STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Kids and a lot of adults are obsessed with "KPop Demon Hunters."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOLDEN")
EJAE, AUDREY NUNA AND REI AMI: (As HUNTR/X, singing) We're going up, up, up. It's our moment. You know together we're glowing. Going to be, going to be golden. Oh.
INSKEEP: I know that song. The Netflix animated film follows a fictional K-pop girl group called HUNTR/X as they defend the world from demons with the power of music. Now, to get energy, the trio does some snacking.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KPOP DEMON HUNTERS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) OK, time for our pregame ramyun.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) Happy fans.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Ramyun are Korean instant noodles similar to Japanese ramen. "Demon Hunter"-themed noodles are being sold at big box stores like Walmart and Costco. People have been posting videos on social media trying them, like Instagram user Eat with Lulu.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LULU: (Slurping) Ooh, I can definitely taste the spice. (Slurping).
INSKEEP: This trend caught the attention of Boston's Shriners Children's Hospital, which put out a warning about instant noodles. A study from the University of Chicago a couple of years ago found that nearly one-third of childhood burn injuries treated at their medical facilities were caused by instant noodles.
COLLEEN RYAN: The noodle burns have been a problem for a very, very long time in our children.
INSKEEP: I never thought about this, but it's kind of intuitive when you hear it. Dr. Colleen Ryan is a surgeon at Shriners Children's who specializes in treating children's scald burns. And she says about a third of the burns there are from noodle soup. She sees two or three children every week burned by instant noodles.
FADEL: The instant noodles that are the biggest culprit are Cup Noodles. That's because they're easy to tip over.
RYAN: At 140 degrees, if it takes three seconds to get a second-degree burn in an adult, and you have a child and it's boiling at 212 degrees, and it spills, this can get a very deep burn very quickly.
INSKEEP: Having just burned myself with hot water the other day a little bit, this is true. And the noodles in the soup make it especially dangerous if they spill.
RYAN: The noodles are very sticky, and they stay in one place. And then the way the noodles hold onto their heat, the burn can get very much deeper.
INSKEEP: OK, now, Dr. Ryan says she can't tell how many of the burns she sees are influenced by the "KPop Demon Hunters" trend, but here we are. So what do you do if your kid is burned? Dr. Ryan says first aid is critical.
RYAN: Proper first aid is 20 minutes of cool running water immediately after the burn. And it's actually effective within two to three hours of the burn, even if you don't get it immediately.
FADEL: Only about a third of the children who come in with scald burns get proper first aid initially, she says. And skipping that can lead to permanent scarring and damage.
RYAN: Poor scarring, hypertrophic scarring or keloids. They can become a terrible problem. They're unstable, they keep breaking down, they cause a lot of pain and itch.
INSKEEP: So the best advice for being an effective demon hunter is to eat your noodles carefully. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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