How to Treat a Burn

Video Transcript

"You're interested in How to Treat a Burn. My name is Beverly Bitterman, ARNP health and wellness consultant, and I'm here to give you some tips and strategies. If it's a fresh burn and if it's from something like a chemical or something that can be dirty the first thing that you want to do is to put cool water on top of the burn. So you might for instance if it's on a hand or a arm from a kitchen burn you might just run it under cool water and you can do that for 2 or 3 minutes. If it's any kind of chemical burn you definitely want to flush it with water for a good long while. That will help remove any traces of that chemical and stop the burn. The cooling action also helps just to bring down the inflammation and make sure that the burn doesn't keep cooking basically. Once you're sure that the burn site is clean and you're out of any immediate danger then the question is "what do I do about it" "how can I make it feel better?" Aloe is a plant, and it's a plant that has been shown to have healing properties with burns. Now you can find aloe spray that is helpful for sunburns. You can just spritz it on the person's body, their back, whatever. and you can also get aloe creams to put on burns that would be on an arm or another place of that nature. You don't want to use an ointment on a burn. Like in other words you wouldn't put butter on a burn. You wouldn't put Vaseline on a burn. You don't want something that's going to block in the heat. The other thing that you want to have happen is for the burn to stay clean and to stay dry. If you have a blister on the burn, that's a second degree burn and you want to make sure the blister stays in tact; so you don't want to pop it. In that case if you have a blister you are going to want to cover it with a non-stick bandage. If you have a blister that's more than about the size of a quarter, then that would be a time I would think about going to see your physician. Your doctor can also order you some special ointment called Silvadene that's really great for burns. So if you have any doubts, seek your physicians care and take steps to avoid burns in the future. My name is Beverly Bitterman, health and wellness consultant; and I hope that you're comfortable soon."