Boiling water burn in a child: first aid and home treatment

One of the most common injuries among children is burns. Among burn injuries are led by boiling water burns, which the baby receives mainly at home. Even very careful and prudent parents, it is important to know how to act if the baby is burned, how to help him and how to treat it.

Boiled water burns are classified as thermal lesions. With them, the skin and the deeper layers of the skin are affected by high temperatures (water boils at +100 degrees Celsius). Such burns in a child are usually not too large in area, although it all depends on how much boiling water the baby poured on itself. Sometimes boils of burns are 1 degree, however, much more often such injuries are deeper - at the level of 2-3 degrees.

When the first degree of burn injury affects only the outer layer of the epidermis, which is characterized by redness, soreness and a small swelling of the area where the boiling water fell. In the second, the outer layer and a small part of the dermis located under it are affected. Therefore, blisters and blisters appear, filled with turbid serous fluid. The third degree of burn is a deeper injury, in which the dermis suffers, even to the subcutaneous fatty tissue. The outer layer (epidermis) is almost always broken, there is a wound. There is also the fourth stage, in which the integuments die completely, the bones and muscle tissues are charred, but with a burn of boiling water of this stage does not happen.

If a child is burned with hot water, parents should immediately remove all clothing that has become wet, minimizing contact with the skin. Then, assess the extent and area of ​​injury - it is important to know which algorithm to choose. If a child has a superficial burn of 1-2 degrees, then a call to the doctor, provided that the injury is not extensive, is not required. If large blisters filled with bloody liquid are formed rather quickly, the skin is broken, it is necessary to call a doctor.

The burn area can be estimated at home rather quickly. Doctors consider it this way: each limb and back - 9% of body area, head and shoulders - 21%, and butt - 18%. Thus, if the baby only poured boiling water over his hand, then this is about 2.5%, and if the hand and tummy - there is already 11.5%. A baby necessarily needs qualified medical assistance if about 15% of the body has suffered with a minor degree of burn and if 5-7% of the body area has suffered with a deep (3 degree) burn. After a quick assessment of the situation, the parents either call an ambulance, if the area is large or the burn is very deep, or they are set up for home treatment. In any case, emergency care must be provided correctly.

In case of burns with boiling water it is forbidden to lubricate the injured place with sour cream, fat, butter or baby cream. This will only disrupt the heat transfer and worsen the healing process, as well as deliver additional pain. First of all, you need to do everything to cool the affected area. To do this, use cool running water, substituting for her burned part of the body for 10-15 minutes. Then this sheet is moistened with a sheet or a diaper made of natural fabric and applied to the burn.

After that, you need to measure the baby temperature. Thermal burns of grade 2 and higher often increase. If necessary, you can give a febrifuge ("Paracetamol" or "Ibuprofen"), as well as a single age dose of any antihistamine ("Suprastin", "Loradatin"). Antiallergic drugs can effectively relieve swelling.

The affected area can be treated with a spray with lidocaine to numb, and also powder the injured area of ​​the skin «Baneocin» (not ointment of the same name, namely, powder!). After that, a light, dry, dry bandage is applied to the burn and the child is taken to the emergency room or the nearest hospital for treatment. If the degree is small and the area of ​​the lesion is also small, treatment can be planned independently, with the obligatory observance of all the rules of treatment for such injuries.

In the treatment of burns with boiling water antibiotics are not required. They are needed only when there are blisters on the skin that burst easily, because it increases the likelihood of infection of the wound with bacteria and fungi. Self-blistering and blistering is strictly prohibited.

With such a burn (from 2 degrees) it is important that the doctor prescribes the treatment. Usually hospitalization is not required, but in case of extensive lesions in an infant or toddler up to 2-3 years old, it is desirable to undergo treatment in a hospital. Treatment of thermal burns is aimed at relieving pain, eliminating a possible infection, as well as the earliest tissue regeneration.. At home, parents will be required to do dressings and handle the place of injury.

If there are blisters, it is better to use a dressing for several days. Each treatment should include:

• Treatment burn antiseptics. You do not need to use alcohol-containing drugs. The best solution is furatsilina or hydrogen peroxide. When processing it is not necessary to rub the tool in a sore spot, it will bring a lot of discomfort. You can use a cotton swab.
• The main drug. If no blisters, then use the means for the fastest tissue regeneration. Healing ointments and creams can be applied on a soft clean medical napkin and applied to the affected area. The choice of such ointments is quite large - «Panthenol» (ointment and spray), Olazol (spray can), "Radevit", zinc ointment, ointment or solution "Eplan". If there are blisters, if some of them have already burst and become ulcers and sores, it is better to choose a remedy with antibiotics as the main drug - ointment «Levomekol», «Baneocin» (ointment and powder at the same time - first, ointment, and on top of the powder).
• Apply a clean bandage. To do this, use only sterile dressing material from the pharmacy. The bandage should not be too tight so as not to disrupt the blood supply.

• Dressings should be at least 3-4 per day. Creams and ointments on burns impose a rather thick layer. After the damaged area is fully tightened, bandages are no longer necessary. At the final stage, means are used that help restore the integrity of the skin as much as possible without consequences. These include “Contractubex, Radevit, Boro Plus cream-ointment.

The use of such funds can be quite long, up to several months. But this is very important because it allows reducing or minimizing the effects of scars and scars, especially if the child has been burned by the open part of the arm or face. On average, a burn from boiling water, if all the rules of treatment are observed, heals in 3-4 weeks. Again, if you only smear what is allowed and does not harm.

The consequences of burned boiling water can be minimal if we are talking about a injury of 1-2 degrees, a small area. Even after treatment at home, such burns pass quickly, leaving no scars or scars. Burns higher than grade 2 can have rather unpleasant consequences. These are scars on the skin and severe psychological trauma that the baby will receive.

Third-degree burns can sometimes lead to shock and burn disease, but such conditions are not treated at home. Parents should provide first aid and be sure to urgently hospitalize the baby on the ambulance carriage. Traces of such burns usually remain, but modern plastic surgery can quite cope with such consequences, while maintaining the baby's normal appearance.

Entirely and completely all preventive measures lie on the shoulders of parents. Only in their power to make the risks of getting a burn injury as low as possible. For this:

• The child should not be allowed to play in rooms where even theoretically, boiling water or hot water may leak. These dangerous areas in the house include a kitchen, bathroom, boiler room, boiler room.
• Do not wear hot tea or soup over a child playing on the floor. Any surprise can happen, an adult can stumble, burn himself and drop a cup from his hands, scalding the child.
• All pots with boiling water or ready-made food should be placed on the most distant cooking rings, making sure that all the handles are turned to the wall so that the child cannot accidentally reach out and overturn containers with hot liquid.
• The pots with hot liquid and the kettle should stand as far as possible from the edge of the table.

• You can not carry a child in your arms or hang in the "kangaroo" on yourself during cooking.
• Do not pour the child a hot soup or tea and immediately put the child at the table. Not all guys can blow on food, but everybody, without exception, can knock over the dishes with hot food.
• Dad or a guest plumber, a caring mother will definitely ask you to install special plumbing electronic limiters on all hot water taps, which will allow you to adjust the temperature of the water that flows out of the faucet.

More information about providing first aid to a child with a burn with boiling water, see the following video.