Shriners Children's Boston Shares Important Holiday Burn Prevention Tips

Kitchens during Thanksgiving are a place of excitement, action and delicious meals. However, they are also filled with scorching hot liquids, pots and baking sheets, which can create an extreme burn hazard for children. Shriners Children’s Boston surgeon Robert Sheridan, M.D., has advice on how to avoid injury over the holidays.

Dr. Sheridan advises that people go into the festive season with a safety mindset. Scoping out the kitchen for any potential hazards before the cooking starts is a great way to reduce the chances of an unfortunate accident. Dr. Sheridan added that kids are naturally curious and like to explore new things they haven’t seen. Ideally, he recommends making the active cooking area a ‘no-go zone’ for curious toddlers.

“A common accident we see during the holidays is when a toddler is underfoot while you’re taking something out of the oven or off the stove,” Dr. Sheridan said. “If you stumble, extremely hot food or liquid can cascade onto the child. Children will also grab the cookie sheet after it comes out of the oven or put their hands on a hot burner. Sometimes very young children will sit on the counter while the parent cooks and then crawl onto the hot stove. Young children are simply fascinated by what you are doing and haven’t yet learned the dangers associated with very hot surfaces.”

Dr. Sheridan noted that any unfamiliar activity has a higher risk to it. Some families only cook turkeys once or twice a year. Moving large, hot, unbalanced cooking containers between the oven and countertops is never easy, even with practice. Electric countertop fryers and hot pans may have dangling cords that children can grab, pulling the device and scalding oil onto themselves.

“If you travel to relatives’ homes for the holidays, keep in mind that it may have been a while since your hosts have had to worry about children running around in their kitchen,” Dr. Sheridan said. “Talk to them ahead of time, remind them of potential hazards and even ask if they can take some precautions in their kitchen before you arrive.”

Finally, “Nothing can disrupt the holiday spirit like an unfortunate incident with admission to a burn unit. And while it’s not possible to prevent every accident, if you go into the holiday cooking experience with the right mindset, the holidays are much more likely to be safe and fun.”

Dr. Sheridan is the chief of staff and director of burn service at Shriners Children’s Boston, and he is also an attending surgeon in the Massachusetts General Hospital burn unit. His past titles include president of the American Burn Association and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is active in several clinical research projects and has published over 250 educational resources. Shriners Children’s treats all levels and types of burns, including chemical burns, electrical burns, flame burns and more.