Background Burns in children is a major cause of morbidity. About 90% of burns occur in low and middle-income countries causing over half of the disability-adjusted life years in children. The study aimed to estimate the incidence rate, and identify the high-risk groups for non-fatal burns among Bangladeshi children.

Methods Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey 2016 was a large-scale cross-sectional survey conducted among 299,216 respondents utilizing a multi-stage cluster sampling method. The total number of children was 100,842, among them, 437 were non-fatal burns.

Results The annual incidence rate of burns was 866.7 per 100000 children with a 95% C.I. of 785.6 and 947.8 in Bangladesh. The incidence was highest among 1–4 years old children (IR: 2028.3, 95% C.I: 1761.1, 2334.7), and had a 3.5 times higher risk of burns compared to the 15–17 years age group. Females had a higher rate of burns than males between the ages of 10–15 years (1655.2 vs 482.2). About 70% of burns occurred in rural areas. Hot liquid (44.7%), flames (32.5%), and hot objects (20.7%) were identified as the main causes of burns, whereas the kitchen (60.9%) was the most frequent place. Most incidents (34.8%) took place between 7 am to 10 am.

Conclusion Children in Bangladesh suffer from a high rate of non-fatal burns. The high-risk category was identified as pre-school aged males and adolescent females. Most burns occurred in the morning in the kitchen.

Learning Outcome These findings will help raise awareness and create intervention measures to reduce the high incidence of non-fatal childhood burns in Bangladesh.