Cookerati

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s kitchen safety week here at Cookerati. Even people who do their best to follow all safety precautions find themselves cutting a finger or suffering a burn. Fortunately common kitchen accidents aren’t life threatening. If you do suffer a mishap, one of these products might help to ease your symptoms:

KytoStat Bandages: Would you believe me if I told you these bandages were made from compost from shrimp shells? That’s right – it’s a natural technology. These aren’t your usual bandaids either. They claim to wrap the wound tight to stop bleeding fast and I wanted to find out if it was true. I wasn’t about to injure myself, however so I had to wait a while before I could give them a true test. It happened last week when I cut myself slicing a cucumber. The slit on my finger was a heavy bleeder so I got the KytoStat out of the medicine cabinet and wrapped it around the wound.

Normally with a wound of this caliber I’d have to change the bandage a few times. I’m happy to report it wasn’t this way with the KytoStat bandages. I followed the instructions to make sure to have the white part of the bandage directly on the wound and apply pressure after putting on the bandage. I even wore surgical gloves to take a shower because the instructions on the box don’t recommend getting the bandage wet. Though I kept the bandage on overnight, the wound did stop bleeding within an hour and I didn’t have to keep changing iy. We’re pretty happy with the results.

Burn Jel Plus - This is another product you’ll want to keep handy in your kitchen cabinet.  Burn Jel Plus, a water based treatment, soothes burns caused by kitchen accidents by acting as a  acting as a heat exchanger. It also contains Lidocaine for immediate pain relief and Tea Tree Oil, which is a natural antibacterial agent. This over-the-counter product uses the same Water-Jel technology used by firefighters, paramedics and even the U.S. military.

Better Than Water

While many parents immediately turn to water when a burn occurs, it has limitations for burn relief and treatment. As heat is transferred from the wound through evaporation, the surface temperature lowers, but heat emanating from deep within the burn rises to counteract the cooling effect of the evaporating liquid, which then requires new application.

Scarring can occur when burned tissue remains at an uneven temperature, meaning rapid and consistent heat transfer is critical.

What Not To Do

The use of home remedies such as butter or creams causes more damage by trapping heat and creating a risk for infection. Ice should never be applied to a burn because extreme cold can cause additional tissue injuries. Burn Jel plus soothes, cools and protects burns made by scalding water, touching hot surfaces, or grease splatters.

NexCare Bandages - NexCare’s 360 degree seal keeps out water, dirt, germs and other nasties that can cause infection. The good thing about this is that one can wash one’s hands, go for a swim and do other things without having to worry about wetting or infecting the wound. Even though this has nothing to do with kitchen wounds, I used NexCare’s extra cushion bandages on the heels of my feet after getting blisters when I broke in new hiking boots and they really protected my blisters from becoming worse. There’s different bandages from different wounds and lifestyles – active with extra cushion, waterproof, heavy duty and more.