2nd degree maybe 3rd degree burns to hand, anyone?

Sorry if I have posted this in the wrong place.

My little man got his hand burnt today on our BBQ. We have been told, it's 2nd degree burns but possible 3rd degree burns across the base of his fingers that might need a skin graph.

We feel terrible. And I guess I'm just after some reassurance from anyone everything will be fine, even if it is 3rd degree, that he will mend o.k.

Do you know of anyone who's child had similiar burns to their hand? Could you tell me some reassuring news?

Sorry for what might seem a stupid post, but I feel just terrible. My little man is my rock, and I am so upset I let this happen to him. He was so brave when they cut away his skin and dress it. I'm so proud of him. I just hope he doens't have to pay for our stupid mistakes.:(

I knew a little girl that burnt both the palms of her hands on a BBQ. I'm pretty sure it was 3rd degree. She had to get skin grafts but thats all i know. She healed up fine though and there was hardly any scaring thankfully. Hugs to you and your little guy. It's not your fault, these things happen. I hope his fingers heal fully and that he's not in too much pain. :hug:

Oh thank you for some reassurance.

Try not to punish yourself. You can't make them bullet proof, and you can't be everywhere and everything all at once. The fact you feel as you do about this shows that you're a loving and caring mother. You should see some of the stuff I did to myself as a kid, and this was with a mother who thought I had a terminal illness every other day ;) (ie. it wasn't through lack of care).

Being so young, his skin will heal and regenerate (and/or accept a graft) much more readily than an adult. The young body has a remarkable ablity to heal. By the time he's big enough to look after himself you'll probably be lucky to even see a mark. Good luck :)

Sorry to hear that Mel - *hugs* - I just know that something like that's going to happen to Pip soon, he gets into everything.


Is he in hossy or now at home? Slyder has good advice.

Accidents happen. Being young gives him the best chance of recovery. Just make sure that you have the best available surgeon, someone who specialises in paediatrics.

Oh, you poor thing. I hope you're ok - the mental scars can be worse than the child's physical ones.

Burns - are completely recoverable from. Scars on little ones do heal, given time.

There is a fab Aussie burns doc who specialises in spraying cells onto burns wounds - can't recall her name but will try to find it for you. I've seen the work sprayed cells can do and it's amazing. More and more places should be doing it now. 3rd degree burn is completely through the skin, but 2nd/3rd means there should be no tissue damage, just skin, which does regrow.

Loads of children get burn and scald injuries. It's not a sign of bad parenting. If it is, I'll join the bad mummy club - DS had a scald 5 months ago and he has nearly healed now, very little discolouration on the site.

Than you everyone for mang me a lttle better. just hope frday brngs good news.

( can't type eye's and cay's anymore, hope you could understand ths)

SOrry forgot to answer some questons. He s home now than god, and thanfully doen't seem to be too bothered by hs cast at all. he loos so cute and brave though. He s such a good lttle man, love hm to bts. just have to flush the burns through a tube 3 tmes a day untl frday. 'm so hopng he wll be fne. Than you all agan for your wonderful supportve words and thoughts.

I am sure he will be fine. I got 2/3 degree burns to one palm when I was little (We were playing tips out in the yard and decided to use the incinerator at "bar" - not knowing that it had been on all morning and was majorly hot) and while I can still see the scar it is only because I know where it is. It hasn't affected the function of my hand at all and doesn't cause me discomfort or anything like that - unlike the 2 degree burn I got on the other hand as an adult which causes me hassles all the time. Kids have an amazing ability to heal and recover.

Give you little man a big hug from me - and tell him that he is being very brave.

Big big hugs to you Mel. Dont blame yourself as you are the best mummy ever and accidents happen - especially with boys I reckon. I am sure Friday will bring good news. More bui hugs to you and I am sure Mr Jack will be just fine - he is a tough one! Take care
Jem
XXX

Oh, they also told us because we appled frst ad so qucly, t should have saved the burns for burng deeper down. Thanfully we both are up to date wth frst ad, and had hs hand under runnng cold water for around 20mns untl the ambos arrved. He stll went nto shoc though, but hopefully we stopped more damage from happenng. Fngers crossed anyway.

i burnt my hand on an iron when i was 2 it was on xmas day and i still have the scar , its about 8cm in length and 5cm wide ... its on my left wrist ... its never been a problem for me and i have never had a skin graph ....

its a big oval shape and is skin coulored , as long as his fingers are not restricted i would just keep it moisterised and see what time brings :)

This may sound awful, but I do think those little bandages do make boys look cuter! I thought my DS looked super-cute with a nasogastric tube as well... not that I want to see poorly babies, I'm just weird I guess. I'd much rather bandages not be needed, but when they are on they look adorable. Can we pretend that's a nursing instinct, that I love injured babies because they need evtra love when they're poorly? (There's a photo on this site with my DS's burn covered with a bandage, btw.)

