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As a new parent, you’ve probably taken…
Date Recorded
February 06, 2017 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness
Kids Health Transcription
Interviewer: Are you a new parent? Well, here are three burn dangers you need to watch out for. We'll examine that next on The Scope.
Woman: Health tips, medical news, research, and more for a happier, healthier life. From University of Utah Health Sciences, this is The Scope.
Interviewer: When you bring a brand new baby home, there are a lot of things that you've got to make sure that your house is safe for them. One of the things you have to start thinking about is potential burn dangers, and we're going to talk about three things you should do . . . three burn dangers you should watch out for when you bring that new child home or you have a new child in the house. Annette Matherly is with the University of Utah Burn Center. Let's cover these three things: number one . . .
Annette: Number one would absolutely be that beautiful glass fronted gas fireplace, which is quite a mouthful for me to say, but that fire is really attractive to young children and that glass stays hot for at least an hour after it's turned off. So it's not just when the fire is on that it's hot. It's when it's off and it looks safe that it remains hot enough to burn a child in about a second.
Interviewer: And I think that's really surprising when people find that out because they think that that glass is like the glass in your oven, right? The oven could be at 450 degrees. You could touch that glass. You're fine. The glass fronted fireplace, not that kind of glass.
Annette: Absolutely not, which is strange because it's about 1,300 degrees when it's hot, which is crazy to think about. And so, now, there's legislation moving forward to ensure that everybody puts a guard around that glass fronted fireplace, but that doesn't protect you if you go to a vacation spot or a hotel or a restaurant that doesn't have that guard around or it doesn't protect you if you've had your glass fronted gas fireplace in for a while and you're not aware of the danger surrounding that.
Interviewer: All right. So, remember, that glass front fireplace, it's pretty, it's like a magnet that kids' hands would love to go up there and it stays hot for a long time. So be aware of that. That's number one. If you're a new parent, you've got three burn dangers to watch out for: number two . . .
Annette: Number two would be hot liquids burn like fire, which seems counterintuitive because we think fire burns like fire. We don't think of something in a cup burning like fire, but to know that hot water right from your water heater is set at about 146 if you haven't turned it down. And so a suggestion to new parents, especially because that child has much thinner skin than an adult, would be to turn that water heater down to 120. You can measure that by putting a candy thermometer in the first water that comes out of your tap and then it's usually a low, medium setting.
Interviewer: So the default settings for hot water heaters is 146.
Annette: 146.
Interviewer: And how long does that take to burn a child?
Annette: Two seconds for a significant injury to occur.
Interviewer: And 120 is a little safer or a lot safer?
Annette: Absolutely. So it doesn't mean that you won't get burn injured, but what it means is that there's some more time. There's minutes as opposed to seconds.
Interviewer: And what about hot liquids like in your cup there that was hot, cups of coffee and stuff?
Annette: If you think about your Starbucks, or whatever it is, your beverage of choice, when a barista pours it, it's around 180, which is crazy if you think 146 is water that comes from your tap and burns you in two seconds. So 180 is outrageously high and much faster than that two second incident. So never carry your young child whilst carrying a hot beverage and ensure that your beverage stays away from countertops and tables, that tablecloths aren't used so young children can't pull on that tablecloth and pull that beverage down onto themselves.
Interviewer: And maybe go out and buy some mugs like your fancy one three with that airtight seal on it.
Annette: Absolutely. My beautiful silver one, so, you know, if you've got a young child then we usually say, "got a kid, get a lid."
Interviewer: Okay. Very good. All right. So glass front fireplaces, hot liquids burn like fire, what's the third thing that new parents should watch out for as far as burn dangers are concerned?
Annette: So we talk about a three-foot safety zone around a lot of things. So around a campfire would be another thing, but also around your cooking area. So, if you have a small child, I know it's not always possible to put a physical three-foot marker with duct tape on the floor. Most people don't want that in their beautiful kitchens.
Interviewer: You could.
Annette: You absolutely could, but to think visually where that marker would be, especially when you have little children roaming around or a brand new infant because that also includes cooking with a child in your arms. So to be aware of what you are holding in that precious bundle and is it worth the risk.
Interviewer: And other than the stove, a lot of people don't really realize the microwave, stuff that comes out of there can be dangerous, ramen noodles, boiling water.
