Hot water, a boiling kettle or pot, scalding drinks - all this is fraught with danger to humans, especially to babies. If you accidentally turn a dish of hot liquid over on yourself, the main thing is to act correctly. Otherwise, the consequences of improper first aid can be even more terrible and painful than the injury itself.
Children explore the world unaware of danger
Especially often, children who explore the world around them and cannot assess the dangers of their actions turn out dishes with boiling water on themselves. Burns with boiling water in children under five years of age account for 80 percent of all burns. And the area of skin damage in children is much more extensive than with a similar wound in adults. Also, babies often burn their face, neck, chest. And such wounds pose a danger to life, because the eyes, respiratory organs, and oral cavity can be affected. While the parents turned away literally for a moment, children can sip hot tea, and at the same time they often get tongue burns with boiling water. This makes breathing difficult, the victim begins to cough, the voice becomes hoarse.
Not only from boiling water
You can get burned not onlyfrom boiling liquid. Very hot tap water can also cause this injury if it is exposed to the skin for a long time.
Treatment of burns with boiling water depends on what you burned yourself with. Keep in mind that pure hot water is less harmful than spilling sweet tea or pickle on yourself.
Determine the degree of injury
There are four degrees of burns with boiling water. Doctors advise: before providing first aid, you need to determine how severe your burn is. At each degree, certain signs are observed.
If you are slightly burned, the skin will turn red, it will become a little swollen. You will feel pain in the place where the boiling water got. But there will be no blisters on the skin with slight damage. All of these symptoms disappear quickly enough even without the use of drugs. Such a burn will not leave a trace on your skin.
This is what a first-degree boiled water burn looks like on a hand.
If the blisters appear a few minutes after skin contact with hot liquid, then you have a second degree burn. These vesicles are filled with liquid, it is transparent, with a yellowish tint. During the day, new blisters may appear on the wound, and old ones may become even larger. The burned area is very painful. The epidermis dies and exfoliates. A stain remains at the site of the wound, which usually heals in 10-12 days. It takes several months, sometimes the process of tissue regeneration is delayed up to six months.
Call a doctor immediately
Burn with boiling water with blisters, necrosisskin, the formation of a scab - these are wounds of the third and fourth degrees. Remember that this is an occasion to immediately seek help from doctors. In the third degree there are many blisters. With such an injury, the skin is affected very strongly and deeply. The wound is painted bright red. The victim feels very severe pain. This degree is characterized by tissue death. Scabs appear in their place, they are painted gray or black. How much boiling water damaged the skin depends on whether a scar remains or not. At the 3rd degree, there will be no scar at the site of the wound. But for those unfortunate enough to get a 3rd degree type B burn, you may later have to go to the doctors to clean up the traces. Sometimes the patient may even need an epidermal transplant.
The most terrible consequences will be from fourth-degree burns. It can be obtained by prolonged contact with boiling water. At the same time, all layers of the skin die, along with them the subcutaneous fat dies. It happens that with a severe burn, muscles suffer, tendons and even bones die. It is worth recalling that with such a burn with boiling water, first aid should be provided as quickly as possible. Call an ambulance immediately. The victim may die from pain shock. Recovery after receiving such a wound is very long and painful, lasting several months. Non-healing ulcers and scars are the consequences of deep burns.
Refrigerated, oiled no
No one is immune from injuries and wounds. And, most likely, there is no such person who at least once in his life does notwas getting. Therefore, you need to know how to provide first aid for burns with boiling water. Remember the signs that are described above. They will be needed to help the victim, the treatment of burns with boiling water at home should begin immediately.
The first thing to do is stop panicking! So you will only make the situation worse. Pull yourself together, turn off your emotions, turn on your mind and act: the sooner you take action, the less likely the complications.
Be sure to take off your clothes, otherwise they will stick to the burned skin. If you can’t remove things, you need to carefully cut them, if possible. If the tissue is stuck to the wound, do not try to separate the tissue from the skin. Just carefully trim the clothing around the burn.
If hot liquid gets on the skin, then quickly cool it. You can pour cool water on the skin area, blow it with a fan, or place ice packs over them, after wrapping them with a clean, ironed cloth. Please note: the water should not be below twelve degrees. Ice water can cause shock in the victim.
The fact is that even when the action of the damaging factor - boiling water - stops, the process of tissue destruction still continues. And under the influence of cold, further damage to the skin can be stopped. You can cool the burn with water for twenty minutes. The damaged area of the body should be lifted to prevent swelling.
But if you got a third or fourth degree burn, then washing the damaged skin with cold water is strictly prohibited. Water from underthe faucet is not sterile, you can introduce an infection that complicates further treatment.
