Wound care for your child at home

Your child may come home with unhealed areas that still need dressing changes. You will be trained on how to change dressings before you leave the hospital. You don't need to keep a sterile environment for home dressing changes. But, care for the wound in as clean an area as possible. Whoever is doing the dressing change should:

• Wash hands well before and after changing the dressings.

• Set out and open the new dressings before removing the old ones.

• Use lukewarm water when bathing your child (be sure your hot water tank temperature is set below 120°F (48.89°C) so that very hot water can't be turned on accidentally).

• Be gentle when bathing burned skin.

Your child may say that the burn is itchy. This is a very common complaint. This may be because the oil glands in the skin were damaged by the burn and the skin is dry. Ask your child's healthcare provider about medicine and ointments that can help with the itching. 

If it seems that the dressing changes are extremely painful for your child, ask your child's doctor about giving your child medicine before starting the dressing change.

The new skin over the burn area is more sensitive than the skin over the rest of the body. To protect your child's skin, make sure your child takes these steps:

• Wear soft, comfortable clothes.

• Try to not do activities that may rub, irritate, or re-injure the area.

• Don't go out in the sun as much as possible. Put clothes, a hat, and sunscreen on yourself and your child. Use sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher. Even when it is cloudy or your child is in the sun for only a short time, your child's healing skin can become sunburned easily.

• Don't stay out too long in cold weather. Healing (and healed) burn areas are also sensitive to cold.