Annette: Absolutely. So ramen noodles are the number one for teens because teens come home from school. They go and they put something hot in the microwave, and oftentimes, again, like you said, it's above head level, and so they're reaching to pull something down and they'll pull it right down on their face.
Interviewer: Yeah. And if you have a child in your arm and you reach up with one hand, you fumble that item. It doesn't take long.
Annette: Absolutely.
Interviewer: All right. So those are the three really good things to watch out for if you're a new parent because a lot of burn prevention is just awareness and implementing some of these changes in your household. Do you have any other final advice for that new parent coming home with that new child to keep them more burn safe?
Annette: So the last thing would be burn prevention is a team sport. We work as a team to ensure that each other is kept safe so when you bring home your new child then to talk to others that are maybe not familiar with the dangers that you've just heard about. So maybe grandparents, maybe babysitters would be another really important one as you go out on a date with your partner and leave your child in the care of another. And so, to ensure that they're aware of the things that could really cause lifelong injury to a small child would be really important to mention before you leave.
Interviewer: And having these conversations really can make a difference.
Annette: Absolutely. Most burns are preventable. It is very, very infrequently that we see somebody come through our unit that it could not have been prevented. So, to know and to educate yourself about the dangers of fire and then to educate those around you would be really important.
Announcer: Want The Scope delivered straight to your inbox? Enter your email address at thescoperadio.com and click "Sign me up" for updates of our latest episodes. The Scope Radio is a production of University of Utah Health Sciences.
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If your child were to suffer a burn, would…
Date Recorded
February 08, 2017 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness
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Scalds are the most common burn injury for…
Date Recorded
February 06, 2023 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness
Kids Health Transcription
Interviewer: What to do if your child gets scalded. We'll talk about that next on The Scope.
Annette Matherly is with the University of Utah Burn Center. Scald injuries, of course prevention is always the best thing you can do, is you want to prevent a scald injury because they are devastating, they're painful, and they can last a lifetime. But if you can't prevent it, if something happens, what do you do? We're going to find out right now. First of all, scald injuries, they're pretty common right? Is that the burn injury?
Annette: It is. In fact it's the top burn injury for those under the age of five. But scalds are on the gamut of age, so there's no one safe from hot liquids.
Interviewer: Under five, really important you pay attention. But just kids in general, they're all getting them.
Annette: Absolutely.
Interviewer: So why are scald injuries so terrible? What makes them so bad?
Annette: Well, I think it's because you don't realize that things are so hot. In fact, we teach our children that hot liquids burn like fire. But when you have a hot frappuccino or your beverage of choice in your hand, you don't think that it's 160 Fahrenheit, and that can cause a burn injury in just one second in a child. If you think about the water that comes from your tap, if you haven't turned your hot water heater down, then that water is about 146 which would cause injury in a couple of seconds. So it's these things that we use every day that we don't think are dangerous that absolutely can cause devastating injury.
Interviewer: Yeah, I think that's because most of the time when you think scald injury you go back to school and they taught the pot of boiling water that's the thing that you got to watch out most for, but that's not even the case really, is it? I mean, it's dangerous but, some of these other things are more dangerous.
Annette: Absolutely. I'm not knocking the scalding water on the stove, because of course we should keep our pan handles in and cook on the back burner, and we have lots of children that come in that way too. And so, that's really important, that whole circle of safety around the stove. So to make sure there's about three feet that your child doesn't enter when you're cooking anything. So that's a cause of injury too but the bathtub scalds, the "I'm drinking a hot drink" scalds. In fact, the other thing that we say is, have a kid get a lid. So we want you to use lids on your travel mugs so that we can keep those injuries from occurring to small children.
Interviewer: Because those liquids we can handle drinking gets on young skin and it's just terrible.
Annette: Absolutely. They're so curious. They just want to reach up and they want to pull that cup down.
Interviewer: Prevention again, the most important thing you can do as far as you know, you just don't even want it to happen. But what should a parent do at that point?
Annette: Probably the easiest thing to remember is, the four C's. And those stand for cool it, so you want after the injury has occurred, you want to quickly take your child or take whoever's been injured and cool that injury under cool but not cold water for about 5 to 10 minutes. Take that heat out of the tissue, remember to remove any diapers or any clothing that the child has on because those can also retain heat.
The second thing that you want to do is clean it, and that includes the sticky noodles, the pieces of carrot or potato that are on the child, or inside the diaper. So you want to cool it, you want to clean it. And then, you want to keep your child warm.
