Taters? You Know, Taters

...boil em, mash em, put em on a burn.

Yesterday, Miss Busy decided to put her bread into the warming oven and burned her forearm.  It wasn't a serious burn, but my immediate response was to slap a slice of potato on it. That's what my parents and grandparents would have done, plus it works.  Laying a bit of potato over a burn provides immediate relief and prevents the blistered, pussy mess many burns turn into when treated with other methods. 

Here's the deal.  For household burns, simply lay a piece of fresh potato on the damaged skin as soon as the burn occurs.  For small ones like Miss Busy had the other day, I simply cut a slice and score it so that the juice is released.  For more serious burns like when Superman spilled a whole bowl of boiling soup on his leg I grate about half of the potato and spread it across the area as a poultice.  The potato will provide immediate relief and begin cooling the burn.  As this happens, you will notice the temperature of the potato raising.  When the potato is no longer providing relief 5 to 10 minutes, remove the first one and apply a second. This second application will provide more extended relief and can be secured with a gauze bandage if the patient wants to get about doing their planned activities.  Like before, it should be removed once the potato warms and is no longer soothing.  I am sure that the poultice could be removed and reapplied several times through out the day, but have never found it to be needed more than twice.  Simple.  Effective. Always on hand.

Folk remedies are great and this is one of my favorites, but I got to wondering why it works.  Unfortunately, nobody with an advanced science degree has wondered the same thing or at least not cared enough to find out why.  The obvious reason that it works is because it cools the burn duh, but I simply cannot find any source to provide the why.  Therefore, I am just going with the "because my Papa said so" answer.  Give it a try,  it works and even if I was lying, you wouldn't be out anything and could just go run some cool water over the injury.