Post burn care in children

Burn injuries are very common in children. In fact, a general pediatrician deals with managing such injuries and their consequences frequently. Even though most of these burns are small and manageable with outpatient medical care, there are several children who have serious burn injuries and require long-term management. In such cases, the child’s pediatrician and dermatologist might work together to ensure that the child gets proper care.

If your child has a burn injury, he/she might need treatment from the clinic. At Rainbow Children’s Hospital, we have the best pediatrician in Hyderabad who can provide high-quality treatment to your child. However, in between the visits, you have to ensure that your child’s burns are taken care of at home. During the first visit after the burn, the nurse will wrap the wound with a dressing. After that, regular appointments should be made in the top children's hospital in Hyderabad until the burn can be managed at home.

How to take care of your child’s burns at home?
Pain - In order to ensure that your child’s burn is healed, you have to implement a good pain management system. For the first couple of days after the burn injury occurs, you have to give acetaminophen to your child for comfort. Make sure that you read the label instructions. If needed, your child’s pediatrician will prescribe strong pain medications during the outpatient dressing appointment.

Activity - After your child has suffered a burn injury, it is natural for you to worry about their safety. In fact, your child might be scared of doing their usual activities. However, if the injury is not painful, you must encourage them to participate in activities they normally do.

Food - Good nutrition is needed to help your child heal from the burn injuries. You need to serve them with foods that provide high energy and protein to your child. A few examples of such foods are meats, yogurts, pasta, cheese, and eggs.

How to take care of your child after the burn has healed?
After some time, the burn injury of your child will have healed to a point where they don’t have to go to the clinic. Healing the burn injury completely will require some time. Here is what you can do:

Washing - Keeping the new skin clean is crucial. Clean the bathtub regularly and make sure that you wash your hands before tending to your child’s skin. Use a shower or warm soapy bath to bathe your child including their healed skin. Use a soap that doesn’t have perfume. Don’t rub the injury site, instead pat dry it.

Cream and Massage - If the burn injury has taken a long time to heal, it is highly likely that some scars are left behind. Preventing the formation of scars is not possible. However, its appearance can be minimized by regular massage and proper skincare with a skin cream that doesn’t contain any perfume.

Apply the cream over the area and massage evenly and firmly using your fingertips. The cream helps the skin heal with less scarring. Make sure that you are massaging in gentle circles and pressing firm enough. The scar should turn white under the fingertips. Continue this until the whole cream has been absorbed. This should be done at least three times a day as it will soothe the affected area. It also helps reduce the itchiness. Some children find that their new skin is sensitive to the touch. You have to keep touching this new skin in order to make sure that it becomes less sensitive over time.

Itchiness - Healed skin after the burn injury can be itchy. Skin creams and extra baths can help the skin feel less itchy. Make sure that your child’s nails are clean and short and stop them from scratching them as it leads to infection.

Sunlight, heat, and cold- The new skin of your child is hyper-sensitive and should be protected from cold and heat. Also, since the new skin can burn easily, you should not take your child to direct sunlight and always make them wear a sunblock with at least 30 SPF. If they go swimming, reapply the sunblock. Make sure that they are wearing light clothing over the injury as exposing new skin to sunlight makes them dark permanently.
If you have any questions about how to take care of your child’s burn injury, you must contact your doctor immediately. You can contact the Rainbow Children’s Hospital and make an appointment. Write down all the questions on paper so that you don’t forget them and bring them to the appointment. Rainbow Children’s Hospital is the best pediatric burn center in Hyderabad.