On hot days, few things seem more palatable than a refreshing spray with the water from a hose, except if that hose has been in the sun for a long period of time and what we use is the water accumulated inside. Surely this lesson has been learned after a good scare a family that wanted to cool their baby with water from the hose and it has suffered severe burns.
This news has caught my attention because in summer we usually use a hose to fill a small inflatable pool and I often put the water that comes out at the beginning precisely because of that, because it burns, and when mixed with the running water that already comes out fresh Final result is not so cold. But it had not occurred to me to warn the girls not to use the hose themselves, since that water from the beginning, directly on the skin, certainly burns. And more if it falls on the delicate skin of a baby.
It has happened in the United States, in Phoenix, Arizona, where a nine-month-old boy received second-degree burns more than 30 percent of his body after receiving an extremely hot water spray through a garden hose, precisely when the mother was preparing to fill a small children's pool.
That day, there were more than forty degrees and it is estimated that the water inside the hose could have reached 65 degrees, so that, when falling on the child, it was literally scalded. The mother did not realize at first, she thought she was crying because she did not like receiving the jet directly, but it was not until she saw her flushed skin when she noticed the accident.
We do not know if the hose escaped from the mother and the water fell accidentally on the baby or if the only thing she wanted was to cool it without realizing the temperature of the water (it is always advisable to check if it is too cold or hot for the baby). But the redness of the skin, part of which was already raised as seen in the image and the blisters, left no doubt: there was a serious burn.
And, according to specialists, just ten seconds of a skin contact of a temperature of 65 degrees can cause second degree burns. These types of burns do not only affect the outer layer of the skin (first degree) but also affect both the outer layer and the lower layer of the skin. They produce pain, redness, inflammation and blistering.
These effects multiply if the burn occurs in the baby's dermis, due to its fineness since the ratio of the body surface to the weight is greater than in adults: the baby's skin has greater permeability to many substances and the effect from the sun or heat, so you have to take care of it and protect it especially.
Fortunately, the child is well after receiving medical assistance and his mother wanted to make his story known to prevent other parents from this danger. And, in short, we have something else to add to the list to prevent burns. Now we will not only check the temperature in the bathtub: also the water in a hose can burn the baby if it has been in the sun for a long time.
