If you have developed blisters on the soles of your feet, should or do you pop them?

They are probably going to pop anyway if you keep walking. I personally would lance mine so they will begin to heal and try not to walk much. They need air.

My take is that blisters are natures bandages. You will heal better the longer you can handle keeping them. Once they pop you are open to infection.

Hrm. Both sides. I will just try to bandage them for cushion and continue.

Thanks for the answers.

I always carefully slice them with a disinfected razor blade, and then swath them in disinfectant gel and bandages.

Do not pop them! Cover them with a bandaid.

Don’t pop them! Trust a longtime type 1 diabetic to know about foot care! Seriously.
@Judi put it very well. Nature’s bandages.
Clean them gently with warm water and soap, dry them thoroughly, and if you have to keep walking, put 2–3 band-aids over them, and then wear 2 layers of socks, preferably cotton. Keep them as dry as possible. Stay off your feet as much as possible until they heal. They will just disappear as you reduce the extra pressure you have been putting on those areas.
If you pop it, you do indeed open yourself up to infection. Why create a wound at all when you don’t have one in the first place???

As a tennis player who has had many blisters, sometimes if there was a nurse available they would lance and bandage. If no nurse I am not up to inflicting pain on myself so I just let them dry up and fade away. I don’t think either is really a quick fix so cushion them as much as you can and be patient.

For future reference, I bought some gel inserts to put in my shoes when I recently experienced this problem. They helped immensely. So in future, if you can’t get new shoes, keep some of those in your bag.

if you can find something called Compeed it will save your feet. go to a chemist or pharmacy and ask for compeed and put in on your blisters.

Before you get blisters you should feel a ‘hot spot’ where the shoe is rubbing too much on a spot. This usually happens before the blister. That is the time to apply Moleskin to protect the spot from further friction. After the blister is there, it’s better not to lance it, but it will burst anyway so I always lance it on the edge and apply a small bandage to keep it clean and apply a little neosporin. Cover the area with moleskin or even duct tape to keep friction off the area. At the end of each day, thoroughly clean and allow the area to dry. Remove the skin if it comes off easy and reapply neosporin (or alcohol) it the skin does not come off easily, leave it on. Re-bandage and tape the area to keep it clean until it heals.

I always preferred to take a sterilized needle and make one or two small punctures in order to squeeze out the excess liquid as I found that leaving them to pop on their own made a bigger and unpredictable tear.

This way I was able to take off thepressure caused by the swelling of all the liquid inside but still keep the skin covering up the blister and protecting it. I was usually able to keep most of the fluid squeezed out if I paid attention; it really did help alleviate the pain significantly.

By the time it developed a larger tear just from friction, it had already dried up and the area underneath had started healing so it wasn’t that raw anymore.

Just be certain the needle is sterilized well.

It is interesting that everyone has a different answer.

Thank you all for the input and the advice especially on how to prevent the forming of them. I will use that information in the future.

As of now I think I will combine all these various and conflicting ideas into my very own rendition. Thanks for contributing to them.

Weird, I’ve never known a blister to pop on its own… But I have to be much more careful of my feet than non-diabeets. Cause of gangrene and stuff.

I honestly can’t remember if I had a blister that popped on it’s own.

I am aware of the importance of foot care, nail care etc. It is good you are very proactive about it.

Probably the wrong word to say the blister will ‘pop’ on it’s own. Rather, continued friction will cause the loosened skin to tear in an uncontrolled manner. On the trail, that is something to avoid. It is better to keep the skin in place to keep a relatively sterile cover over the blister (which is a wound although we kind of trivialize them until it stops us in our tracks) That is why some will drain the fluid depending on the location of the wound and take steps to reduce friction on the spot until they can stop to let it dry properly. The ideal situation is to stop and evaluate your feet occasionally to avoid getting blisters in the first place. Using plenty of powder and changing socks frequently to keep your feet dry and friction/abrasion free. Personally I would stop every 5 miles or so to evaluate and examine my feet. God only gave us two to last a lifetime, gotta take care of them wheels. :)

I would never recommend popping blisters! I would recommend using something like compeed blister which soothe, protect and cushion.

Here’s more information about treating blisters you might find useful.

http://www.simplyfeet.co.uk/index.php/news/running-blisters-treatment-and-prevention/

Hope this helps!