I decided to make a tea - minutes later, I heard an awful scream

"She looked up at me with big eyes and said, 'Don’t cry, Mama'."

I'm writing this anonymously because I'm so ashamed as a mum.

I heard the scream and knew something awful had happened. There was something about the pitch.

“Mum, Lily’s burnt herself,” my nine-year-old son yelled.

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I ran into the living room and saw my mother-in-law taking my toddler’s clothing off, as she shrieked in agony.

“She’s ok, she’s alright,” my MIL repeated, as we wrestled with the oddly shaped love heart buttons on her tiny cardigan. 

With her half naked in my arms, I ran with her to the bathroom, did a quick check over her body, then put her trembling little hand under the cool tap, praying it would give her relief.

The boiling hot water had scorched her fingers, but missed the rest of her body.

We’d been having a birthday party celebration for her and it was the end of the night and everyone was relaxing on the couch.

I decided to make a tea and left it in the middle of the coffee table, then went into the kitchen to write in my son’s reader log.

I was only gone for a few seconds and the living room was full of family members, but it happened so fast. 

Lily had tripped, knocked the coffee table and dipped her fingers in the boiling water that had spilled across the table. 

Image: supplied

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"It was my fault"

As I sat there in front of the faucet, tears streamed down my cheeks. I knew it was my fault that she was in such pain, and I wished so much that I could take it away.

After 10 minutes, my mother-in-law said she seemed fine and we should just give her a bottle and put her to bed. But after Googling how to treat burns, I persevered with the cool running water for 20 minutes.

My daughter seemed ok for about five minutes after that and we gave her some Nurofen for pain relief. But then, she began to scream in agony again. 

To give some context, she is the third child and is extremely resilient. She literally never cries, even when she accidentally trips and grazes a knee or knocks herself.

I knew that she must be in agony, so I put her in the back of the car and drove like the wind to the hospital. We live in the country and luckily the hospital is only two minutes away.

As I burst through the doors, a nurse came running over. “My daughter’s had a burn,” I said, gulping back tears.

“Age?” she asked.

“Two today,” I said. And then I broke down sobbing.

The only thing that seemed to help her was to leave her hand under cool running water, so I sat there with her hand in mine in the water while the nurses assessed her.

At one point, she looked up at me with big eyes and said, “don’t cry, mumma”, and I buried my head in her hair.

The nurse gave her more Panadol and called a doctor for advice. Eventually, she said we could go home. But even at home, every time we took my daughter’s hand out of the running water, she writhed in agony and cried.

I ended up sleeping with her on my chest and her hand in a milkshake cup filled with water next to us. After a few hours, the pain seemed to have dissipated.

The next morning, Lily was back to her usual bubbly self, but I felt sick to my core from the horrors of the night before. 

Originally published as I decided to make a tea - minutes later, I heard an awful scream