This Holiday Season: Fire Proof, Burn Free Fun

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 28 Oct 2007 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

The holiday season is sneaking up on us, but as candle lit festivities begin and the mercury drops, the number of burn accidents particularly ones involving children begins to escalate.

"Burns can happen anytime, but as the weather turns colder, the risk of domestic fires from unattended candles, fireplaces and heating devices goes up," says Rick Redett, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center Burn Unit, Maryland's state-designated hospital for treatment of burns in children under 15. "We see more kids with burns, ranging from minor trauma to major injuries."

Children under 5 years of age are at the greatest risk for all types of burns because they cannot judge risks the way older children and adults do. In older children, scalds from microwaved soups are a major cause of burns, experts say.

Some tips to avoid fires in cold weather:

--store matches and lighters away from children's reach in a locked cabinet.

--keep young children away from cooking stoves, heating devices, holiday trees and fireplaces, even gas ones.

--have a professional inspect chimneys, fireplaces, central furnaces, and wood, pellet and coal stoves every year.

--make sure you get a fresh holiday tree with the needles firmly attached; older, dry needles that flake off easily are highly flammable.

--keep decorations and flammable materials at least 3 feet away from the fireplace or other heat sources, such as space-heaters or light bulbs.

--have a glass or metal screen in front of the fireplace; however, toddlers are at high risk for deep hand burns because they don't have the strength to pull back if they fall and touch the fireplace screen.

--keep a fire extinguisher in the house.

Should a burn occur:

--remove the burned clothing and apply a cold damp cloth to the burned area.

--do not use ice, Vaseline, butter, oil or another ointment.

Hopkins Children's burn unit is part of the Johns Hopkins Burn Center at Bayview and offers a multidisciplinary approach to burn research and treatment with specialists from critical care and anesthesiology, general surgery, reconstructive and plastic surgery, pediatric surgery, pain management, rehabilitation, infectious diseases, psychology, psychiatry, nursing, child life, social work and injury prevention.

Johns Hopkins Medicine
901 S. Bond St., Ste 550
Baltimore, MD 21231
United States
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org

• Additional
• References
• Citations