If a dog has bitten your child, start by separating the child from the dog and assessing the wound. Most dog bites can be managed at home with proper cleaning, but bites to the face, hands, feet, or genitals, deep puncture wounds, and any bite that won’t stop bleeding need emergency medical attention. What you do in the first few minutes matters for both infection prevention and healing.
Immediate First Aid Steps
Stay calm so your child can stay calm. Once you’ve moved the child to a safe area away from the dog, take a clear look at the wound. You’re checking for how deep it is, where it is on the body, and whether the bleeding is controllable.
For any bite that broke the skin, wash the wound with soap and water under pressure from a running faucet for at least five minutes. Don’t scrub the area, because that can bruise the tissue and make things worse. Just let the pressurized water do the work. After washing, apply an antiseptic cream and cover the wound with a clean bandage. If you have a povidone-iodine solution (the brown antiseptic found in most first aid kits), use that to irrigate the wound as well.
If the wound is bleeding heavily, apply firm pressure with a clean cloth and hold it for several minutes before attempting to wash. For deep wounds that are actively bleeding through the cloth, skip the home cleaning and head straight to the emergency room.
Which Bites Need Emergency Care
Not every dog bite requires an ER visit, but several types do. Get your child to a doctor right away if the bite is on the face, hands, feet, or genital area. These locations carry higher infection risk and often need specialized care. Puncture wounds, where a tooth went deep into the skin rather than tearing across it, also need professional attention because they’re difficult to clean thoroughly at home and can penetrate into bone, tendons, or joints.
You should also seek emergency care if the wound is large or has torn flaps of skin, if you can see fat or muscle tissue, if bleeding doesn’t stop after 10 to 15 minutes of steady pressure, or if your child shows signs of shock like pale skin, rapid breathing, or dizziness. Bites from an unknown or stray dog always warrant a medical visit because of rabies concerns.
Wounds older than eight hours generally shouldn’t be stitched closed because of the elevated infection risk, so timing matters. If a bite looks like it might need stitches, don’t wait.
Infection Risk and Warning Signs
Between 3% and 18% of dog bites become infected. That’s lower than cat bites, but still significant enough to watch closely. Dog mouths contain a mix of bacteria, with the most common being Pasteurella species (found in about half of dog bite wounds), along with Streptococcus and Staphylococcus bacteria.
In the days after the bite, watch the wound for signs of infection: increasing redness that spreads outward from the wound, swelling, warmth, pus or cloudy drainage, red streaks extending from the wound, fever, or increasing pain rather than gradual improvement. Infections can begin developing within one to two days of the bite. If you notice any of these signs, get your child to a doctor promptly. Infected bite wounds typically need antibiotics.
Doctors are more likely to prescribe preventive antibiotics before infection even appears for puncture wounds, bites on the face or hands, deep bites with crushed or torn tissue, bites that were stitched closed, and children with weakened immune systems.
Tetanus and Rabies Vaccination
Check your child’s vaccination records. A tetanus booster is generally needed if your child hasn’t had one in the past 10 years, or if you’re unsure of when the last shot was given. If a booster is needed, it should be administered within 72 hours of the bite.
Rabies is rare in domestic dogs in the United States, but it’s fatal once symptoms appear, so it’s taken seriously. If the dog is a known household pet with current vaccinations, rabies treatment is almost certainly unnecessary. If the dog is a stray, unvaccinated, or behaving strangely, your child may need rabies post-exposure treatment. This involves a series of four vaccine injections given over two weeks (on the day of the bite, then at days 3, 7, and 14), plus a dose of rabies immune globulin at the wound site. It’s not the painful ordeal it once was, and it’s highly effective when started promptly.
If the biting dog can be identified and located, animal control will typically quarantine it for 10 days to observe for signs of rabies. This observation period can determine whether your child needs the full course of treatment.
Reporting the Bite
Most states require dog bites that break the skin to be reported to your local health department or animal control. Even if the dog belongs to you, a family member, or a neighbor, reporting is important. It creates a record that helps public health officials track rabies risk and identify dangerous animals. Contact your local animal control agency to file a report. They’ll want to know when and where the bite happened, a description or identification of the dog, the dog’s vaccination status if known, and the extent of your child’s injuries.
Minimizing Scars
Dog bites on a child’s face and arms are common, and scarring is a real concern for parents. It takes up to a full year for scars to completely mature, so the appearance in the first weeks is not the final result. In the early stages, scars are typically thick, red, and raised. Over time they flatten and lighten.
Once any stitches have been removed and the scab has fallen off (usually two to three weeks after the injury), you can begin scar massage. For the first two to four weeks, gently rub along the line of the wound for five to 10 minutes, twice a day, using enough pressure to briefly blanch the scar from pink to pale. Use an unscented moisturizer, vitamin E oil, aloe vera gel, or a product like Aquaphor or Mederma. After about four weeks, switch to massaging in all directions: up, down, side to side, and in circular motions.
Silicone sheets or tape, available over the counter or sometimes prescribed by a doctor, help flatten and soften scars. Protect your child’s scar from the sun with SPF 30 or higher sunscreen that blocks both UVA and UVB rays. Sun exposure can permanently darken a healing scar.
Deciding What to Do About the Dog
This is often the hardest part, especially when the dog belongs to your family. Research on dogs that bite children has found that every dog evaluated for child-directed aggression in one major study had an identifiable behavioral or medical issue. Two-thirds of these dogs had no prior history of biting children, meaning the first bite often comes without obvious warning.
Dogs with a history of fearful or anxious behavior, such as reacting to loud noises, thunderstorms, or being separated from their owner, may be more prone to biting in stressful situations. Young children are particularly at risk because their high-pitched voices, sudden movements, and unpredictable behavior can trigger fear-based aggression in anxious dogs.
Half of the dogs in that study had a medical condition that may have contributed to the bite. Pain and illness increase irritability, and a dog that has never snapped before may do so when it’s hurting and a child gets too close. If your dog bit your child, a veterinary exam is a reasonable first step to rule out underlying pain or illness.
A professional behavioral assessment from a veterinary behaviorist (not just a trainer) can help determine whether the dog can safely remain in the home. Until that assessment happens, keep the dog completely separated from your child and any other children in the household.
Your Child’s Emotional Recovery
The physical wound is only part of the picture. Many children develop a lasting fear of dogs after being bitten, and some experience symptoms that look like post-traumatic stress: nightmares, avoiding places where they might see dogs, becoming clingy or withdrawn, regressing in behavior, or showing unusual irritability. Younger children may not be able to articulate what they’re feeling, so watch for behavioral changes in the weeks following the bite.
Talk to your child about what happened in an age-appropriate way. Validate their fear rather than dismissing it. Saying “that must have been really scary” is more helpful than “you’re fine, don’t worry about it.” If your child’s fear of dogs persists beyond a few weeks or starts interfering with normal activities like playing outside or visiting friends’ houses, a child psychologist experienced in trauma can help. Gradual, guided re-exposure to friendly dogs, at your child’s own pace, is the most effective approach for overcoming a dog phobia after a bite.