BURNS IN CHILDREN UNDER 3 YEARS OF AGE - THE ZARIA EXPERIENCE

This is a retrospective study of 84 children aged 36 months and less w ho were admitted for bums care from January 1980 to December 1989. Fif ty-four (64%) had scalds, 28 (33%) had flame bums and in two children the cause was not known. The upper extremities were most commonly invo lved. Sixty-five per cent of the children were admitted during the coo l, dry Harmattan season. Associated factors included cooking at floor level, bedside fires, epileptic fits in the mothers and general archit ectural factors. Wound infection was the commonest complication. The o verall mortality rate was 27.4%. Bums prevention demands improvement i n the design of houses, cooking methods, treatment of epilepsy and aba ndoning puerperal bathing by mothers.