Well done on doing exactly the right thing with a burn wrt the cold water. So many people don't know that and the burn gets worse. I'm sure he'll be fine - the hospital wouldn't let you change dressings or clean the wound site if they were worried about you or him. I'm sure you'll have great improvement by Friday.

I think first aid training should be provided to all expectant couples. Well done in reacting with FA - not many people actually stop panicking long enough to put what they learn into practice.

Poor Jack! Oh Mel I'm so sorry...poor little man (and poor mum!) :hug:
I hope his hand heals up ok...don't be too hard on yourself boys are quick! :(

Mel - it's a hospital in Perth that does the autologous epithelial cell spraying, but I'm sure it will have spread by now if you ask about it.

Thanks for the info on the autologous epithelial cell spraying, hopefully it won't come to that though, I'm preying.

I feel so bad for him. He has become so fragile the since the accident. He won't sleep. He wakes up screaming and will only settle if I hold him. And will start again if I go to put him down. Could it be he is having nightmares? I don't think it's hurting him, as he is o.k during the day, just very clingy. He only slept for 1 hour today and has already woken up twice tonight, screaming hysterically. Does anyone have any ideas? I feel so bad to let him cry, I just can't, it's not normally like him to do so. But I also don't want him to get into a bad habit of not settling himself. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Only 2 more days until the dressings come off, and we know for sure what we are dealing with.

DS was the same after his burn - it took 3-4 nights until he was happier about sleeping again, although he wasn't sleeping through at that point anyway. Burns hurt a lot, especially when they're healing. They're all pr1ckly and itchy - it's hard to sleep like that. Add into that the fact you've had to stop giving him a bath before bedtime because you can't get the wound wet and that unsettled my DS a lot. My DS was clingier too, because a healing wound is an uncomfortable thing. He's more than back to his rough-and-tumble self now.

You won't "spoil" him by letting him sleep with you or helping him to sleep until Friday, but it will help him because cuddles are nature's painkillers (seriously, they release pain-killing hormones) and he will go back to normal soon.

Thanks you so much for your reassuring words. It's exactly what I thought, but I'm so glad I have you to reassure me. I even felt terrible for saying that I didn't want him to get into bad sleeping habits. Of course he is just upset and sore. I feel stupid for even second guessing myself about it. I guess sometimes we need reassurance especially when we are in a zombie state, lol. I feel like going down there now and waking him up just to give him a cuddle for sounding so cruel. But I'm sure I will have that chance soon....

Thanks again for all your help.

That's OK, any time. Don't feel bad about second-guessing yourself, that's what we're all trained to do as mothers by everyone around us! And if you've never had a burn, or can't remember the injury, you probably won't know what it's like. I only know half the stuff I do about burns because I worked with burn injuries; the other half is from DS having a scald.

Just quickly girls, just thought I'd pop in and let you know that my little man will need a skin grap next week. We have another dressing change on tuesday and they should know by then if not then on friday at our next one, when they will do the graph. They are just waiting for the superficial burns to start to heal.

We are trying not to beat ourselves up about this but it's just so hard. The doc. made it worse when he mentioned about wearing the pressure sock for 6-12 months and that it will probably need to be checked until he is 16. I know they need to inform you these things, but I wish they didn't. I'm trying to keep positive though. The lovely nurse told us something very reassuring and special I thought. She said we have to look at it, that having a skin gragh done is the best thing for him. It will help it heal the best it possibly can, with minimal scaring and hand movibility (sp?). I know she is right, but I just wish we didn't do this to him, he doesn't deserve it. But I know, positive thinking from now on, it's happened now and we jush have to focus on one appointment at a time, and not worry about something that might or might not have to happen down the track.

Sorry for the vent, I just had to get it out. Best be off, someone is very upset still.

Thanks ladies.

I think I'm going to do some more research into the cell spraying, Rosehip Fairy do you know much more about it?

Hi Mel, just a quick Q, what sort of skin graft are they going to do? You're doing the absolute best thing for him - it's so much better to have a graft and a mobile hand than something which doesn't work.

Even if there is scarring, I'm willing to bet in 10-15 years he can have treatment to put that right. It all sounds positive, even if it's a bit scary now. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help - it may just be reassurance or telling you about other burn patients this has worked for, but I know how much that helps. Huge hugs to you and I'm thinking about Jack a lot.

Thanks again for your kind words. The doctors didn't tell us too much about what sort of graph it's going to be. Just that they will shave some skin from his thigh/bum area, then remove the top layer of white burnt area on his hand and replace with the new skin. They said they will tell us more when we they decide when they are going to do the graph. Does this make sense to you?

