Dangerous marshmellows
The volunteers of Mobile School started a new tradition to go camping in Meerdaelwoud at the end of the summer. I wasn't really up to go and sleep in a tent there with the children, but we went to join them for the evening BBQ.
It was a really cosy evening and the boys enjoyed themselves gathering wood with the other children to build a nice camp fire. With the nights cooling off drastically, that was nice.
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Marshmellows got roasted but Beertja had taken his sweater of for the heat of being so close to the fire. And then someone's melted marhsmellow fell on his arm.
The first second you don't realise this is more than just a stain that needs to be wiped off his arm, but then I realised quickly that this is hot melted sugar and we could see he was in pain although he clearly tried to be brave about it.
There was not much cool water around so I took him to the sanitary block a walk away but then decided to drive quickly home to give it some proper car. At home...more water water water as that is what I'm drilled to do for burns. I had explained the importance to the children and he sat dutifully for a very long time
The first second you don't realise this is more than just a stain that needs to be wiped off his arm, but then I realised quickly that this is hot melted sugar and we could see he was in pain although he clearly tried to be brave about it.
There was not much cool water around so I took him to the sanitary block a walk away but then decided to drive quickly home to give it some proper car. At home...more water water water as that is what I'm drilled to do for burns. I had explained the importance to the children and he sat dutifully for a very long time
But I was in doubt. At the edge I saw after an hour and lots of water some little bubbles anyhow, not just red skin and since I was due to leave for Paris and leave the children in my mother's care, I wanted to be absolutely certain that we treated this in the correct way. I was afraid of being woken up in the middle of the night with a child complaining about the pain surfacing again.
So way past our bed-time the 3 of us walked up to the doctor'd on duty in Leuven. Fortunately that is only a walk away from us. We got confirmed that the edges were 2nd degree burnt and had to use plenty of cream on it...something we had to drive for to the outskirst of Leuven to order from the pharmacy on call at night.
So way past our bed-time the 3 of us walked up to the doctor'd on duty in Leuven. Fortunately that is only a walk away from us. We got confirmed that the edges were 2nd degree burnt and had to use plenty of cream on it...something we had to drive for to the outskirst of Leuven to order from the pharmacy on call at night.
The next day the redness had cleared and he claimed he wasn't in pain anymore after a good night. And 2 weeks later the skin is paling and it looks like he's not going to have a marshmellow scar on his arm like I feared.
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