Bathrooms are one of the Safest Areas of the Home for Children when it comes to Burns and Scald Accidents

Safeguarding your child from possible accidents is extremely important. As a parent, you must know the risks and hazards that might harm your child. You must have taken enough precautions and adopted required security measures to safeguard your toddler against possible harms. But still, accidents happen and it is quite impossible to predict in advance what will cause the same.

Apart from deadly diseases, road accidents, drowning, and other serious conditions, burning and scalding are major contributors to serious injuries among infants, toddlers and adolescents. Thus, parents are advised to keep a check on the children to limit their interaction with possible burn-causing elements like electrical appliances, flames, irons, cooking hobs and so on.

Statistics indicate that bathrooms have the lowest number of burn and scald accidents in children.

As per a recent study based on the burn and scald incidents in the UK, it is revealed that kitchen is the most dangerous place in a house for children of any age. After that, most of the burning or scalding accidents take place in living rooms, bedrooms and gardens respectively.

According to the statistics, the least number of accidents occurred in the bathroom. Burn injuries account for almost 6% of the total paediatric injuries, and the most affected age group is children below 2 years of age. Fatal injuries mostly occur during house fires where the body comes in direct contact with flames and due to choking caused by inhaling poisonous emissions during a fire.

Toddlers are most prone to burn and scald injuries.

The pre-school children and toddlers are the most common victims of burns and scalds as a result of their juvenescence and low immunity. The outer layer of a child’s skin is still under the development process and is thinner as compared to adults. Also, minors experience more sweating and evaporation making the burn more intense and fatal for them.

The severity of the burns and scalds depends largely on the duration of contact with the burning element and the post-burn care. While most of the burns occur from dry heat by open flames, electrical appliances, sunburn, fireworks, fires induced from burning fuel etc., scalds result from wet heat mostly in contact with hot liquids or vapours.

Why are bathrooms the least accident prone zones?

The reason why bathrooms are considered as safest as they are least visited by the pre-school toddlers. Also, there are minimum chances of developing a burn injury caused by a fire or open flames due to the prevalent presence of water around.

However, since water and electricity make a lethal combination, proper precautions must be taken to avoid electric shocks in the bathroom. The switches, lights, geysers and other electric appliances should be placed away from water and should be covered with water-resistant films or protectors to avoid a short circuit.

Preventive measures to avoid a burn and scald incident.

Though burns and scalds are quite common among kids, many parents are not aware of the preventive measures and post-burn treatments. Installing a fire extinguisher and learning how to use it in case of a fire can be useful in resisting a fire. Keep the numbers of the ambulance, fire brigade and your nearest hospital handy in case of an emergency. Also, it must be a priority to keep all hazardous things like matchboxes, irons, hot beverages and electrical equipment away from the reach of the children to ensure they don’t hurt themselves accidentally.