What about children’s burns？ Doctor： Keep calm and use this five-step method to deal with it.
The nurse injected the scalded little girl.
Summer is the season with high incidence of scalds. Due to the hot weather, people wear thin clothes and have a large exposed skin, which increases the risk of being scalded. Children, in particular, are curious, lively and active, have poor self-protection ability, and are more likely to be burned.
"At most, the clinic can receive more than a dozen scalded patients a day, including many children." Xu Yanran, deputy director of the Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery of Shantou Second People’s Hospital, said that since the summer, the number of scald patients has increased significantly, and most of them are hydrothermal burns. Recently, the hospital admitted a 22-month-old child, who accidentally knocked over a teapot that had just been filled with boiling water while playing, and suffered deep second-degree burns on his trunk and thighs, with the total burned area reaching 20% of his body area.
In this regard, Xu Yanran reminded that parents should first keep calm after a child’s scald, and adopt a five-step method of "rushing, taking off, soaking, covering and sending" to deal with it, so as not to cause secondary harm to the child.
Text/Figure Song Wei Zheng Ruinian
Guardians should remember to be calm after scalding children.
According to reports, there are nearly 200 cases of moderate and severe burns and scalds of children admitted to the Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery of Shantou Second People’s Hospital every year, while there are more cases of mild burns of children treated in outpatient department. Within a few days in mid-May, the hospital treated seven severely scalded children, the oldest of whom was 4.5 years old and the youngest was only 22 months old. Most of them were caused by knocking over kettles, cups or hot soup.
Usually, once the young son is burned, many parents and guardians will fall into two misunderstandings: hurriedly take off the child’s clothes; Apply an incorrect "folk prescription" to the wound.
The doctor said that after a child was burned, many parents’ first reaction was to take off their children’s clothes immediately to check the injury. This was understandable. However, if parents are not calm enough and tear off their children’s clothes at random, it is easy to rub the scalded epidermis and aggravate the damage to the skin, and even pull off the scalded epidermis, causing serious secondary injuries.
"In addition, parents should stay away from the misunderstanding of scalding remedies, such as immediately applying ice, soy sauce, vinegar, wine, toothpaste and other methods after burns, which will not only not alleviate the injury, but will continue to stimulate the wound, aggravate the degree of injury, increase the chances of infection, and increase the difficulties for doctors’ diagnosis and treatment." Deputy director Xu Yanran said.
Five-step treatment of burns with expert advice
On the contrary, if parents can immediately and correctly dispose of the wound after the young son is burned, the injury caused by the burn can be greatly reduced.
If the child is unfortunately burned, first of all, parents should keep calm and carry out first aid treatment according to the five-step method of "rushing, taking off, soaking, covering and sending" to reduce the degree of injury. "Flushing" means to wash the wound surface with flowing tap water for 0.5 to 1 hour quickly to reduce the residual heat damage on the skin surface, and the sooner the better. If the child can’t cooperate with crying, it can be flushed with clothes to cool down. Carefully remove children’s clothes after they are fully soaked and cooled. If necessary, cut them off directly with scissors, and temporarily keep the stuck parts. Do not tear them directly, and avoid the blisters on the wound from being broken.
Dr. Xu stressed that children can continue to soak in cold water for 30 minutes, which can not only relieve pain, but also stabilize mood. However, if the scald area is too large, the weather is too cold or the age is too young, it is not necessary to soak for too long, so as to avoid excessive temperature drop or delay the treatment opportunity. Before being sent to the hospital, clean or sterile gauze or cotton cloth should be used to cover the wound and properly fixed to reduce external pollution and irritation, so as to keep the wound clean and relieve pain. Never apply external drugs or folk remedies at will.
At this time, except for minor burns, parents should call 120 emergency number or go to a professional hospital for treatment.
The doctor also suggested that if the burn area is large and serious, cold water treatment may aggravate the systemic reaction, and should be sent to the hospital immediately at this time. If the burns and scalds are located in special parts such as face, head and neck, even if the wound area is small, complications may occur. At this time, in addition to emergency treatment with cold water, in order to prevent shock, the injured person can be given some light salt water to replenish blood volume and reduce the degree of shock.
Reducing injuries should start with prevention.
Xu Yanran has been engaged in burn plastic surgery for more than 20 years, and has seen many clinical cases. Every year, children are accidentally scalded and burned. Because of the high cost of plastic surgery, many families can’t afford it, or parents don’t pay enough attention to it and adopt folk remedies. Because of the failure to standardize treatment, scars on children form scar spasms and even cause deformities over time. He said that to prevent burns, we should start with prevention.
"Especially children under the age of 3 lack self-protection awareness, which is the age group with high incidence of burns. Parents should pay attention to taking care of their children and stay away from dangerous goods in life. Parents must strengthen safety knowledge learning and create a safe living environment for their children as much as possible. At the same time, we should pay attention to improving children’s self-protection awareness and ability, informing them of items that may have hidden dangers, and reducing the occurrence of injury accidents. " Xu Yanran said.
