Eastern suburbs daycare centre fined $20,000 after eight month old baby suffers severe burns to thigh

An eastern suburbs daycare centre has been fined $20,000 after an electric bottle warmer spilled onto an eight-month-old baby, causing them to suffer severe burns. The horror incident unfolded when the baby — referred to as “F” — attended an education and care session at the Mulberry Tree Childcare Ascot Service on June 18, 2025. The babies room session included seven other infants and was supervised by three educators. Around lunchtime, F became unwell and began gagging and choking, prompting one of the carers to pick F up and carry them to the sink area to grab their water bottle. F — who had vomited phlegm onto the floor — was placed on the bottle preparation bench with their feet dangling over the sink and their back facing an electrical bottle warmer. The carer checked F’s mouth for any obstructions, during which the baby flapped their arms and knocked over the electric bottle warmer, causing it to spill over the bench and onto its left upper thigh. The carer immediately removed F’s tracksuit pants and began running their leg under cold water. After about 15 minutes, the carer noticed F had sustained a burn to their leg. Another carer attended the scene and asked the original carer to notify Centre Management and F’s family, before helping the baby onto a change table and applying a wet flannel to their leg. “F’s left upper thigh at this stage was red with skin peeling off and some water from the flannel was pooling into the skin of F’s leg,” the ruling reads. “The burn was approximately between 10 and 15cm wide.” F’s mother and grandmother arrived shortly later and the infant was transported to Perth Children’s Hospital via ambulance for further assessment. The baby’s dressings were changed at the burns clinic two days later, during which the doctor told the mother F had suffered a “deep partial thickness burn”, resulting in “almost a third-degree burn”. The burn was treated with a PICO dressing for about 72 hours. “Doctors advised at that time that, depending on the progress of its healing, F might need skin grafting surgery to promote better healing,” the ruling reads. The doctor confirmed three days later that surgery was no longer required. The childcare centre was issued with a compliance notice, ordering it train staff on the correct use of a bottle warmer, provide additional burns training and display a National Burns Awareness Month poster. The centre revealed it had since taken “significant steps” by installing signage which banned children and adults from sitting on bench-tops and installing clear protective boxes to house the bottle warmers. All staff have since undergone an additional burns safety course and a “bottle warmer procedure training program”. The State Administrative Tribunal this week found the centre had “failed to ensure that every reasonable precaution was taken to protect children being educated and cared for by the service from harm and from any hazard likely to cause injury”. The centre was fined $20,000, which will be payed to the Department of Communities.