A comprehensive plan for recovery after the hospital 

When the time comes for your child to leave the hospital, your social worker will help you create a plan for home or a rehabilitation facility. Some of the ways we assist you include: 

  • Helping you to get needed equipment or support  
  • Teaching you and/or your child how to change wound care bandages 
  • Nutritional information to promote healing 
  • Pain management 

For follow-up appointments, contact the Legacy Chronic Wound & Outpatient Burn Clinic at 503-413-3311. 

Caring for burn wounds 

Your child is on the road to recovery, and it’s important that their wounds get the care they need in order to heal. You will play a key role in this process. If your child is young, you will have to take care of the wounds for them. If your child is a teen or young adult, helping them to care for their wounds will be beneficial. Our care team will lend support along the way, so you don’t feel alone or overwhelmed.  

Whenever it’s time to change the wound dressing, remove it and wash the affected area with soap and water. Each time you change the dressing, redness and swelling should be lessening. If you see an increase in redness or swelling, this could be a sign of infection. Contact your child’s doctor as soon as possible. Other signs of infection include an increased temperature, bad-smelling drainage from the wound, or a general feeling of not being well. 

More helpful resources 

Learning to manage pain 

It’s terrible to see your child experience pain. As a parent, you want to do everything you can to make them feel better. Keeping your child on a consistent plan will help them with pain control. Make sure your child takes the prescribed pain medication at regular intervals. Use the lowest dose possible for relief. Give your child pain medication as prescribed 30 minutes before changing bandages to minimize pain. As you try to decrease the amount of pain medication your child takes during the healing process, you can use other methods of pain control such as music, games and deep breathing. 

 
The healing properties of healthy food

While you may be tempted to treat your child to ice cream, chips and their favorite soda, you’ll be doing them a bigger favor by offering them healthy meals and snacks. Follow these guidelines so that your child gets the right number of calories and nutrition to encourage healing: 

  • Eat three meals per day plus snacks. Or eat smaller, more frequent meals (six or more meals per day). 
  • Never skip meals. 
  • Always keep healthy snacks handy. 
  • Avoid sodas (diet and regular), sports drinks and other sugary beverages, which are filling but have no nutritional value. Instead, serve your child milk, milkshakes, soy milk, protein shakes and 100 percent vegetable juices or smoothies. 
  • Encourage your child to have protein at every meal. Meats, fish, poultry, beans, legumes, nuts, eggs and dairy products support skin growth and muscle building. 
  • Make sure your child has five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Ask your doctor if a multivitamin with minerals would also be helpful.  

Beyond physical healing 

We understand that your child needs to heal on the inside as well as on the outside. That’s why we offer a variety of events throughout the year to support burn survivors and their families. These include: 

  • Survivor Support Group. Open to burn, wound and trauma survivors and their families, this group meets on the 4th Tuesday of the month from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Outpatient Burn Clinic Wound Clinic. Survivor Support Group also holds quarterly activities including a swim gathering, garden ice cream social, Survivor Day at Hagg Lake and a holiday gathering. 

  • SOAR (Survivors Offering Assistance in Recovery): Peer to peer support for current Oregon Burn Center patients and family members. This hospital-based program provides a way for burn patients and loved ones to speak with someone who has traveled a similar road…“to find hope by talking with others who have transitioned from burn victim to burn survivor.” 

  • School Reentry Program: This program is coordinated by Oregon Burn Center staff to assist children, teens and young adults transitioning back to school or work after a serious burn or wound injury. Education and support are often communicated by phone and email, or for children with larger burns, Oregon Burn Center staff will go to the school and give a formal presentation to the child’s school peers and staff. 

Events include support groups, cookouts with firefighters, children’s camps, and an annual holiday gathering in December.

For information on these and other support services, call 503-413-1727 or email us. 

Learn burn prevention 

The following brochures can be downloaded and printed. If you have questions, please email us. This information is available free of charge through generous donations from Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp.  

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