“Child Safety Week is an annual campaign run by the Child Accident Prevention Trust to raise awareness of the risks of child accidents and how they can be prevented.”
This week June 1st – June 7th is Child Safety Week. I would like to highlight a charity this week called The Childrens Burns Trust who help the families of those children with burn injuries by not only giving them support, but also by putting on family weekends for them to enjoy. The trust helps to highlight what parents can do in order to prevent an accident from happening.
|Our injuries from Boiling Hot Soup at a restaurant|
Today there will be around 6 children who will be so badly burned that they will be admitted into hospital. Coming from a mother who’s daughter was sadly one of those statistics I cannot stress the importance to be vigilant of not just in the house but also when you are out.
Hair straighteners can still be hot even after 8 minutes of turning them off that they can cause a serious burn. Make sure they are out of reach at all times.
Hot drinks as well as hot food can easily be grabbed by little hands and pulled over. They are extremely quick so make sure there is nothing hot that they can reach. You may like to implement a ‘Hot Drinks Policy‘ in the home where parents do not drink or have hot drinks in the same room as children.
Bath water can also scald if it is too hot. Always test the bath water with your elbow and look at getting a thermometer.
With all this in mind I also think it should be about time that restaurants also look into the prevention of causing serious injuries especially to children. As a parent when you go somewhere to eat you are trying to prevent accidents happening, but it becomes difficult to stay on top of it if other people are careless about the dangers.
A waiter/waitress should not be passing hot food and drinks over a baby or a child’s head. That is not acceptable. Nor is it for them to slide hot food onto the table in front of your baby or child in the space that you as a parent have cleared to prevent them from grabbing anything. Hot drinks and especially hot food that you as a customer are unaware of if it was boiling/extremely hot should come with a warning from the waiter/waitress. (All of these I have experienced, so I know it happens)
|3 Days after the accident|
With a burn or a scald injury it can take years for some of the scarring to eventually heal, but the worst case scenarios it could lead to many operations which could include skin grafts. As the child becomes older the psychological injuries comes into play as they may struggle with their body image and confidence. These injuries are for life.
As a parent you are also psychologically injured as you replay what happened over and over again, just wishing it was you and not them, your child’s screams haunting you for a lifetime.
So try and not be one of those statistics that my little girl was. Prevention is key because the rehabilitation is a long process that could last the rest of your or your child’s life, but be sure to know that if anything does happen, there is support there to help you.
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