Don't make things worse
Many unknowingly make a gross mistake in first aid - lubricate the burnt area with vegetable oil. But the temperature of the skin in the burn area does not decrease under the influence of oil. And under the oil film, microorganisms multiply very quickly. Choose wisely and ointments for burns with boiling water - they should not contain oils. Otherwise, you will only aggravate the clinical picture.
What else do doctors recommend against washing burns? S alt and soda solutions, urine, citric acid, and vinegar do not work as antiseptics. All these substances are not remedies for burns with boiling water. They only irritate the skin. And after healing even mild burns washed with these products, scars can remain on the skin.
Don't treat burns with alcohol-based products. That is, you should not treat the wound with iodine or brilliant green, wipe with tincture of calendula and any other. A solution of potassium permanganate is also not suitable for treating burns.
Don't listen to common folk recipes for the treatment of burns. Do not use fermented milk products to cool the damaged area. They are full of microorganisms that can get into the wound and infect it. Do not use toothpaste to relieve pain - this advice is also quite common on the World Wide Web.
Taking alcohol as a pain reliever is strongly discouraged. First, it will not bring you relief. Secondly, alcohol can react withmedicines prescribed by a doctor, and this will lead to adverse reactions.
The victim should be given warm green or black tea to drink, but not alcoholic beverages. In case of burns, be sure to drink plenty of water - this will avoid intoxication of the body.
Be sure to remove jewelry
When burned with boiling water, treatment should begin immediately. If hot water gets on the skin and jewelry, then you need to remove watches, rings, chains, bracelets and other items as soon as possible. If this is not done, the consequences can be very serious. Remember that burned skin swells quickly. And if pressure jewelry is not removed, then blood circulation may be disturbed, and in the most unfavorable scenario, tissue necrosis may even develop.
Now you know what to do with a burn with boiling water in the first place. These measures will help alleviate the pain and subsequently avoid serious complications.
Don't touch the blisters
A gross mistake in first aid for a burn is to pierce the formed blisters with liquid. Even if they are tense, you should never touch the blisters. Some folk healers advise to ignite the needle and pierce the bubble with it. Do not under any circumstances do this! You can bring an infection into an open wound. After all, you don’t want unwanted consequences at all, do you?
Medicines should be on hand
What remedies for a burn with boiling water should be in the first-aid kit?
Almost every apartment has painkillers. You can drink "Nise""Paracetamol", "Ibuprofen" or other analgesic. Take a pill, after half an hour the pain will subside.
The burn area should be treated with Panthenol spray. This is a modern drug in the form of an aerosol. Apply a small amount to the skin to reduce swelling and pain. Also, the medicine accelerates tissue regeneration.
For a first-degree burn, this treatment is sufficient.
You can also use boiling water burn ointment. Perfectly heals wounds and reduces the inflammatory process "Solcoseryl". Instead of Panthenol spray, Bepanthen gel can be used. There are other analogues - all drugs contain the same active ingredient. By the way, "Panthenol" and "Solcoseryl" can also be used for sunburn. Therefore, do not forget about these drugs when packing your suitcase on vacation.
Another great product that you should definitely have in your first-aid kit is Olazol sea buckthorn gel.
Open and closed methods
There are two ways to treat burns. If injury and further infection of the wound is excluded, then an open method is used. The damaged area is not covered with a bandage - in this case, the skin breathes and regenerates faster. There is no need to bandage the wound, which means that the skin will not suffer when the dressings are removed.
If the victim is not sure that he will be able to avoid contamination of the wound, then it is better to use a closed method of treatment. Apply a bandage to the burnointment. You can use the drugs described above.
For first aid for burns, gel wipes have been developed, which should also be in your first aid kit. It is forbidden to use a regular bandage or gauze, plaster, cotton wool - these materials can stick to the damaged surface and aggravate the situation. And gel wipes disinfect the wound and reduce pain. After these wipes can be easily separated from the burn without damaging the skin.
For the treatment of burns in young children, the closed method is always used. After all, children are mobile and can very easily infect a wound.
For severe burns, call an ambulance
Burns with boiling water can only be treated at home first degree, sometimes second degree. It is always worth considering the severity of the damage and the area of the wound. If a child has received a burn, then a doctor should be consulted immediately. In case of severe burns, pain shock may occur. Cases are described when people died because of it, even if the burns were small.
Third and fourth degree burns are only treated in a hospital. Moreover, in large cities, even burn departments have been created. This shows how serious the consequences are from such wounds.
Burns can leave scars and welts
What to do with a burn with boiling water, figured it out. But, after you have been treated for a burn, cosmetic surgery may also be needed. They turn to a plastic surgeon if, after treating a burn with boiling water, scars and scars remain. The doctor may also recommend medications to relieveburn consequences. But remember that treatment in any case will be long. It is important to bring it to the end in order to achieve the desired result.
