID-19, she was unable to buy either hydrogen peroxide or isopropyl alcohol, and so she had just washed the wound in soap and water.  It was reddened and slightly infected.  I asked her if she knew how to make Dakin's Solution. She responded that she had never heard of it.

                    I quickly explained in the empty Wal-Mart, that Dakin's is a solution used by doctors dating back to WW I, but that even in hospitals today, occasionally nurses will see an order for it for a particular use or a particular patient.  Although we generally buy a commercial Dakin's Solution, it can also be made at home

                     Below is the University of Virginia Medical Center recipe for it.  Please note that one should use an unthickened, plain bottled bleach without lemon, lavender or other additives. It would probably also be best to use the name brand Chlorox if you are buying some, simply because we have a better assurance of strength.

                      For many things, including the cleaning of a superficial wound when you have no other available antiseptic, 1/8 strength below should be adequate.  For special uses, please ask your physician.  

                 Store your fresh Dakin's solution in a glass lidded jar,  clean or even a sterile jar, like a canning jar.  Ideally, we throw away the solution 48 hours after we make it.  It must also be kept away from children.


                   I saw the woman in Wal-Mart again three weeks later.  They still have no peroxide or alcohol, but her wound has healed, and she did make the Dakin's solution as I had suggested.


                    Print this recipe out, next time you need it.   Don't forget that plain Chlorox can also be used a couple of tablespoons to a sink full of dishes when someone in your home is ill, or when your dishwasher is non-functional or non-existent. Make sure you rinse your dishes well afterward.