So one of the most important things to do after you've cooled and cleaned it, is to cover your child in something that will cause them not to be cold, because we want to get heat to that area and open up those blood vessels, and allow perfusion to occur that's happened to an area of injury. So wrap a blanket or wrap a towel around the person that's injured, and then call for help. And that's much simpler I think than people imagine, because you can call from the community directly to the burn center and have your needs addressed right over the phone.
So if you have a child that's been injured you can call 801-581-2700, talk to one of our charge nurses that's on call 24 hours a day. Be linked in with a physician who can get you immediate assistance, whether that be being admitted to the burn center or an outpatient appointment, or hopefully just being able to take care of it at home with some simple instructions on what to do. And we've received many calls from the community and helped them.
So good rule of thumb to remember is, if its life threatening, then call 911 and get the help that you need. If it is a minor injury, even if you don't think it perhaps needs to be seen, then it's a good idea to call the burn center. We're on call 24 hours a day and at least run it by us, and we can help figure out if it should be seen or not. Because sometimes it doesn't look significant, but it can cause injury that maybe you wouldn't have thought of.
updated: February 6, 2023
originally published: February 4, 2015
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There’s nothing more devastating than…
Date Recorded
February 03, 2023 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness
Kids Health Transcription
Interviewer: Burn injuries are painful and can affect the person for the rest of their life. There's nothing more devastating than seeing your child with that kind of injury. Today we're going to find out what a parent whose child sustained a burn injury, we're going to find out their story and what he learned from the experience. That's coming up next on The Scope.
You know the pot of boiling water is kind of the quintessential burn hazard. That's one that everybody knows. But what about a hot drink or the hot water in the bath tub, or even chicken noodle soup which, believe it or not, can be really bad? And for the most part, burn injuries don't happen due to out and out negligence. It's just a matter of the right set of circumstances all coming together, kind of the perfect storm.
Hopefully the result of this conversation is you will think about things differently and be able to recognize those circumstances when they arise in your house. We're with Taylor Vowles, and Taylor's son sustained a burn injury not too long ago. First of all, I think a lot of people think this will never happen to us.
Taylor: Yeah, of course. Scot, I think you nailed it. I volunteered for the Boy Scouts of America for 20 years and you go over these first aid merit badge and other things and you think, "Wow, I've never had to face that situation." And you really don't think of it as a parent at all. It's not at the top of your mind.
Interviewer: Yeah. So tell me the story of your son. What kind of burn did he get?
Taylor: He got a second degree burn over 8% of his body, mainly on his leg. Initially, we didn't think it looked like a second degree burn but it we found out later how incredible painful it was.
Interviewer: Yeah. I think a lot of people kind of make that mistake. I think they take a look at that burn, this is what I've heard anyway from the burn center here, and they think, "Oh, it's not that bad. I don't need to contact anybody." They always recommend if you have a burn injury give them a call. So what did you do at that point? Well, let's back up. How did it happen?
Taylor: He was on roller blades. It was his birthday a few weeks before it happened and he got roller blades and it being cold outside he didn't have time to roller blade much outside. So he's wearing his roller blades in the house despite, we kind of have a family rule for him not to do it. He was rollerblading around in the house and he just learned, a 7-year old, this is like the first cooking thing they learn but he just learned to make a hot water ramen in the microwave. So he started making ramen in the microwave and he got it out and he was on his roller blades and all the water just came right down in his leg and the back of his rear, essentially.
Interviewer: I've heard that that's a burn danger not a lot of people are aware of, those ramen noodles, because the severity of burn are two things. It's temperature and time, and those noodles stick to your skin and increase the amount of time. Is that what happened with him?
Taylor: Yeah, I think so. And what also contributed to it is he had his roller blades on, so when the water came, the water rolled down his leg and it kind of settled at the top where the roller blade boot met his calf.
Interviewer: Oh, so it stayed there longer.
Taylor: So it even put a more severe line where that happened, but it got all over his leg. I mean, it was horrible.
Interviewer: Yeah. So then that happened, what happened after that point?
Taylor: Yeah. We didn't think it was that big of a deal. In fact, when we initially saw it he wasn't in too much pain. But I thought it best to take him to the instant care just to get it checked out anyway, and right when we got there they didn't even admit us. They just took one look at it and said, "You've got to get up to the burn center up the University of Utah. This is bad."
