The moment our babies are born, we do anything to protect them from hazards. Sometimes the hazards don’t become obvious until it’s too late.

A 9-month-old baby has suffered from second-degree burns after playing with hot water from a garden hose.

The hose had been left in the garden, and it had been a hot day in Phoenix, America. The temperature outside was 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) which had caused the water sitting in the garden hose to heat up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius).

The mother of the baby explained she was spraying the hose on her son as a fun water activity in the backyard.

“I thought he was crying because he was mad, because he hates when he gets sprayed in the face. I didn’t think that it was burning him.” Said the mum.

What the mum didn’t realise was the water she was spraying on her baby’s skin was hot and causing second-degree burns.

The mum told ABC15 News, “It’s heartbreaking. It is. It sucks. All of it was peeling. He had blisters all over the right side. I thought he was crying because he was mad because he hates when he gets sprayed in the face. I didn’t think that it was burning him,” she said.

The mother wasn’t aware of the possibility that hot water was being sprayed from the hose.

Capt. Larry Subervi, a Phoenix firefighter, explained, “So at those temperatures, something as short as a 10 or 30-second exposure can result in a second-degree burn.”

Thankfully the baby will recover and heal. The mum of course wants to get the message out about checking the temperature of the hose before dousing their children with it on a hot day. The best way to do this is to hand test the hose when it’s turned on and allow the dormant hot water sitting in the hose to spray first, to allow the cooler back water to flow through.

Despite the incident happening in Phoenix, it’s still good practice to be vigilant in Australia where summer temperatures can soar up to over 40 degrees.