It’s Child Safety Week…

Today, as part of this year’s Child Safety Week (3^rd – 9^th June), we are partnering with CAPT to bring you a dedicated day to raise awareness of the devastating number of burns and scalds happening to children each year, many of which are entirely preventable. In 2018 alone 7071 children between the ages of 0 – 19 years old were so severely burned that they had to be admitted to a Specialist Burns Service. This equates to nearly 20 children a day experiencing a potentially life-changing injury and doesn’t include the thousands seen and discharged from Accident and Emergency departments.

The main age group affected by burns and scalds are toddlers, with 2847 children under the age of 2 being admitted to a Specialist Burns Service in 2018. The majority of these injuries are caused by hot drinks, including tea and coffee spills. Today we are aiming to raise awareness of the risks of hot drinks around children and how easy it is for a young child to reach or pull themselves up to where a hot drink has been placed. Most parents take safety in the home very seriously, for example by fitting safety gates, but they do not always realise the danger caused by hot drinks left on dining tables, coffee tables or kitchen worktops. The Children’s Burns Trust along with CAPT are urging everyone to keep hot drinks away from children – they can reach further than you think.

The theme of Child Safety Week this year is Family life today: where’s the risk? Which is highlighting the everyday dangers facing families today. CAPT have put together dedicated resources to highlight the new dangers facing families from our modern lifestyles and offer simple solutions to keep children safe. You can download these resources from the Children’s Burns Trust website by clicking here.

Child Safety Week will be covered extensively on social media via @CBTOfficial and @childsafetyweek , with the dedicated hashtags #childsafetyweek and #familylifetoday.