Children may be exposed to burns as a result of hot liquids being spilled on them. To act in such a situation, German physician Peter Vogt (Director of the Hospital for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Hannover Medical College) advises the following:
- The first procedure: the child’s clothes that are wet with hot liquids must be taken off immediately, so that the source of heat is removed from the skin.
- The second procedure: Putting the burnt part under cold water for a short period of not more than 15 minutes, so that the body temperature does not drop sharply.
- No materials – such as flour, for example – should be placed on the burnt areas, because later in the hospital it will be difficult to remove them, which often causes a waste of valuable time.
Better prevention:
In order to avoid the child getting burns in the first place, the doctor recommended that a protective net be placed around the stove, so that the child would not be able to pull the utensils on the stove.
The electrical thread of the water boiler should also be kept out of the reach of the child, so that he does not have the opportunity to pull it, and the kettle will fall on him and burn him with its contents.
