Child Safety Hot drinks scald toddlers: five habits and the 20-minute rule
Scalds cause 52% of child burns, and the cup of tea in your hand can be enough. Five habits that stop it, and the 20-minute first aid rule.
Scalds cause 52% of burns to Australian children, and the typical child burned is 3. About 2,000 children a year are hospitalised with burns, and half of them are aged 1–4. A hot drink is a common cause: pulled off a table by the tablecloth, knocked from a hand, or grabbed off a low coffee table. Toddler skin is thinner than ours, so a drink cool enough for an adult to sip can still burn it deeply.
Five habits
- Put the drink down before you pick up a child, and never hold both.
- Keep cups in the middle of tables and benches, away from edges and away from tablecloths a child can pull.
- Use a cup with a lid when little ones are around.
- Keep kettle and appliance cords coiled back from bench edges.
- Turn pot handles inward and use the back burners.
First aid: 20 minutes of cool running water
Cool running water for 20 minutes. Then call for help.
- Hold the burn under cool (not icy) running tap water for a full 20 minutes. It still helps up to three hours after the burn.
- Remove clothing and jewellery near the burn, unless it is stuck to the skin.
- Cover it loosely with cling wrap or a clean, damp cloth.
- Keep the rest of the child warm.
- Call 000 for a large burn, or any burn to the face, hands, feet, genitals or airway. See a doctor for any burn to a baby.
No ice, butter, toothpaste or creams. They trap heat or damage the skin.
Hot water at the tap
Bath water burns too. Australian plumbing rules cap new bathroom hot water at 50°C. In an older house, ask a plumber to fit a temperature-limiting valve. Run the cold first, then the hot, and test the water with your elbow.