HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Chronicle (Levin), 6 August 1947, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

ACUIDENTAL BTONS. Death and injury from burns and scalds is a type of home accident that is not decreasing. It continues — clothes catching fire from flames of open fire, or stove front, or from contact with an ciectrio iieater, the pulling of pots and pans and kettles from stoves or benches over o'n to little bodies, with resultant large areas scalded. The country cannot alford this wastage of little lives. Our papers don't report every casc of burns in the home. Tlicy hear of the major tragedies only. Hundreds of cascs slip through our hospital wards unheard of. A prominent member of the nursing profession, after a etour round a group of our publie hospitals, reported that there were too many. toddlers and children in our wards recovcring from burns and scalds reeeived in the home — some of them severe burns. Some time later a piastic surgeon of great skill urged that parents and others shoul'd do all they could to avoid letting children get burnt or scalded at home. He was spending too mueh time altogether patehing up this type of damage, and he frequently had return cases of burns in the same little patient, or of other children from the same home. If you have little ones in the home give some thought to this matter of preventing burns and scalds. Don't let children play with stoves or flres. Screen and guard all flres, open or electric. Be careful with fires in the baekyard — wateh children at the time and don't leave hot ashes and embers for bare feet to stumble into, Pans or kettles on the top of the stove should have their handles turned in so that a ehild cannot grasp them. Electric flexes should be out of reachl Dry cleaning should be done outside in the open air and preferably with a non-infiammable liqnifh _ ,