My baby’s hot water scalding accident

My baby’s involvement in a hot water scalding accident was scary! Ever since I got my baby boy Jeff, I could not remember him falling. Or having one of those ‘common’ accidents. Maybe I was a freak but I wouldn’t have liked any harm to come to my baby — not when it could be avoided. I therefore took every imaginable measure to protect him.

When my baby started crawling, I didn’t like taking him out of the house because babies at that age are quite curious, and I feared he might get an infection or become dirty. I got my baby while living with my parents, together with my siblings.

Naturally, the only person I really trusted with my baby was my Mum. She took care of my baby during the week, but on Sundays she attended women’s meetings after church, and only got back home late in the evening. So you can understand how I had Sunday dilemmas. It was challenging to find someone who would be left with Jeff, as I did not like taking him with me to church. Reason being that whenever I did so, I would get distracted from the service. Jeff would run around, and I would follow him to ensure that he did not put things in his mouth. I would always end up not listening to the sermon at all!

Given Mum’s absence, it was normally my turn to do some household chores on Sundays. My main task was preparing the Sunday dinner, which I can say was the main meal we all had together every week. On this particular Sunday, I was feeling upbeat and wanted to surprise the family with a new recipe. Before doing this, I decided to prepare Jeff a light meal.

I am a cleanliness freak. Hence I preferred to boil my baby’s bottles, pacifiers and other utensils before he used them. This was in order to protect him from developing any illnesses, due to any carelessness. That day, I let Jeff’s food to cool down as I boiled his utensils. Meanwhile, I chopped onions in preparation for the family dinner. By this time my mother had arrived (as is the habit ), she wanted to feed the baby herself. She took the food away in a small bowl, to the sitting room. As she mashed it, she instructed my 13-year-old brother to keep an eye on Jeff.

Jeff’s utensils had boiled enough, so I transferred them (plus the simmering water into a bowl and delivered them) to Mum in the sitting room, so she could use the utensils once she finished mashing the food. I rushed back to the kitchen, because I loved a certain soap opera that started on television at 8 pm. I had to make sure I was done making the family meal before the start of the show, hence the hurry.

My son was on the floor as usual, crawling from one side of the sitting room to the other, while my father and two siblings who were also in the living room, watched television.

I was busy frying onions while singing on top of my voice, when I heard screams coming from the living room. I ran from the kitchen to the sitting room, and found my baby and youngest sister both screaming. My mother had taken charge of the situation and was already at my baby’s side, and lifted him up as I reached to pick him. My father too was trying to calm the baby. Jeff’s cry was by now a voiceless scream. He had dipped his hand into the bowl containing his utensils, and the bowl tipped over, pouring the hot water on himself!

My parents got busy trying to remove his pullover, which was soaked too. We all feared he had more hot water scalding on his body. My mind started racing, wondering whether Jeff had also scalded his private parts. I remember urgently removing his nappy.

Helpless, I broke down in tears. I was crying like my little baby not knowing what to do next. I wanted to blame someone for this, but who? How could so many people in one room not see the baby reaching out to the steaming bowl? Of course I was to blame for the hot water scalding. I was the one who had placed the bowl with its dangers, within reach of my crawling boy!

Imagine the task my mum had of soothing my baby, and calming both my kid sister and I. Mum administered first aid on Jeff, as my father assured me that my son was not badly hurt. But I was devastated, and didn’t have the strength to continue with my cooking. I didn’t even eat that night.

By the next day, the hot water scalding had caused a big blister on his right hand. He was examined at the hospital and given some painkillers and antibiotics to prevent infection.

I learned my lesson the hard way: you can never be too careful. So busy was I preventing my baby from getting dirty or being infected that I forgot to see other dangers. While protecting him from unclean utensils, I failed to realise that I could also pose other dangers to him. I consoled myself that if I had known the water would burn him, maybe I wouldn’t have boiled it so much!

As a cardinal rule, never place any hot substance within reach of young children!’

END; BL 4/62

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