Interviewer: Yeah. They say that if that happens you can actually call the burn center directly which is something I'm sure you've learned since your experience. So you go to the burn center, what happened at that point?
Taylor: So they cleaned off the wound eventually of dead skin, skin that had seared off. And then they dressed it with clean dressings. And that was probably, of the whole process that's the least painful of the process because I think, at least my son, he was still in shock, he was handling it all very well. But later down the road when you have to go do the re-dressings, that's when it got really sketchy. I mean, the hardest part about the whole experience, really, is that redressing.
I mean, you have a kid who goes up there to get his burns redressed and he's a tough kid, right? He hasn't cried up to this point with the injury but then after, when he goes to get his burns redressed he literally has tears starting to come out of his eyes and then he's starting to shake with pain. The severity of pain is so bad he starts to shake for hours.
And then hours after than all your pain receptors are exposed, the new skin and because your pain receptors are exposed to air that's coming around you, the pain is just excruciating. That whole day, my wife said it was the worst day of her life. She cried for him. He cried and she said it just didn't stop for hours, and he's a tough little kid. The pain is really excruciating.
Interviewer: And this is all from a burn that at first glance didn't look like it was that big of a deal.
Taylor: Yeah, exactly.
Interviewer: Which I think is a good testimony that you should take all burns . . .
Taylor: Very seriously. And it's like the whole sunburn adage. You get a sunburn, it doesn't really hurt after, but the day after, within 24 hours you're singing a different tune.
Interviewer: Is there going to be any sort of long-term?
Taylor: The nice thing is the second degree burn on him, at least we've been told, you can still see it heavily now but there shouldn't be any long-term consequences.
Interviewer: But you just don't know.
Taylor: You don't know.
Interviewer: Some children, they get their hands burned, for example. They don't quite have full functionality for the rest of their life.
Taylor: It's a concern. I wonder, too. He tans up really easy. That's a part of his leg, too, where you go out swimming. I just wonder how it's going to affect him. I mean, he's 7 years old. He's got the next 50 years of his skin which is the largest living organism in your body.
Interviewer: Yeah. What did you learn from this experience? What's your takeaway?
Taylor: For me it's just being vigilant with your kids, common sense type stuff. As parents you don't think it matters. Maybe your kids think you're too strict and I don't know if every parent's experience it but a lot of parents hear their kids say, "I hate you," or "That's a dumb rule," or "You're so dumb."
Interviewer: Yeah, like wearing roller blades in the house.
Taylor: Yeah, like wearing roller blades in the house.
Interviewer: That's stupid.
Taylor: I'm being pro-active. I mean, we probably should have said, "Can we help you with that? Can we help you get that hot dish out of that microwave?" Just being more aware of your surroundings because it happens in a second and you really can't prepare for it that well unless you're being vigilant.
Interviewer: Yeah. So it sounds like you see things a little differently now. When you go around the house do you see potential burn dangers?
Taylor: Yeah, burn dangers, sharp corners, everything. I've thought about burns before and I turned down our water heater a long time ago because I never wanted that to happen. I didn't want the hot water burns but I never thought of it with cooking.
Interviewer: Yeah. And especially microwaves. I don't think people think of that. There again, it come back to the quintessential burn dangers, that pot of boiling water. You're supposed to turn the handle in but there's a lot of other things as well. What one message would you communicate to a parent listening right now based on your experience?
Taylor: Well, watching the excruciating pain that my son had to go through and my wife who took him up when they had to redress the burn, it's not worth it. If you can do all you can to safeguard your kids and just watching them and helping them, it's kind of a tragedy, it happened so fast. It could have been a lot worst.
Interviewer: Yeah. I mean, you hate to kind of say that but the leg is probably one of the better places it could have landed.
Taylor: Yeah, exactly. And it landed on the outside of his leg. If it were to have landed on the inside of his leg it would have even been worse.
Interviewer: Yeah. Well, Taylor, thank you very much for sharing your experience. I'm sure it's difficult for you but hopefully if we could prevent one burn injury because somebody maybe notices now the set of circumstances arising or realizes how fast it happened, hopefully it was all worthwhile.
