iHV is proud to support the #SafeTea campaign launching today (16 October), on National Burns Awareness Day, and as one of the foundation SafeTea ambassadors. SafeTea is a national campaign which aims to reduce hot drink burns to young children, and improve first aid to children who have been burned.

Parents are being urged to take care with hot drinks in a UK-wide campaign to tackle the most common cause of burns to young children.

Burns and scalds are common injuries to children, and each year more than 50,000 children attend hospital with burns. The peak age for burns is in infants and toddlers between 8 and 18 months of age , where the most common cause is a burn from a hot drink. This means that across the UK 30 babies and toddlers are taken to hospital every day for treatment of a hot drink burn.

These injuries are preventable!

We encourage all health visitors to view and download the resources that are available on the SafeTea website and share the link with colleagues and friends.

Resource packs of printed material can also be ordered on the website for health visitors who are going to promote the SafeTea messages with families and with parent groups.

Request a pack of materials (flyers, fridge magnets, reach chart, badges) to use to promote the SafeTea messages with families.

Wear the ‘I am supporting SafeTea’ lapel badge.

If you work with parent groups, consider running some SafeTea activity sessions; activity resources are available to download from www.SafeTea.org.uk.

The key messages of the campaign are:

Prevention:

  • Keep hot drinks away from young children
  • Don’t pass a hot drink over a child
  • Never hold a baby and a hot drink at the same time
  • Make a SafeTea zone: a safe place for hot drinks in your home, out of reach of small children

Organisations and groups are invited to become SafeTea Ambassadors.

The role of ambassadors is to:

  • disseminate information about the SafeTea campaign
  • promote the campaign messages
  • encourage individuals to get involved by using the materials and becoming supporters

Register to become an ambassador by sending an email: [email protected]

The SafeTea Pledge

Preventing hot drink burns from happening is simple: always keep hot drinks well away from small children. Take a moment to think about where it’s safe to drink a hot drink in your home.

Take the SafeTea pledge:

  • I will always keep hot drinks out of children’s reach
  • I will never pass a hot drink over a child
  • I will never hold my child whilst holding a hot drink
  • I will make a SafeTea zone for hot drinks at home

The SafeTea website

Ambassadors and supporters can find out more about the SafeTea campaign and register their interest to get involved. Material is available to download from the website, and promotion packs for professional supporters to use with parents can be requested and will be posted out.