An expert has shared their advice on how to prevent hot water bottle-related injuries this winter, as ACC data reveals there have been more than 4500 such injuries in Aotearoa over the past five years.
ACC injury prevention leader James Whitaker confirmed this morning: "The vast majority [of hot water bottle injuries] are burns.
"People are predominantly burning their legs, their chest, their arms and hands, and it's all preventable," he told Breakfast.
The answer? Simpler than you might think.
"If you use water that's not too hot to touch, you won't get burnt," Whitaker said.
Putting boiling water in a hot water bottle is a bad idea, he stressed.
"You don't want to do that, because if that touches your skin, you could have permanent injuries from that," he said.
"Especially if you're a child or an older New Zealander, and your skin's a little bit softer, it could be really damaging."
The data also shows that women are almost three times more likely than men to have a hot water bottle injury.
"It could be a number of things," Whitaker said. "Some people might be using it to ease cramp-related symptoms.
"Also they might be doing it for their children. Still, these days, a mum's more likely to be hands-on with their kids than a dad, it's not fifty-fifty yet, so it could be that."
And "assumptions" about the cause of the injuries can be drawn from the data, Whitaker added.
"It's probably when people are actually pouring [the hot water]," he said. "That's why it's going down and onto their legs.
"But also sometimes the lid would be coming off, and that's why it's going onto their chest and sometimes their lower abdominal area.
"So there's a range of ways that it's happening, but there's lots you can do to prevent it, which is the really good news.
"You can enjoy your home, you can stay injury-free if you just kind of think things through before you do it."
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