Warming milk - a preventable cause of scalds in children
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Using a bowl of boiling water to heat a baby's bottle increases the risk of scalds in young children, say a team of plastic surgeons and a paediatrician in a "Lesson of the Week" featured in this week's BMJ. Health professionals who deal with parents of young children should be aware of this hazard and it should also be noted that the danger of warming milk bottles in jugs or bowls of boiling water could be listed as a disadvantage of bottle feeding that could be avoided by breast feeding, say the authors.
Dr Steven Jeffery and colleagues from Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead base their comments on their experiences with 23 young patients between 1995 and 1998, of whom ten were left with permanent scarring after a scalding incident of this nature. These 23 incidents, suggest Jeffrey et al, are however "probably the tip of the iceberg", as only a few children with scalds are referred to the regional specialist burns unit and fewer still are admitted to hospital.
The perceived need to warm milk varies from culture to culture and many special care baby units in the UK do not routinely warm milk, say the authors. In cultures where milk is usually warmed, they say, parents are often advised not to use a microwave oven as it is feared that uneven heating or overheating of the milk using this method may cause scalds to the mouth or throat. However, according to Jeffery et al previous research has found that microwave ovens are less hazardous to children than conventional ovens and "it is possible that scalding is more likely to occur when jugs or bowls of hot water are used to heat milk bottles than when a microwave oven is used.
The authors conclude that health professionals who deal with parents of young children should be aware of this hazard. They also state that the danger of scalding could be avoided by breastfeeding.
Contact:
Mr Steven Jeffery, Specialist Registrar in Plastic Surgery, McIndoe Burn Centre, Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead
Tel: +44 (0)1342 410210 x572
Fax: +44 (0)1342 317907
Email: slajeffery@rcsed.ac.uk