Other types of child injuries

Burns

This is a common type of injury in young children. Touching hot surfaces (iron, stove, saucepan, etc.), flames, tipping over containers with hot or boiling liquid, electric shock, contact with acids, alkalis, bleach, lime, caustic soda - all this leads to burns. For minor burns, the affected area should be placed under cold water, and then you can lubricate it with sunflower or butter, and then apply a loose gauze bandage. If the burn is more severe and a blister appears, it is better not to touch it or open it. Small blisters heal without bursting. If the blister bursts after a few days, cut off the excess skin with scissors boiled in water for ten minutes, and cover the wound with sterile gauze soaked in Vaseline oil or, better yet, panthenol or Vundechil ointment.

Never apply iodine to the burnt area.

In case of superficial damage to a large area of skin, it is recommended to wash the burnt surface with running cold water for 15-20 minutes - this measure will prevent blisters from forming. You can apply a cloth soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate to the burn, which has a tanning effect on the skin. In case of deep burns, a sterile bandage is applied to the wound, the child is given a painkiller (analgin) and taken to a hospital (burn center, surgery).

If a small child has 3-5% of their body surface burned (a palm-sized surface is 1% of the entire body surface), burn shock may develop. In addition to strong pain impulses, a huge amount of fluid is lost through the burned surface, and these reasons lead to a decrease in the volume of circulating blood. In addition, intoxication of the body begins, since tissue decay products are absorbed from the wound surface. Moreover, the burned surface is a large entry point for infection. Therefore, the baby needs urgent specialized medical care.

If a child has a sunburn, he should not be in the sun until the effects of the injury have completely disappeared. Burnt areas are lubricated with baby cream, Vundehil ointment, panthenol, vegetable oil.

In case of electric shock, it is necessary first of all to free the child from the current by any means possible: de-energize the apartment by unscrewing the plug, or insulate yourself with improvised means (rubber gloves, blanket, standing on a rubber mat or dry board), pull the child away from the current source. In places of electric shock, tissue hydrolysis occurs, "signs of current" appear, and wounds develop that do not heal for a long time and are difficult to treat. In more severe burns, all layers of skin, muscles and bones are damaged. As a first aid, a sterile gauze bandage is applied to the burn site.

If the current passes through the entire body or chest, severe cardiac and respiratory distress is possible. When electric current passes through the head, the respiratory and vasomotor centers are depressed. In both cases, the child needs resuscitation. The child is laid on the floor, the head is thrown back, a bolster (towel, clothes, rolled up into a bolster) is placed under the neck, the child's nose is covered with one hand, the lower jaw is supported by the other at its corners in order to move the jaw forward a little (this is necessary so that the tongue does not fall into the throat). Then, tightly covering the child's mouth with your mouth, exhale into the child's lungs. The blowing frequency should be about 25-30 per minute. If the child's heart is beating, then artificial respiration is continued until the baby breathes on his own. An indicator of the effectiveness of artificial respiration is the pinking of the skin. It is necessary to remember that the volume of the child's lungs is significantly less than that of an adult, so the exhalation should not be very complete.

If there is no heartbeat, you should immediately begin indirect cardiac massage. Place your hands one on top of the other so that your palms are parallel. Mentally divide the child's sternum into three parts and press on it intensively but not sharply at the border of the middle and lower thirds of the sternum - so that your assistant can feel the pulsation of the main vessels (carotid, femoral artery). If the child is small, you can do the massage with one hand or even with the fingers of one hand, placing the index finger on the middle finger and pressing them at the same point (at the border of the middle and lower thirds of the sternum). During indirect cardiac massage, your arms should be straightened, your fingers should not touch the ribs so as not to break them. Press on the chest at a frequency of about 100-120 per minute.

If resuscitation is performed alone, then two or three breaths should be taken, followed by 8-12 compressions. If there are two resuscitators, one should perform artificial respiration, and the other indirect heart massage. Resuscitation is performed until the child begins to breathe independently.

