HaLeVia:
A serious (sub-emergency serious) burn should be cooled for up to 24 hours. I did this twice within a month (one burn was mine, one a child’s) and it was amazing how a terrible-looking and very painful burn improved overnight. Once you have thoroughly had it with standing at the sink, wrap the burn with a wet rag, and keep re-wetting it with cool water. It can help to include a couple of freez-pops (or bag of frozen peas, etc) in your wrapping. I actually put the child to bed with her forearm wrapped, and I went into the room every 20-30 min of the evening to re-wet it. A burn can be painful for many days, but this treatment made all the difference BH. I too got all kinds of weird advice at the time (grated potato, egg, who knows) so figured better to post this than not to.