Scalding big danger for kids

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX health reporter

Two-thirds of serious burns to children are caused by hot water, a statistic that alarms one of New Zealand's top burns surgeons.

Stephen Mills, co-director of the burns and plastics unit at Middlemore and Kidz First hospitals in South Auckland, says he sees about 150 cases a year of children scalded by water.

"I always say with children you need to have a healthy degree of paranoia. That's especially so in the kitchen or bathroom," he says.

"A kettle of hot water can cause death if not treated properly."

Dr Mills says parents need to be educated about the dangers.

He helped to start a Sky City Casino-funded national campaign which reminds adults that children see things differently.

From a child's eye view a pot on the stove may look like an army tank to play with, and an electric kettle cord can resemble a mouse's tail.

"Children should not be in the kitchen. It's the adults who have to remember that," says Dr Mills.

"It doesn't matter if you tell a child not to touch something hot.

"If you tell them not to, they will want to. It's up to the adults to keep the hot coffee and saucepans away from the children. It's not up to the children to stay away."

The number of serious burns to children is so steady that Kidz First has recently allocated two nurses to a fulltime outpatient clinic.

Children are released from hospital earlier but are seen daily by the nurses for dressing changes and monitoring.

The service operates every day of the week to meet the increasing demand.

Dr Mills says some parents may not be aware how best to deal with a child who has been burned.

The most important thing to do first is to stop the cause of the burn - remove any clothing saturated by the hot water, turn off the power supply in an electrical burn, or put out the flames if the child's clothing has caught fire.

Then apply cold running water to the burn, preferably for 20 minutes.

Under the shower is best, and if it is difficult to remove clothing beforehand, Dr Mills suggests doing so while the child is under the running water.

"By that time someone will have hopefully organised an ambulance and the child will get to specialist care."