Taylor: Thanks, Scot.
updated: February 3, 2023
originally published: February 4, 2015 MetaDescription
There’s nothing more devastating than seeing your child suffer a painful, life-changing scalding burn injury. Most parents think it will never happen to their child. That’s what Taylor Vowles thought. Hear his story about the day his son got second-degree scald burns over 8% of his body. Listen and learn from his experience so that you can better prevent burn injuries from happening to your child.
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Every house probably has a portable heater.…
Date Recorded
February 20, 2014 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness Transcription
Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.
Interviewer: Probably just about every house has one. Talking about a portable heater, and you would think that they would be fairly safe, I mean, there is so much stuff in between you and those heating elements, how could you possible burn yourself? Well, you can burn yourself.
Annette Matherly is the Outreach Education and Burn Disaster Coordinator at the Burn Center at University of Utah Health Care. I wouldn't think that a portable heater would be a serious burn hazard, but it is.
Annette Matherly: Absolutely. Especially if it's in a kid's room. Kids are naturally curious about hot things. You know, when they're a year old, we give them a candle with a cake and they blow it out and they think they can control fire, and then we reward them with gifts and cake so why are we surprised when they want to prod and play and light fires and touch fires?
So obviously children are very curious about fire, and so they will touch it. They will touch the bars. They will put things in it. Kids, again, love to play and they'll build tents, and they'll put the heater in the tent because the tent is cold, and they'll put things around the fire, and they'll throw clothes in a pile, and those clothes are too close to those fires. There should be a three foot radius around any portable heater, and when those things are closer than that, they will ignite and they will ignite very quickly.
Interviewer: So the real danger of portable heaters more so is of a fire starting, not so much, I'm touching it I'm going to get burned.
Annette Matherly: Absolutely.
Interviewer: Even with the modern-day heaters with all of these safety things? I mean, my heater, sometimes it just shuts off when I get too close to it because I don't know why.
Annette Matherly: Well, you know the heaters that blow hot air are a little bit different. Oftentimes the heaters that cause the fires are propane heaters . . .
Interviewer: Oh, okay.
Annette Matherly: . . . and are the electric heaters with the coils. And so, those get extremely hot and oftentimes they have open bars. And so those are usually what catches, ignites curtains and then the curtains catch on fire.
The other thing with propane heaters, or actually with any heater is that if you are working in a garage, so let's say you have your heater in the garage and maybe you are working with an accelerant and those fumes that come off those accelerants are pretty dense and they travel really fast and when they hit the heater, they can ignite.
Interviewer: Let's talk about some preventative things as kind of our final thought here. What are some things you can do with portable heaters to prevent these things from happening?
Annette Matherly: You know, always, always have a three foot radius around any heater no matter what kind of heater it is. You know, make sure that your bedding isn't close, make sure that the curtains aren't close. Sometimes we have long curtains that drape down against a heater that's on the wall.
Talk to our children and to our families about the importance of staying away, you know, knowing that children are naturally curious and love that warm glow, to talk to our children and to say, you know, this is hot and let's talk about what hot is.
The other thing would be to always have a home escape plan, to make sure that in the worst possible scenario if something were to happen, that our families and ourselves have a plan that we can talk to our kids about stop, dropping, and rolling in case they, you know, they catch on fire from backing too close whether it be at our home or it be a neighbor's home.
Also, to talk to them about the basics going back to kindergarten, and to make sure that we have a place to meet outside of the home, a safe meeting place. A place where everyone can gather so that firefighters, when they're fighting a blaze in that house aren't going back in for a child that's maybe in the backyard or a parent that's in the backyard when people think that they're still in the house.
Interviewer: Any final thoughts or anything that I forgot to mention?
Annette Matherly: You know, I guess the final thought would be that burn injuries last a lifetime. They are painful, they take a lot of recovery time, they take a lot of psychological recovery too. You know, when you have been in an event engulfed in flames, that memory lasts a long time and sometimes lasts a lifetime, and so the recovery process might be a few weeks in the burn center, but it might be years and it might be a lifetime post-injury.
Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. This is The Scope, University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.
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There’s nothing better than gathering…
Date Recorded
January 29, 2014 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness
Kids Health Transcription
Interviewer: Medical news and research from the University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope. There's nothing better in the wintertime than gathering around a warm fireplace with the family, but it can be dangerous, and maybe in ways you haven't considered. We're talking with Brad Wiggins, Nurse Manager of Community Outreach of the University of Utah Healthcare Burn Center. So fireplaces and glass fireplaces is what you said you wanted to talk about. What's the difference between a regular, old school and a glass fireplace, and what's the concern?
