Burns: Prevention
Follow these guidelines to protect your child from common
burns.
- Never drink anything hot (such as coffee, tea, or cocoa)
when you are holding a baby. The baby will reach for it,
spill it, and probably get burned.
- Try to use the back burners of a stove and keep
panhandles turned toward the back of the stove.
- After your child can walk, keep hot liquids and
appliances (such as a pan of boiling water, a coffee pot,
a curling iron, or an iron) away from the edge of a
table, counter, or stove. A burn from a crockpot usually
causes scarring because the contents are sticky and very
hot.
- Lower your hot-water heater setting to 125°F (54°C) or
the "low" setting. Water heated at higher settings can
cause burns in 2 or 3 seconds. You can test the
temperature of your hot water by using a candy or meat
thermometer.
- Always test the temperature of bath water before your
child gets into the tub. Supervise young children in the
bathtub. Don't let a young child touch the faucet
handles. He or she may turn on the hot water and be
scalded.
- Use cool humidifiers, not hot steam vaporizers. A
vaporizer can cause severe burns if a child overturns it
or puts his face too close to it.
- Supervise children around fires, stoves, and heaters of
any kind.
- Use flame-resistant sleepwear.
- Give up smoking, or at least carefully dispose of used
cigarettes. Cigarettes are the most common cause of
fires in homes.
- Keep cigarette lighters away from children. Even a
2-year-old child can ignite one by inverting it and
pushing it across the floor.
- Install smoke detectors in your home on every floor.
Check them monthly for proper functioning. More people
die from smoke inhalation than from burns. Smoke alarms
detect smoke long before your nose can.
- Teach your children not to hide if a fire occurs in the
house. Teach them to go outside. Rehearse and have a
fire drill.
- Before you place a child less than 1 year old in a car
seat, check the seat's temperature. Hot straps or
buckles can cause second-degree burns. Whenever you park
in direct sunlight, cover the car seat with a towel or
sheet.
- Avoid fireworks, or allow older children to use them only
with close adult supervision. In addition to burns,
fireworks (especially bottle rockets) cause 300 cases of
blindness per year.
Written by B.D. Schmitt, M.D., author of "Your Child's Health," Bantam Books.
This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to
change as new health information becomes available. The
information is intended to inform and educate and is not a
replacement for medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or
treatment by a healthcare professional.
Copyright © 2006 McKesson Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved.