Search for tag: "burn prevention"

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.

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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

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