Brad Wiggins: Sure. Well, they both have significant dangers for risk of burn injury. But particularly, this time of year here in Utah and throughout the Intermountain West, we really see a very high percentage of children, particularly toddlers, that do not understand the safety risks of how hot the glass gets. Parents leave a small child in a room where the fire's going, and I don't think, really, there's been a lot of emphasis on education to help people to understand the dangers of those risks and how detrimental it can be.
Interviewer: I'd imagine a lot of parents say, 'That's fire. That's bad.' But they never say, 'That's glass. That's hot.'
Brad Wiggins: Absolutely. I think that those are the risks of parenthood; the safety moments where you think everything's fine, and you find yourself trapped in one of those moments where, all of a sudden, it comes back to get you. I think that, really, the emphasis here is about education, teaching people, and getting the word out about those safety risks. Right now, particularly in an environment here where we have this incredibly difficult inversion, people do use a lot more natural gas fireplaces. They have a lot more glass, and the glass is getting bigger. People are choosing larger, more beautiful types of fireplaces. And they are beautiful, but they come with a very inherent risk.
Interviewer: How hot does that glass get?
Brad Wiggins: Greater than 350 degrees, actually.
Interviewer: You're kidding.
Brad Wiggins: No. It will actually give you a third degree burn in less than one second. And one of the biggest complications we see if it's toddlers who are pushing around the room and pushing off the furniture, they get to the glass, and they put both hands on, and they lean in with their weight. It's so hot that they actually end up sticking to the glass and they can't pull themselves off. It gives you a third degree burn to the entire palm or surface of your hand. So not only are you dealing with a burn, but you're dealing with a third degree burn that must be skin grafted, and it will impact the movement and the functionality of that hand for the rest of that child's life.
Interviewer: Is a child's skin more easily burned than an adult's? I mean, at 350 degrees, I don't know if it's really . . .
Brad Wiggins: Absolutely. But if you think about an adult's hand, they have callous all over it. They have a little bit more reaction time where they know they're touching something hot, and they pull off. So a toddler doesn't understand the instinct that once they touch something hot they should pull off. The reaction is different. They feel something hot. They feel the pain. They start screaming. They're looking around for someone to help them, and they don't remove their hands from the glass. They actually stay attached for a longer period of time, and it sounds absolutely horrible, it's incredibly difficult to recover from, and it really leads itself to a lot of long-term complications throughout life.
Interviewer: And I'd imagine also not just the physical pain, but there's some mental thing. I bet you'd never forget that.
Brad Wiggins: I'm sure that you won't. From a parent perspective, I think you deal with a lot of people who are not forgiving themselves for allowing that to happen in their home. Again, it's an accident just, like, if you get in a car accident. Things happen.
Interviewer: What about prevention other than trying to tell the child, 'Be careful,' which might be lost on the child? So what else do you recommend?
Brad Wiggins: The number one thing that you can do if you have a small child is don't use your glass fireplace. If you're going to be sitting in the room with your small child toddling around, don't turn the fireplace on. The second thing would be definitely get a screen in place. There's lots of different types of opportunities and different manufactures out there for you to find that actually have types of coverings that keep your child from actually getting to the glass fireplace.
Interviewer: Any final thoughts?
Brad Wiggins: If you walk into the room, the fireplace is on and you go to turn it off, it doesn't immediately cool the glass. It's actually been recorded that it takes almost 25 minutes for that glass to actually cool in that room to a safe, touchable thing. The other issue is that most of them are actually hot right now. Your pilot light's in there running. Whether you're at work or home or wherever you are, it might not be on, but it still actually has quite a bit of heat. You'll be surprised. So feel it and get an idea of what exactly what you're dealing with. Protect yourself. Put those screens around it. Turn them off. Teach your kids not to teach that area if possible. But still, at a toddler age, they just don't know. Again, don't use it. Put a screen around it if you have to use it for some reason and that's your main heating source for your home in the wintertime. Protect your young ones. Protect your families. Really pay attention to those safety needs of each of those children.
Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation, medicine. This is The Scope, the University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.
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Which burns can be treated at home, and which…
Date Recorded
September 24, 2013 Health Topics (The Scope Radio)
Family Health and Wellness Transcription
Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.