I'm really trying to stay positive about it all. I know that because he needs one done, then it's for the best that it is done. The doctor did explain that he might need further graphs done as well, as he grows, to help keep his fingers open. If that makes sense as well.

Did you used to work in a burns unit? You sound like you know a lot about all this. I'm sure I might be asking a few questions in the future, as my head is always sort of spinning when the doctors talk to me, I don't seem to remember much that they say.

Thanks again for your help.

Mel - keep strong. And you *didn't* do this to him - it was an accident. They happen, and we all learn from them

:hug: *hugs* :hug:

And as RF says - better a graph with mobility than no graph and no mobility ...

Is he sleeping a bit better now? Or still out of sorts?

He was sleeping a lot better before friday. But after they pulled more skin away at his dressing change, he wouldn't sleep again. Last night he would only sleep if he was in my arms, not DH, just mine, it's a nice feeling but just so exhausting. He won't even sleep beside me, I have to be holding him. I hope tonight is better.

I and know your both right, its better a graph with mobility than no graph and no mobility, it's just I wish he didn't have to go through any of this. But again, I know we can't continue to think like that. It's happened now, we can only learn from it and move on.

Thanks again for your kind words, they do help me feel better. :)

Hi Mel, I did work in a burns unit for a year as a scientist, so I have a rather different knowledge to a burns doctor or surgeon. I hope what I say will help rather than confuse - if in doubt, go with what your doctor says because they know exactly what they are doing.

The sort of graft you are describing is the simplest of grafts to do. Skin from one area straight over the effected area, no need for the skin to be grown or re-grow around the wound. There should be no scarring, if there is it will be at the edge of the graft and nearly unnoticable. There are huge benefits to this for a small area of skin - instant heal, no scars. The downside includes the fact that your bum will be rather sore from where the skin was taken and there may be a slight scar there later, but it is (at least, should be) in an area rarely seen by the general public. Sprayed cells require a long time to grow in a lab and are actually classed as xenografts due to the way they are grown (you do not get any animal cells on you, it's just classification laws), but needs a smaller "donor site" (the area from where the skin to cover the burn is taken) and meshing leaves you with weirdlooking bumpy skin - but is invaluable for large burns.

The reason Jack may need more grafts as he grows is because, well, look at how the skin on your hand moves compares to the skin on your bum. It's a very different type of skin. Sometimes skin can graft on and just take over the role of the old skin, so it will stay flexible and hand-like, other times the skin will stay bum-like (for want of a better description) and not grow well with the hand, requiring further grafts to keep the treated area working fully. Because Jack is so young the skin will probably adapt and he won't need further grafts, but you can't depend on his youth, you'll have to keep getting it checked out.

I hope this helped a bit - I am more than happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability if you need me to. Huge hugs to you - it sounds like your little man has the best possible care right now from you. (I don't envy you having to sleep with him - I had to sleep with DS on Saturday night and he kicked DH and me out the bed within the hour!)

Thank you so much. You are very helpful, my DH read your post, and is feeling much better as well about it all, so thank you very much.

We are off to the hospital again tomorrow for another dressing change, so we may find out then what is going to happen with the graft, and when.

I had a dream last night that they took of the dressings and all his burns had disappeared and was just a little red, if only it can true. It's his 1st birthday tomorrow, so hopefully he will get some good news.

Thank you again for all your help, it's BB members like yourself that make this forum a very special. I hope you know how appreciated you really are.

I just thought I'd let you know that Jack had his first skin graft today. And the operation went great. They ended up grafting 2 fingers and the top part of his palm. We were only expecting the palm to be done, but when they looked at the wounds properely without Jack wriggling around they realised that the base of his fingers had full thickness 3rd degree burns as well. But they were really happy with how the procedure went. They were able to use his forearm as the donor site, which means only one dressing to look after and it will be more comfortable for Jack, so that is good.

Anyway we don't have to go back until next thursday when they will check the sites, re-dress and re-splint for another week, then he will have a pressure glove customed made (we even get to choose the colours, how cool) and then hopefully his wounds will be healed enough to only need the glove and splint. Then maybe after another couple of weeks the splint can come off during the day and only be used at night time. The glove will probably be have used for 12+months, and it's likely he will need further skin grafts as his hand grows until he is 16 but I was already prepared for that, thanks to you Rosehip Fairy :), and see it as a good thing, as it will ensure his hand has full mobility.

Thank you all for your kind words over the last 2 weeks. Fingers crossed the rest of his recover even though I know it's going to be long, will be as good.

I'm so pleased to hear the op went well, Mel - and great that he only has one dressing. Do keep us up to date.

great news Mel *hugs* and *hugs* for your little man too.