When Was the Last Time You Treated a Burn with Butter?

Butter. Ice water. Aloe Vera. When was the last time you treated a burn with butter?

Aloe Vera – Image by Toni Villaró via Flickr

Do you remember when your Mom put butter on a burn to keep the air away from it to stop the burning?

Well, it turns out that butter can cause infections, but, more importantly, the grease keeps the heat in the burn and that can cause more damage.

What Should You Do?

While ice water used to be the preferred approach after butter was found not to help, the current advice is to use cool, not cold water.

Ice water, or worse, ice, is thought to damage the sensitive, burned skin.

Either put the burn in cool water for 10-15 minutes or put cool compresses on the site.

The cool water takes away the heat in the burn to stop further damage to the skin.

Then, you can put an antibacterial ointment or soothing cream, like aloe vera, on the burn. If you like, you can then wrap it loosely with sterile gauze to keep it clean.

People used to tell me to just drip juice from an aloe vera leaf onto a mild burn, but I could never bring myself to do it.

You may also want to take a painkiller, like aspirin or ibuprofen.

What If It Is Worse Than a First-Degree (the mildest) Burn?

For anything worse than a burn caused by sunburn, spilled grease or coffee, or other hot liquid, with only 2-3 inches of surface skin affected, get medical help.

Second and third degree burns require medical attention. This includes chemical and electrical burns. They may cause internal damage that is not visible.

Second degree burns typically cause blisters that can become infected. They might be caused by things like spilled boiling water or cooking oil.

Third degree burns, as from a fire or touching a hot metal, like an iron or lit sparkler, go deeper than the outer surface of skin and require immediate medical attention to control infection and the possibility of going into shock.

Resources

For a good overview of common causes of burns and treatments, click here to go to kidshealth.org

For advice from a physician about burns, click here to go to familydoctor.org.

We Learn

In my lifetime, we have gone from recommending butter, to ice water to cold water for mild, but painful burns.

I wonder what my grandchildren will learn in their lifetimes?

How did your mother treat burns when you were growing up?

How did you treat your children?

When did you change?

Have you ever used an aloe vera leaf?

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To you and the tender, loving heart you bring to a hurting grandchild.