Host: At a family barbeque, everybody's laughing and having a good time. You lose track of the three year old for a couple seconds. They lean into the barbeque grill and they get burnt. How bad is really bad, and what should you do if that happens? Dr. Stephen Morris, medical director for the University of Utah Burn Center is going to help us answer some of those questions. First of all, when it comes to burns, what's bad, what's really bad and how do I know as a normal person?
Dr. Stephen Morris: We look at burns maybe a little differently than you might in the community. We know they all hurt, but in fact, the worse they are sometimes the less they hurt. If it is your fingertip it's going to hurt a lot or your palm or if you step on some hot pavement and have a small area on the bottom of your foot, even though that hurts a lot, it's probably going to heal because it's partial thickness or second degree burn. That is, it doesn't go all of the way through the skin, so there's enough there to heal back. However, if a little kid falls into a fire, into a barbeque pit, and has very deep burns that are basically numb because not only is the skin burned, but the nerves are burned too, those can be some of the worst.
Host: So if you're touching it and it's numb that's a sure sign that you probably should go to an E.R. or call 9-1-1?
Dr. Stephen Morris: That's right.
Host: Okay. First degree is least dangerous and third degree is most dangerous.
Dr. Stephen Morris: Correct.
Host: If it's just a second degree burn what do I do to treat that?
Dr. Stephen Morris: Cleanliness is an important thing because if it gets dirty, if it's not well cared for infection will get started. You can get infection that spreads beginning at the burn out to areas that are not burned.
Host: It's a painful thing. Do you use just soap and water? What do you use to clean it?
Dr. Stephen Morris: Soap and water is a great thing. Just wash it off with a washcloth, soap and water, and put a little burn ointment or a band-aid on it if it's small. If it takes more than that you ought to get in to see a doctor.
Host: Okay. I'm going to draw an analogy here. For your ears an airplane would produce so many decibels of sound which they would say that's very dangerous to your hearing. Are there things around the house you could look at like that boiling pot of water and go, "That's going to generate probably only a second degree burn if it contacts the skin for a second." Is there any way that you can judge the dangers in your house?
Dr. Stephen Morris: Yes, we normally don't check the temperature of the bath or of water on the stove. If it's bubbling at this elevation you know it's going to be close to 190 or 195 degrees. That in a matter of a second or less is going to cause a very serious burn. We recommend that you check your water temperature. You can use a candy thermometer early in the morning, turn the water on long enough for it to heat up and check the temperature. Make sure that it's less than 130 degrees.
Host: A lot of times it's kids that are getting burned, and a lot of times those burns are happening in the house. Let's talk prevention for a second.
Dr. Stephen Morris: Sure, we would much rather see safe and healthy children than have to take care of them here. For that reason it's important that you remember the kitchen and the bathroom are two of the most dangerous and perhaps even deadly places in the home for a number of reasons. Burns are really near the top of that list. When there's a small child they should not be left unaccompanied in the kitchen particularly while cooking is going on or in the bathroom particularly when there is a tub full of hot water and the potential for tap water which could cause serious burns.
Host: Or curling irons.
Dr. Stephen Morris: Curling irons are all over the place. Treadmills are another danger in the home that people don't think about. Friction burns can happen basically instantaneously and you have to make sure that little children won't be sticking their hands under that whirring belt. We think about treadmills making us healthy, but they can also hurt us.
Host: You don't think of burns coming from a friction burn. That's a great point. What are some sources of friction burns that you might want to watch out for?
Dr. Stephen Morris: Well, I think that certainly treadmills are something that we see a lot of, bicycles, motorcycles, any place where there is a very rapidly moving object near a not so rapidly moving kid, that's danger.
Host: What other causes of burns have you seen here that might surprise a regular person?
Dr. Stephen Morris: I think most people think about fireworks, barbeques and fire pits. Despite the fact that everybody knows about it we still see little kids that are injured. I suspect probably a good rule of thumb is when you're around dangerous environments like that a kid under the age of two ought to be attached to an adult.
Host: What's the one take home that you would offer to our listeners at this point?
Dr. Stephen Morris: Many things in our lives we take for granted, such as a boiling pot of water or the radiator of a car, but a second or two tipping that pot of water or popping the radiator cap off can change your life unalterably forever, so always be aware.
Announcer: We're your daily dose of science, conversation and medicine. This is The Scope, University of Utah Health Sciences Radio.
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