On Wednesday we had a nice 4th of July, that was until Logan was burned by a sparkler. I had no idea just how dangerous sparklers could be. I remember playing with them as a kid and never having a problem. Last night we went over to a local park to wait for the fireworks to start and the kids were playing with sparklers while the sun set.
Everyone was having fun and we got some amazing pictures:
While the kids were swinging the sparklers around we did notice a time or two that pieces seemed to break off and fizzled out on the ground. We made sure to stomp them out and no one seemed overly concerned. Everyone was having fun, especially Logan.
Until one moment when Dave lit Logan’s sparkler and within 10 seconds he was screeching, stomping his feet, and crying. He kept yelling, “My foot! My foot!”
Logan has super sensitive skin on his feet and can’t even stand being on the beach in the sand. So if he gets poked in the foot with a stick or something gets stuck in his shoe he freaks out.
I thought this is what happened but I was wrong.
We got him calmed down enough to have him sit down and took off his shoe to prove to him there was nothing there, like all the 15 billion other times he’s complained about something touching his foot.
Only this time there was an actual burn. Here’s two photos of it today:
You can see it’s not a big burn but it still hurt him nonetheless and shouldn’t have happened at all.
Yesterday the circular part was surrounded in black ash and it had a black streak too. I was able to wash that off today but he definitely got burned by a sparkler.
All we can figure out is one of the little sparks shot off and got stuck between his foot and his sandal. It sounds so painful and of all places on him it had to get him on the foot.
He’s been a trooper though and hasn’t complained about it at all today. We are keeping a close eye on it though and if it changes we’ll take him in, but I think he will be fine. We’re also keeping it coated in ointment and covered with a band-aid.
I had no idea that sparklers could cause such burns. I’ve since looked it up and have read that sparklers account for 16% of all fireworks injuries.
And when I wrote about Logan’s burn on Facebook another blogger told me that she knew someone who had a spark from a sparkler fly into his ear as a child and he lost hearing in that ear.
I feel terrible that Loan was burned. I try to be overly vigilant about safety issues and the kids and have no idea how I overlooked this one. I truly thought they were harmless for some reason but I was giving my kids stick with fire on the end to wave around.
We won’t be playing with sparklers again and I’m hoping Logan’s burn heals quickly.
What about you? Did you know sparklers can burn or cause injuries? Do you let your children play with them?
About Tired Mom Tésa
Wow, I had no idea. I saw on pinterest someone had a great idea to use a plastic cup as a barrier between the child’s hand and the end of the sparkler which I thought was a great idea. Apparently that won’t be enough!
That’s scary!