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Sagirl (Lindford, Hampshire, England) on 10/03/2011
5 out of 5 stars

Wow!!! Burned my whole right hand on top with boiling water, and tried carbonate of soda, but that made it worse. After about 6 hours of icy water, my husband came across this site and we decided to try the foil idea. It took about 30 minutes of waves of severe pain, but now 3 hours later, pain free almost. Can't feel the skin on my pointer finger, though. How long do I leave the foil on for though? Thanks for the wonderful idea.
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Replied By Lacie (Miranda, Nsw, Australia) on 10/21/2011

Burnt my hand with steam from an iron this morning.

With two young girls, I was concerned about how I was going to manage with a burnt hand. The pain was really bad, I put it in cold water but taking it out brought on sharp stinging pains. I just wanted to ease the pain and found this site.

So I wrapped my fingers with Al foil and then sticky taped the outside to keep the foil in place.

Yes, at first the pain was excruciating. Felt like I had put a cyan pepper patch on it, the heat was painful. Then the pain subsided, and is now bearable.

I believe the foil acts to conduct heat away from the burn area but it also compresses the area to reduce the body's reaction to a burn, particularly in reducing the blistering. There are scientific papers regarding this treatment.

Either way, I am so glad I found this site and would recommend this remedy to anyone who has had a 2nd degree burn. Do remember to seek medical advice if you don't feel any pain at all, and also if it really concerns you.

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Replied By Danielle R (Liverpool, England) on 10/22/2011

My little girl asked me to melt some chocolate in the microwave. I put the chocolate in for 1 minute. I turned my back to get another bowl an my daughter had opened the microwave and stuck her finger in the melted chocolate she has screamed for an hour and a half in pain. Her finger is blistered. She has had her finger in a bowl of ice cold water for the last hour and a half. I then googled what I could do to help the burn to stop stinging. I read that aluminum foil works I found this quite bizarre. I thought it was worth a try. This actually worked straight away. I'm impressed.
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Replied By Lacie (Miranda, Nsw, Australia) on 11/04/2011

One week after the steam burn, my hand has completely healed. It never blistered. For two days, it was sensitive to warm water, after that it was like a sunburn and the skin just peeled painlessly.

I am really grateful for google and Earth Clinic.

My friend told me that her father used to always put oil on his burns (from cigarettes), and suggested a logical reason why we shouldn't put our skin under cold water for too long. She said that water tends to swell the skin up, which leads to blistering. But, the Al foil definitely works.

Forgot to mention that I bought natural Vitamin E cream from the health food store to put on the burn while it was healing, that may have helped also.

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Replied By Irma (Kansas City) on 08/01/2012

Aluminum foil didnt work for me, as soon as I put it on seemed its hurting even more. Burnt my finger making breakfast for my hubby, the glass plate was too close to the frying pan (damn lack of counter space) and my thumb just stuck to the plate, never experience aburnt so bad, blister in all shades of white popped up seconds later and cool running water didnt even seem to help, so even tho ure not suppose to I put ice cube on it, tht seemed to stop the pain and ofcourse we have immediate errands to run after breakfast so I got in the car with a cup full of ice. Good while its on, as soon as I remove my finger its hurts BAD. So when I finally got home found this, tried foil, sorry but I almost shat myself from pain lol then I went for alcohol, 91% rubbing alcohol, filled up a shot glass n stuck my thumb in it, first couple of minutes it stang like hell but started getting better after a while, then after keeping my thumb in alcohol I put sum toothpaste on, I can still feel it n it stings but nowhere as bad as it was before, so thnk you guys!
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Replied By Louell (Fernie, Bc, Canada) on 09/06/2012

I pulled a 350°C pot out of the oven with an oven mitt then pretty much immediately forgot about it and went back to grab it again for a good two seconds.

I immediately ran it under cold water and kept doing for a good half hour. After that I could not remove my hand from a bowl of cold water for more than a minute or it would hurt like hell.

To be honest, I didn't really want to try tin foil because I thought it sounded dumb. Dissipate the heat from a burn? Create an airtight seal? Unlikely.

I'm glad I did try it though because after I applied the foil there was still just about a minute of pain before I noticed a significant reduction and eventual cessation.

I was able to sleep through the night without any discomfort aside from occasionally scratching my face on a foil wrapped thumb, haha.

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