Toddlers suffer 10 times as many burns and scalds as older children

According to new research in the UK, 1-year-old children receive 10 times the amount of burns and scalds as their older siblings.

The authors of the new study, which is published in Archives of Diseases in Childhood, say that half of all burns and scalds cases seen in European hospitals are made up of injuries to children.

Such cases have the potential for lifelong scarring or even death, so the researchers wanted to see what could be done to prevent these severe burns from occurring.

The researchers reviewed the medical records of 1,215 children under the age of 16 who were treated in emergency care departments and specialist burns units in the UK. The majority (58%) of the children had been scalded, while 32% had sustained contact burns. The remaining children had burns from other causes.

All of the scald injuries in the study occurred at home. This most often happened when a child reached up and pulled down a cup of tea or other hot drink - 48% of these injuries happened this way.

In children aged between 5 and 16, scalds were more likely to occur as a result of spilling hot water during food preparation - this accounted for 76% of scalds in this age group.

Two thirds of all contact burns were to the hands In the under-5s, and 81% of these burns were caused by touching hot items - such as hair straighteners and clothes irons - in the home. In older children, however, half of the contact burns occurred outside of the home.

The majority of burns and scalds occur in 1 year olds