PEDIATRIC BURNS AND SCALDS
There is important new research out that parents need to pay attention to guard against the accidents that could lead to pediatric burns. We all think that home is a safe place, and in most instances it is. But it does have many danger areas, especially for the tiniest children.
This latest research suggests that parents need to do a check and double check to make sure their children are safe from burns and scalds, especially in the kitchen.
“I’ll put him in the high chair, put toys on top of his chair, and just talk to him while I’m cooking so he’s usually never hear the stove. I keep him a couple of feet back should anything splatter.” Samantha Newfield takes good care of one and a half year old Tristan. “If you say hot he’ll usually walk away from it,” says Samantha.
In fact, the knobs in Tristan’s house are usually off the stove, which are usually fun toys for a young child.
And they’re just one of the booby traps for kids in the kitchen.
New research released by the American Academy of Pediatrics and released by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shows during a six-year period, more than 17,000 pediatric burn cases i.e. to children aged 5 years and younger were treated in emergency departments across the United States.
Dr. Richard Saladino, Chief of Emergency Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, says, “In this study 80% of the burns occurred in the kitchen typically from the kids pulling hot water or hot liquid onto themselves.”
But the kitchen is not the only place a child can be burned or scalded. The bathroom can also be dangerous. Hot bathwater is a common source of scalding.
“Water at 140 degrees can cause a full thickness burn, that is a third degree burn, in four to five seconds. So if your water temperature is set too high, you’re at very high risk for a serious burn in a child,” says Dr. Saladino.
Burns for the most part are much more severe than scalds. In this study, 99.9% of burns were treated and released while 25% of the scalds were either hospitalized or transferred.
“In the kitchen it’s very important to supervise children. To make sure that very young children don’t have access to the stove, don’t have access to those hot liquids,” Dr. Saladino states.
The other common reasons for scalds in the kitchen, after pulling a pot off the stove, were putting a hand in a pot or colliding with someone holding a pot. One year olds were most likely to be burned or scalded; this is because they’re mobile but with no judgment or knowledge.
Any hot liquids should be on the back burners of the stove. And all children should be instructed the stove is an off-limits area. Also, the maximum temperature of the hot water heater should be no greater than 120 degrees. This will help prevent scald burns in the bathroom. Water temperature should be tested before the child is placed in the bathtub, and the child should be placed facing away from the faucet so he or she can’t turn on the hot water. Taking precautions can ensure that the number of cases of pediatric burns does not rise too high.