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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Columbus, Ohio – One of the largest studies ever conducted on burn injuries in kids is out from experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the results are mixed: while overall injuries are down, there are some kids who are still at serious risk. Results from the study are being released online October 5 and will appear in the November issue of Pediatrics.
More than 2 million children younger than 21 were treated in hospital emergency departments for burn-related injuries from 1990-2006, translating to about 120,000 burns annually. While burn injuries dropped 31 percent over the 17-year study period, the numbers are still disproportionately high in children under six years of age.
“We found that kids under age six were actually injured the most, representing about 60 percent of all burn-related injuries,” says study author Lara McKenzie, PhD, principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Dr. McKenzie, who is also with Ohio State, says that because many hazards are at eye-level for toddlers, combined with their new-found mobility, makes them especially susceptible for burns.
“I think we tend to overestimate the reach and ability of children, especially young children and toddlers. They can really reach a lot of surfaces and different hazards,” McKenzie says.
Toddlers also have thinner skin than older children, causing them to burn faster, even when exposure time is short.
It’s kids like Lilly McKinney of Dublin, Ohio that are still getting burned at a surprising rate, according to the study. Lilly has always loved spending time in the kitchen and is always helping her mom and dad but in an instant, her eagerness to help ended up getting her hurt.
“My husband was checking on the lasagna that was in the oven and she snuck right around him and just put her hands right on the oven door,” says Lilly’s mother Danette. Lilly was left with second-degree burns on both hands and she spent a night in the hospital and weeks in bandages.
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Experts suggest parents sit on the floor in danger zones in their home, like the kitchen, to see things from their kids’ perspective. Seeing the world from their eyes, they say, can help open parents’ eyes to dangers they may not have noticed.
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