To warn about the dangers of radiators and hot water bottles.

[GeekLove]

Children's skin is very sensitive to heat but it is warm rather than obviously hot objects that have their own hazard. Human skin will start to burn if in prolonged contact with objects more than 43c. This does not feel hot, more somewhat warm. Hence the danger in that should a child be in contact with such a surface when sleeping they might not move from the hear source.

My ds2 has a rather nasty 2nd degree burn on his leg as a result of the furry cover on his waterbottle slipping off in bed. Radius present a similar hazard unless covered with something to dissipate the heat and not go above the critical temperature. This is relevant conspiring radiator heat up gradually enough that a child might not know they are in danger.

Op thanks for this. Just messaged my dad as mum has altzimers and I am not happy with her using one. He’s going to throw them out and I will get them a bigger duvet.

Great thread.

You put a young child to bed with a hot water bottle? And one hot enough to cause 2nd degree burns? What were you thinking?

The surfaces are covered and even then the bare bottle appears more warm than hot but certainly hot enough to cause a burn if in contact for a prolonged period.

You put a young child to bed with a hot water bottle? And one hot enough to cause 2nd degree burns? What were you thinking?

Probably the same as all the parents in the 1970s who used hot water bottles for their DCs. I regularly had a hot water in my bed and never had a problem with it unlike the hideous purple static filled sheets

This happened my son last year ... a really nasty burn on his leg complements of a hot water bottle with a cover on it and no leaks. He said he didnt feel it burning - I don’t think he even realised until I asked him what the blister was the next morning. It took weeks to heal.

I fill ours from the taps and there's no dangers of the cover being able to slip off. If it did spring a leak, which is unlikely unless they do what my dsis did and stick a pair of scissors in to "see what would happen", (what on earth did she think was happen-she was 12yo btw so not a baby) then the water would come out slowly enough to cool down.

I think they're like a lot of things where if you use them sensibly they're fine.

Radiators next to the bed I have experience of. I got my foot stuck behind mine as a child as I used to put my foot there to warm it up. I had a nasty scrape on the top of the foot and my dignity very much injured when dsis laughed

I used to know a man who had a huge scar on his calf from when he fell asleep whilst drunk with it on the pipe leading to the radiator. It was at least the size of his hand.

I had a scary hot water bottle incident. Put in very hot water. It burst, filling the bed with a pool of scalding water. If I hadn't rushed to the bath and held a cold shower over it for 10 mins it would have been very nasty.

I think it's a household skill which has been lost.

You just don't fill a hot water bottle with boiling hot water. Half way to the boil is enough. (I wonder if the advent of the electric kettle, that you tend to switch on and forget until it clicks off was a factor?)

If the bottle is actually rubber, you can guard against leaks/splits by using putting glycerine inside from time to time, and always storing empty.

And when you have finished putting the not fully boiled Water in, fold the bottle over to get most of the air out before screwing the top on.
My 10 yr old dd uses two - a little one for a pre- period tum and another for the feet that usually gets kicked out any way.

My younger two get the teddies that you can microwave. They seem much safer.

I am sorry to hear about your son OP.

I am a firm advocate of the old-fashioned stone hot water bottles.

Fill them with very hot water and put into the bed before bedtime - well before.
For children/young people take them out when they go to bed.
For adults push them down to the bottom of the bed - they are definately not things to cuddle - or even ditch them on the floor if still too hot.
They do not leak or burst.
I will only use an electric blanket for pre-heating a bed - don't trust them since the scare stories when I was growing up.

Laptop are a potential danger as are other portable devices with high energy density. It's the heat transfer not the temperature that is the main hazard.

Yes I burnt my legs on my laptop so I now sit it on a small pillow.

I was so stupid I didn't even put the two things together and thought it was some kind of rash. A nurses was trying to work out what had caused red marks all over the tops of my legs and we figured out it was my laptop burning me.

It felt nice and warm, most certainly not hot.

Are people using kettle boiling water to fill hot water bottles? We just use hot water from the tap as advised.

Hotbuttered

Not a very helpful there. Sure even you have made parenting mistakes.

The only time I burnt myself was with a slightly ill-thought-out attempt at improvising a hwb. It was a chilly night camping, and I had the brainwave that if I put hot water on tea granules in a 1litre water bottle, I’d have a drink if I woke up as well as a source of warmth. Bonus!

Except that while I was filling it from the kettle, I realised when scalding water poured over my hand that the bottle was shrinking and ejecting its contents. I ended up with a Shrinky Dink 150ml Badoit bottle

What sort of cover could I put on our radiator - baby's cot is next to it? We can move it away from the radiator at night / naptime but he is in our room still and it takes up a lot of floorspace.

I loved a good hot water bottle as a kid. I just use hot water from the hot tap for my daughter so even if she opens it and pours it over the bed it won't burn her.

SWD those wooden ones that sort of 'box in' the radiator I'm assuming. They do reduce the efficiency a bit but help prevent the burns mentioned on here.

Thanks. Will measure up!

I looked after an elderly man who had fallen against a radiator , couldn’t get up and had severe burns as a result , it was horrifying , he was an inpatient for ages and had to have a special bed that soaked up all the exudate from his wounds ( this was a long time ago) . We occasionally use HW bottles but all the ones we own have no chance of escaping their covers . When we were children my mum used to tell us off if we leant against the radiators as she said we’d burn our bone marrow , daft woman but it’s stuck with me .

Sorry should have said I hope your ds gets well soon , I’ve had leg burns and it’s very painful .

I drunkenly fell asleep on my hot water bottle at the weekend and have got a nasty burn on my foot. It was burned through the furry cover. I also know someone who had a hot water bottle burst on them in bed and had to be hospitalised. I would never give one to a child. They can just have more clothes and blankets if they are cold.

Interested to hear that someone had to be hospitalised when a hot water bottle burst in bed. Exactly what happened to me, with scalding hot water. I was in shock when it happened, but had learned from bitter past experience that if you get a hot water burn you need to put it under cold running water straight away, and ideally for 10 mins, which is a long time. I actually managed to do that - the water had touched a large area of my body - and I ended up with just a large red mark, no blistering or anything. Sure it would have been really serious otherwise. Just for info to others.