Diaper burn: accident, abuse, or neglect

A 7-year-old, female with mental retardation and seizure disorder was admitted with burns. Reportedly, her brother who was 12 years old was cooking dinner for himself. A towel caught fire. He threw the towel over his head, and the patient's diaper ignited. She had partial thickness second-degree burns over her right elbow, upper abdomen, both inner thighs, and buttocks with multiple blistering, which was estimated to be 7% of the total body surface. The child abuse team took a diaper similar to the one the child was wearing at the time of injury and found that it easily ignited and melted in several seconds. This is the first medically reported burn case due to a disposable diaper.