Essential tips to prevent children getting burned
As winter creeps in, hospitals in the Western Cape brace for a devastating and familiar pattern: a sharp rise in young children arriving with horrific burns — many of them avoidable. In just one year, the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital treated over 3,000 children for burns, with 586 needing admission. Most were scalded by boiling water, hot drinks or bathwater — and more than 80% of these cases were entirely preventable.
'It happened so quickly. One minute I was preparing the cold water for her bath and the next, she was hurt. She pulled the kettle's cord and the hot water from the kettle caused burns,' said a mother whose daughter was admitted to the burns unit.
Marking Burns Awareness Week this May, the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, the Children's Hospital Trust, and ChildSafe South Africa are urging urgent vigilance. Most burns occur between May and August — a time when caregivers, desperate to stay warm, unintentionally put children at risk.
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