Frostbite

Most often, children get frostbite on their fingers and toes, ears, nose, and cheeks. In this case, the skin turns white, which is clearly visible against its general pink or red background. With minor frostbite, the affected areas turn red, swell, and feel pain, sometimes quite severe, and a burning sensation. After some time, these phenomena weaken, but the sensitivity of frostbitten areas to tactile and temperature effects remains increased for several days. With more severe frostbite, blisters filled with colorless or bloody fluid subsequently form on the affected areas. In severe cases, tissue necrosis may occur.

If hands or feet are frostbitten, first aid is to lower them into water at room temperature. Over the course of 20-30 minutes, gradually adding warm water, the bath temperature is raised to 37 °C. At the same time, frostbitten areas are lightly massaged in the direction from the fingers upwards. After warming, the skin is dried with blotting movements, a dry sterile bandage is applied and warmly wrapped. Frostbitten ears, nose and cheeks are gently rubbed with circular movements of the fingers (do not rub with snow). If hypothermia affects the child's entire body for a long time, the baby should be immediately placed in a warm bath at a temperature of 34-37 °C. He is given warm drinks and put to bed in a warm bed until the ambulance arrives. In severe cases of hypothermia and frostbite, hospitalization is indicated.

Poisoning

If a child has eaten or drunk something poisonous, induce vomiting as soon as possible. To make it profuse, give him plenty of water. Put the baby on his stomach and put your fingers in his mouth up to the root of the tongue - by moving them you will induce vomiting. It is better to wash the stomach two or three times. But it is not always possible to wash the stomach of a small child with the help of artificial vomiting. Then you need to find a narrow tube of moderate elasticity and insert it into the stomach, then inject water through it, and then remove the water through it with a syringe or a syringe. You can give the baby milk, jelly or rice broth to drink and then induce vomiting. Immediately after first aid, the child should be taken to the hospital. If the poisoning is caused by inhalation of gas or carbon monoxide, the baby should be immediately taken to fresh air and, if he is not breathing, artificial respiration should be performed, and, if necessary, closed heart massage.

Suffocation

A small child can put his head in a plastic bag, stick it through the bars of a crib, get tangled up while playing with a rope, etc. In any case, it is necessary to immediately restore free air flow to the lungs. If the child does not breathe on his own, artificial respiration must be performed.

Foreign body

Children put a wide variety of objects in their mouths, in particular because this is how they explore the world until the age of three. Small objects can get from the mouth into the larynx during coughing, crying or laughing. The same can happen with food particles when eating. In this case, the child develops a paroxysmal cough, then suffocation occurs, the baby turns blue, and may lose consciousness. Small objects of irregular shape can injure the larynx and wedge themselves into it. In this case, the child's breathing is not impaired at first, but he complains of a sore throat, and blood is found in the saliva or sputum. After a few hours, laryngeal edema develops and suffocation occurs.

From the larynx, a foreign body often penetrates deeper - into the trachea or bronchi. The child coughs at first, but then breathing is restored, and the parents do not go to the doctor. However, in the future, the child may develop serious diseases, so a child with a suspected foreign body in the respiratory tract should be immediately taken to the ear, throat, nose department. The child can swallow a fish bone, a needle, an open pin. In this case, he complains of pain in the chest (if the foreign body is stuck in the esophagus), sometimes vomiting begins. Do not try to help the child on your own - he must be urgently taken to the hospital.

In medical practice, it is very common to have to remove a small object from a baby's nose or ear: a button, a bead, a small ball. Sometimes parents try to remove it themselves and only make the situation worse: if it is a smooth object, they push it even deeper. The best thing to do is to see a doctor immediately. A foreign body can sometimes be removed from the nose by blowing the nose. The child is asked to calmly inhale, the free nostril is closed and asked to blow his nose. However, if the child is still very small, he may suck in air when blowing his nose, and the foreign object will move even further. In some cases, sneezing helps.

But sometimes parents don't suspect that their child has stuck something in his nose. Then, after a few days, foul-smelling discharge with blood appears from the nose. This should be alarming, and the child should be shown to an otolaryngologist.

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