Young Children Injured through Accidental Burns

Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry monitors the number of young children injured through accidental burns each year; and (b) what measures are being taken to increase awareness among parents and caregivers of burn risks and how to prevent burns in the home.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) monitors the number of young children with burn injuries through the National Trauma Registry. The incidence of notified cases of burns in children below the age of 16 years between 2011 and 2015, averaged 70 cases per 100,000 population. This adds to 580 cases per year, on average. Approximately half of the cases occurred among children under three years old and more than three-quarters of the cases occurred at home. Of the cases occurring at home, half happened in the kitchens.

Information on burns prevention are included in the child safety checklist in the Health Promotion Board (HPB)'s Child Health Booklet, which is issued to every child born in Singapore. In addition, burns prevention and first aid tips for caregivers are available at HPB’s Health Hub.

Hospitals also conduct community education programmes to raise awareness of burns and scalds, which include talks to childcare teachers on child safety, information pamphlets to parents, as well as educational videos which are hosted on their websites and played at hospital clinics.

Parents and caregivers play an important role and they have to take the necessary precautions to protect their children from burns. Most critically, parents should avoid allowing young children in kitchens where the risk of getting burns or scalds are high, due to the presence of hot objects.

I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for his answer. I was just wondering to what extent does HPB's advice to parents of young children, include the specific reference to burns prevention at home?

The materials are very comprehensive in the Health Booklets Children Safety Checklist. It provides guidelines and it also includes advice on preparing water for child's bath, as well as ensuring that hot drinks are out of reach of children, and ensuring that electrical outlets are not within children's reach.

In short, the answer to the Member's question is, yes, it is very focused on places where such burn incidents happen, and that includes kitchen, living room and other places.

I am not sure whether there is data on this. But of those cases that the Parliamentary Secretary cited, does he have any data on how many are non-accidental in nature? That means is it related to abuse or suspected abuse?

I do not have the answer now. Maybe the Member could file a separate Parliamentary Question.