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 Identifying the most common sources of scald burns among very young
children can help caretakers learn to prevent these accidents
waiting to happen, researchers say.
“I wanted to make sure we had a good understanding of how scald
burns take place as we developed the scald prevention program,” said
Wendy Shields, who led the study. Shields and colleagues at the
Center for Injury Research and Policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, are preparing an
intervention for new mothers to teach them about scald burn risks.
Burns are one of the leading causes of injury and death among
children, and for younger children, scald burns are most common,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study team used The National Electronic Injury Surveillance
System (NEISS) database to identify 2,014 cases of scald burns in
children under age three between 2009 and 2012. NEISS tracks
injuries treated in 100 hospital emergency rooms across the country.
The research team looked at the cause of injury and where the
incident occurred as well as whether the patient was hospitalized.
They also noted the age of the injured child and other demographic
information.
About 58 percent of injured children were boys, and nearly half were
white. Just over half of patients were between one and two years
old, while about 23 percent were under one year and the rest were
between two and three years old.
Nearly all of the injuries, almost 98 percent, occurred in the home
and about three in four children were examined and then released
from the hospital.
For children under six months of age, the most common source of
scald injury was hot tap water, including baths in the tub or in a
sink. These made up almost half of all injuries.
Among children ages six months to three years, scalding was most
likely to be caused by children grabbing or pulling on containers of
hot liquids. These injuries typically occurred when the child pulled
on something like a cooking pot handle from below, or grabbed a hot
container such as a coffee cup or bowl of soup while being held by
an adult.
Steam-generating appliances like irons and humidifiers accounted for
about 4 percent of scald burns.
While most children in this study were not hospitalized for their
burns, Dr. Sharmila Dissanaike told Reuters Health in an email that
more significant burns can have serious long-term consequences.
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In addition to prolonged wound care or surgery, children also face
the possibility of “long term scarring, changes in pigmentation
(skin coloring) that can leave them with cosmetic, functional and
psychological issues that last into adulthood,” said Dissanaike,
director of the Burn Center of Research Excellence at Texas Tech
University in Lubbock, who was not involved with the study.
The CDC recommends that parents set their water heater’s thermostat
to 120 degrees Fahrenheit or lower to prevent bathtub scalding.
Shields agreed, saying that parents should also test the water
itself with a candy thermometer.
Based on the NEISS data, Shields and colleagues estimate there were
44,136 scald burns among children under age three nationally during
the four-year study period.
Dissanaike said in an email that there have been many efforts to
educate the public about the risk of hot bathwater, but the issue of
children grabbing hot liquids needs more focus.
She noted that not all liquids cool at the same rate, warning that
while a cup of tea may be cool after 20 minutes, something denser
like stew “may pose a risk to the toddler running around the table
even after 30-40 minutes.”
Dissanaike advised parents, “Be conscious that young children are
often more mobile than you realize, and will reach and pull at
tablecloths, hands, cups and pots for no apparent reason,” adding
that it’s a good idea to keep children away from food preparation
areas.
Shields said that families with young children should be careful
when consuming hot food or drinks while holding a baby. “We
recommend those caring for young child use a cup with lid when
drinking a hot beverage around them,” she said.
SOURCE: bmj.co/1cBTiKX Injury Prevention, online May 7, 2015.
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