Burns Prevention

Learn to Stop Burns!

The Burns Unit and Kids Health, at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, have been working with Kidsafe and the NSW Severe Burn Injury Service to produce an interactive burns prevention program. The game allows entry to a virtual home where individual rooms may be navigated to search for the potential burn dangers in everyday life.

Visit any room of the house to see and hear how burns can happen in the home. Click on the animation to learn how you can stop burns from happening. Take the quiz at the end to test yourself!

Click here to visit the Learn to Stop Burns! web page.

Hot Food and Drink Can Burn!

Resources for schools: Posters aimed at preventing burn injuries in the school environment.

The Children's Hospital at Westmead has joined forces with the NSW Department of Education and NSW School Canteens Association to reduce - and preferably prevent - the incidence of scald burns in children. The messages for this burns prevention campaign are clear - hot food and drink can burn and serious burns can happen in seconds so give it a second thought.

Hundreds of children across NSW suffer burns from hot food and drink every year - some are quite serious scald burns. Scald burns include burns from hot water, tea, coffee, oil and some foods such as noodles, soups and pasta.

Burns from scalds cause lifelong problems for many children. Families suffer guilt and blame, while children must deal with scarring that leads to serious body image and self esteem issues.

A series of posters have been designed to raise awareness of scald burns, how to prevent them and what to do in the event of a scald burn. The campaign is designed for school canteen workers, students, parents and school staff and the aim is to highlight to role that each party can play in preventing serious scald burns to children.

Click here to view the posters in the following order:
Poster #1 - Instructions to primary school students on preventing burns
Poster #2 - Recommendations for canteen staff on how to serve hot food
Poster #3 - Instructions to secondary school students on preventing burns
Poster #4 - First aid instructions in the event of a student being burnt by hot liquid
Poster #5  - To be displayed at school events to highlight dangers of tea and coffee and also provide first aid instructions for parents and carers.