The vast majority of children who attend hospital with scald injuries are under the age of five and hot drinks are a major culprit, a new Irish study has shown.

-Team@CMHF

• According to researchers in Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’s department of paediatrics, burns and other heat-related injuries continue to be one of the most common types of injury presenting to emergency departments (EDs) worldwide.
• They are also responsible for almost one in 10 child injury deaths around the world.
• The team decided to investigate this topic further and studied all burns admissions involving children aged 16 and under to an Irish ED over a 12-month period.
• During this time, there were almost 300 burn injuries involving children.
• The study found no difference in gender – boys were just as likely to suffer this type of injury as girls.
• It also found that almost eight in 10 of those affected were under the age of five and the average age was three-and-a-half.
• During the 12-month period, the highest rate of attendance for this type of injury was in June, while more children were found to attend hospital in the first six months of the year compared to the second six months.
• Hot liquids, such as hot water, were found to be the biggest culprits, followed by hot solids and radiation (sunburn).
• In fact, hot drinks were responsible for two in three scald injuries, with tea accounting for almost one-third of these.
• Other causes relating to hot liquids included baths that were too hot, pots being pulled off hobs or water from kettles being poured onto the child.
• The researchers noted two times of the day when burn accidents occurred more frequently – late morning/early afternoon and the evening time.
• They suggested that children tend to be less supervised at these times of the day.
• The parts of the body most likely to be affected were the upper limbs, including the hands, wrists and arms, and the upper trunk, including the chest and face.
• Perhaps not surprisingly, the upper body was much more likely to be scalded than the lower body.
• Overall, children under the age of four were more likely to suffer a burn injury in the home, while older children were more likely to sustain such injuries outside of the home.
• Meanwhile, the researchers also noted that children from poorer backgrounds and more vulnerable children, such as those with a disability, were more likely to suffer a burn injury.
• The team pointed out that throughout the world these types of injuries have been falling over the last decade, which may be due to a number of factors, such as parents being better informed.
• However, they also noted the importance of the introduction of guidelines which suggest capping the maximum temperature of hot water that comes from household taps at 50 degrees Celsius.
• This change is particularly important as water kept at 50 degrees or under takes five minutes of continuous exposure to cause a scald, as opposed to five seconds at 60 degrees, they explained.
• They added that unless preventive strategies are devised, scalds will continue to be a major cause of unintentional injury among young children.

For further reading log on to: http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=19946