THURSDAY, Oct. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Many pediatric burns are the result of children removing hot substances from microwave ovens or from young children being supervised or around hot substances with older children, researchers report in the October issue of Pediatrics.
Gina Lowell, M.D., from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues reviewed the medical records of 137 children under 5 years old with scald burns seen at the University of Chicago Burn Center.
The researchers found that 118 involved unintentional injuries. There were 104 non-tap water scalds, with most (90.4 percent) involving hot cooking or drinking liquids. Of the non-tap water scalds, 8.7 percent involved removing a hot substance from a microwave oven, and 16.3 percent were injured while being supervised by an older child or while an older child was cooking or carrying the hot substance, the report indicates.
"Easy access to a microwave oven poses a significant scald risk to children as young as 18 months of age, who can open the door and remove the hot contents," Lowell and colleagues conclude. "Involvement of older children in a subset of scald injuries is a new finding that may have prevention implications."
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