In new research pub­lished at Malmo Uni­ver­sity, Swe­den, Anna Carls­son (PhD), con­firms the pic­ture that we see over and over again in acci­dent sta­tis­tics around the world: hot liq­uid is a major cul­prit of scalds in small children.

The study kept track of the num­ber of chil­dren being brought to health posts and hos­pi­tals in one city in Swe­den for treat­ment. 148 chil­dren came for burn injuries. 80% of those injuries were scalds, caused by hot liq­uid (71%) or hot food (29%). The great­est num­ber was boys between one and two years old.

Sec­ond, Anna analysed the causes of the scalds.  One key con­clu­sion is that an acci­den­tal scald is more likely to hap­pen when some­thing is unusual and out of the daily rou­tine:  dur­ing a sud­den visit by a friend or when a fam­ily mem­ber was tired, stressed or ill.

Another trig­ger was the mis­judge­ment of the child’s capa­bil­i­ties. Given the quick motoric devel­op­ments that chil­dren go through dur­ing their first years, the par­ents expressed that they often didn’t realise that the child had acquired the capac­ity to for exam­ple actively reach for a cup until the acci­dent had already occurred.

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