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Hot water burns like fire!

Hot liquids – not fire – are the most common causes of burns to young children.

  • Seventy-five per cent of children treated for burns at children’s hospitals in Canada have been scalded. A scald is a burn resulting from contact with very hot liquid or steam.
  • Each year in BC, more than 200 children are hospitalized for scald burns and thousands more are treated in emergency departments.
  • Data collected over a five-year period in BC showed 453 children (birth to five years) hospitalized because of burns from hot liquids. During the same time frame, Children's treated 343 young children for scald burns – 87 per cent of these injuries occurred at home, with an average of 40 per cent occurring in the kitchen and 9.3 per cent in the bathroom.
Scald burns are the most painful of any injury a child might encounter - the treatment is agonizing and both the physical and psychological scarring can last a lifetime.

Scalds are most likely to happen at home. Common causes are spilled liquids such as tea, coffee, soup, and hot tap water.
 
Tap water scalds are more likely to happen when hot water heaters are set at dangerously high temperatures. Hot water set at 60°C (140°F) -- the pre-set temperature of most household water tanks – is hot enough to cause third-degree burns. 

A safe household hot water temperature is 49 C (120 F). At this temperature, it takes 10 minutes to cause the same type of burn. At 60 C (140 F), it takes just 1 second to cause a severe burn in a child.  See more Tips to Prevent Scalds


Acacia Hall's parents will tell you, it only takes a second.
 
At nine months old, their daughter was badly burned by scalding water. They rushed her to Children's where she was treated for serious burns on her face, neck and chest. She has had painful bandage changes, and an operation to help repair her skin. She wore a pressure wrap for a year to flatten her scars and required repeated follow-up care.