Disclaimer: I have no medical training and am definitely not an expert. The following is purely for your information, and if you use this information it is completely at your discretion.
The other night I made French Fries as part of our dinner. As with all things stove related I naturally burnt myself - splashing a nice dose of boiling oil on my finger..
I reacted as I always do, and as I was doing so, it occurred to me that perhaps not everyone knows the Eco-friendly remedy that I know...
Many, many years ago, when my children were small, my DD burnt herself severely enough for me to take her to our GP. She had decided to walk across a still smoldering bonfire which had not burnt itself out as we had expected. GP's wife, normally a fairly taciturn woman, on this occasion offered me advice which stuck.
If you burn yourself, and the burn is not an open one (i.e. the skin has not been broken) the immediate remedy is as follows.
Either briefly rinse the wound to remove any remnants which may have caused the burn, or, if an oil burn, gently blot the area with kitchen paper towel (if you use it - I don't) or with loo paper / paper serviette / tissue. This is in order to absorb as much oil as possible.
Then pour a container of milk (full cream, 2%, low fat, whatever - in makes no difference) onto a container which is large enough for you to fit the burnt area into. You'll need to pour enough milk to cover the burnt area.
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| Pain - pain - pain! I didn't know where the burn was specifically, so I shoved all my fingers into the milk :) |
Do nothing else to the burnt area. And do not apply butter, as they did in the old days, as the butter takes on the heat of the burn and continues the burning process.
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| As you can see the circled area is where the boiling oil landed - and, the next morning, there is only a faint mark left as proof of the injury. |
As a child DD had run out the greet her dad when he came home from work. Her knee came in contact with the hot exhaust pipe. Submerging the burnt area in milk also resulted in a mark only.
It seriously works! But - do not use this on a wound which is open, or where the blister has broken. For those open kind of injuries, if they are serious enough, get to your GP!
And, by the way, this remedy is very appealing to children - it takes the "nastiness" out of the incident, and, when their wound is feeling better, let them feed the now unusable milk to the family pets...:)
Great tip!
ReplyDeleteSomething that will get some use around here, as I'm ALWAYS burning myself while cooking.
Sue - Glad to share it :)
DeleteLeaves me out since I never have milk around here. I usually soak a burn in cold water which seems to help some. I've used the butter trick before with limited results.
ReplyDeletetffnguy - Pity - 'cos it really works well. Maybe get a small pack of powdered milk, and when you need it, just mix up a tiny batch? Milk instantly soothes the burn - more so than water.
DeleteI use cool (not cold) water. It works just like your cold milk. I get the same results every time and then follow up with a dab of aloe gel. Yes - butter is bad for burns. Glad you are healing up.
ReplyDeleteKris - Welcome. I have a formal welcome in the making...
DeleteI've tried cool water and find cold milk instantly soothing. Aloe gel we have plenty of, from our aloes, but I'm not keen to rush out in the dark to pick some aloe leaf - too many night snakes around for my liking. Thus - milk it will be - whenever I burn myself at nighttime :)
I just recently did the butter trick ... and it worked for my 'oven' burn .. will try this next time. I really was amazed by the butter though!
ReplyDeleteMrs Mac - Nathan will be calmed far quicker with milk on a burn than anything else :)
DeleteInteresting! I always apply a good quality lavender oil neat to the burn. I find it like magic.
ReplyDeleteLinda - I've never heard of lavender oil. Sounds interesting :)
DeleteDani - thanks for sharing the milk tip (i didn't know about it and always just run any small burns under cool water but it freakin hurts!). and i am glad that your burn is better!
ReplyDeleteanother tip - for the burns that break the skin - after rinsing quickly in cool water, apply egg skin from a just-peeled hard boiled egg. of course this only works if someone is there with you to do the peeling of the egg and apply it to your burn! i keep hard boiled eggs in the fridge for just such a reason - and for snacking - bahahahaha! we haven't needed the eggs for burns so far, thank goodness! but my mother always kept hard boiled eggs in the fridge for such emergencies as well as snacking, too, of course.
my brother was next door visiting with his friend, the friends parents were away and my brother and his friend were making chips in a pot of oil on the stove. they put too many chips in the pot and the pot boiled over and my brother tried to grab for the pot and oil burned his entire hand and fingers, as well as 2/3 up his forearm. he came running home, screaming and in horrible pain. my mother yelled for me and my sister to start peeling eggs and we immediately complied. my father called the ambulance which would meet us on the highway in 50 mins (we lived in a very rural area). my mother, my sister and i started laying egg skin on my brothers arm, hand and fingers and he immediately stopped screaming so loudly. when we had covered all of it with the egg skin he said that it didn't hurt anymore at all (due to the oxygen being cut off from touching the flesh). my mother then wrapped a damp towel around his arm and hand and into the car we went to meet the ambulance.
another time, my sister burned a large-ish spot on her arm with oil. out came the hard boiled eggs and we applied the egg skin. my sister's burn didn't warrant a 50 min drive to meet an ambulance on the highway, but after the egg skin was applied my mother wrapped my sister's arm in a few layers of cheesecloth. the next day when we checked my sister's arm - the egg skin had already sunk into her skin - can you believe that?!?!?! my sister's arm was healed the day after that - no scabbing or any discolouration!!!
anyway, not trying to be long-winded - just wanted to share more burn remedy ideas with you. don't even get me started on crazy glue-ing cuts! because we were so far away from meeting an ambulance, you had to have your head dangling off your neck to warrant a 50 min trip to meet the ambulance. my father used to take a ruler and measure our cuts - anything less than 25 cms got the crazy glue treatment! and it works! ask me about it sometime!
your friend,
kymber
kymber - Egg whites - very clever. Thanks - sounds like an invaluable tip. Don't often have hard boiled eggs handy, so I wonder if it would work with beaten raw egg white too (from a GOOD whole egg, as opposed to a cracked shell one)?
DeleteGlue treatment - tell me more... :)
Thanks Dani, this is excellent to know. Burns happen so easily and frequently, that a good remedy is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteLeigh - And the beauty is, for most people, you will always have the "remedy" on hand - or should that be in the fridge...
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