The
Sentinel –
Making Utah
a Safer Place for Kids
Select an article below, or download the
entire issue:
§
Wrap Your Arms Around
Safety
§
Playing With
Fire
§
Hiding in Plain
Sight
§
Kids + Cars =
Danger
§
If It Has
Wheels
§
A Wet, Wild and Worry-Free
Summer
THE SENTINEL –
SPRING 2003
Wrap Your Arms Around
Safety
When our children need an extra dose of love or concern, we
don’t hesitate to ‘wrap our arms around them’ and offer a comforting
hug. This summer, the Utah SAFE KIDS Coalition asks parents to “Wrap
Your Arms Around Safety,” too, in another very important show of
love and concern for your
children.
Wrap Your Arms Around Safety
is the theme
for SAFE KIDS Week 2003 — May 3-17. During this time, the National
SAFE KIDS Campaign and the Utah SAFE KIDS Coalition will educate
parents about traumatic brain injury prevention, fire and burn
safety, car seat installation, drowning prevention and
more.
SAFE KIDS encourages parents and kids to drop by one of the
events happening near you to learn about safety. Activities like
bike rodeos, fingerprinting, helmet fitting stations, rock climbing
walls and more will be provided to teach families essential
information about being safe.
We know that the leading cause of death for children under
the age of 14 is unintentional injury. The real tragedy is that most
of these deaths are preventable. Often all it takes is a helmet, car
seat or smoke detector to save a life. These items are inexpensive,
and a small price to pay for saving someone’s
life.
Prevention is the key. It is estimated that, by taking
simple precautions, nearly all (90%) of these unintentional injuries
can be avoided.
So the next
time you wrap your arms around a child, remember to wrap them around
safety, too. For more information on all areas of child injury
prevention, visit the SAFE KIDS Web site at www.safekids.org.
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THE SENTINEL
– SPRING 2003
Playing With
Fire
Keeping Kids Safe from Burn
Injuries
Each year thousands of children suffer burn-related injuries
that require long periods of rehabilitation, multiple skin grafts
and painful physical therapy. Some of the most common burns are
caused by hair curlers, curling irons, room heaters, ovens, irons,
fireworks, electrical cords, hot foods and liquids spilled in the
kitchen, and hot tap water in sinks and
tubs.
Prevention
Tips
§
Never leave a child alone,
especially in the bathroom or
kitchen.
§
Install smoke detectors in
your home on every level and in every sleeping area. Test them once
a month, replace the batteries at least once a year, and replace the
alarms every 10 years.
§
Set
your water heater thermostat to 1200 F or below. Consider installing
water faucets and showerheads containing anti-scald
technology.
§
Keep matches, gasoline,
lighters and all other flammable materials locked away and out of
children's reach.
§
Use
back burners and turn pot handles to the back of the stove when
cooking.
§
Keep hot foods and liquids
away from table and counter edges. Never carry or hold children with
hot foods or liquids at the same
time.
§
Never allow children to handle
fireworks.
§
Keep appliance cords out of
children's reach.
§
Cover unused electrical
outlets with plug covers. For more information on fire and burn
prevention, call or visit your local fire
department.
Remember: Smoke detectors save lives … you can't escape
if you're not awake.
“Because a young child's skin is thinner than that of older
children and adults, it burns more deeply and at lower
temperatures.”
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THE
SENTINEL – SPRING 2003
Hiding in Plain
Sight
Hazards in Your
Home
How safe is your home for your
child? Any 'home sweet home' may have numerous hidden hazards. To
help reduce the risks in your home the
Utah SAFE KIDS Coalition offers
the following guidelines:
Childproofing
Steps
§
Safety, not
convenience,
comes first when childproofing the home. Lock all potentially
harmful products out of children’s reach, including paper shredders,
garbage cans, knives, scissors and curling
irons.
§
Get down on your hands and knees and
explore the home from a child’s point of view. Ask yourself “What
looks tempting?” “What is within reach?” Look for potential dangers
between the floor and about 40 inches above the floor. Also, check
floors and carpets for buried dangers like pins, buttons, paper
clips, dry pet food, latex balloons or
coins.
§
Lock medicine
cabinets.
§
Install toilet
locks. When
children lean into a toilet bowl, they can lose their balance, fall
forward and drown.
§
Request child-resistant
packaging.
Whenever possible, purchase medications in child-resistant
containers. Keep in mind that child-resistant does not mean
childproof. These medicines still need to be locked up and out of a
child's reach.
§
Keep a one-once bottle of
ipecac syrup
in the medicine cabinet for each child. If a child is
unintentionally poisoned, treatment may include inducing vomiting by
ipecac syrup. Use only on the advice of the
Poison Control Center (1-800-222-1222) or a
physician. Keep these and other emergency numbers by every phone in
the home.
§
Keep beds and
cribs away
from windows and drapery. Children can strangle in drapery cords or
fall from windows that are near the bed or crib. Retrofit current
blinds with safety devices or consider purchasing cordless window
coverings. Never tie strings on pacifiers or hang purses on
doorknobs.
§
Check the house for fire
hazards. Look
for obvious fire hazards such as frayed electrical wires or
flammable materials near heat sources such as space heaters. Never
run electrical cords under rugs.
§
Install carbon monoxide (CO)
alarms in
every sleeping area in your home and check batteries monthly. CO is
a colorless, odorless gas produced by fuel burning appliances.
Exposure to even low levels of this poisonous gas can be fatal to a
small child.
§
Use safety
gates. Stairs
are particularly dangerous and falls from stairs tend to result in
more severe injuries. Use safety gates both at the top and bottom of
stairs.
§
Do not allow children to walk around with
silverware, lollipops or toothbrushes in their
mouth.
§
Never use baby walkers on
wheels. Use
walker alternatives or stationary activity
centers.
§
If firearms are
kept in the
house, keep them locked, unloaded and stored out of reach. Secure
ammunition in a separate, locked
location.
§
Keep first aid
supplies on
hand. Make sure parents and other caregivers know where to find the
supplies in your home and how to respond in an
emergency.
Source:
National SAFE KIDS
Campaign
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THE SENTINEL –
SPRING 2003
Kids + Cars =
Danger
Don't Make a Fatal
Mistake
Despite regular reminders and repeated warnings, some
parents still believe it's okay to leave a child in a car for "just
a minute" to run an errand.
Sadly, we can't ask the more than two dozen children who
were left inside hot cars in 2002 whether "just a minute" was a
minute too long. Because those kids are
dead.
The National SAFE KIDS
Campaign® reports that in the
U.S., at least 30 children died of
hyperthermia (heat stroke) last year after they were abandoned
inside a hot vehicle. Many of these children were left behind or
forgotten by an adult, while others gained access to an unlocked car
and couldn't get out. And these are only the cases officials know
about.
What Happens to a
Child's Body?
Extreme heat is dangerous for infants and children. Heat
rapidly overwhelms the body resulting in shock, lack of circulation
to organs and may cause permanent injury or
death.
When the temperature outside reaches 80o F, a car's interior
temperature can reach dangerous levels in just minutes, even with a
window cracked.
Tips and
Guidelines
SAFE KIDS offers the following safety precautions to help
prevent heat-related injuries:
§
Never leave your child in a
motor vehicle, even with the windows
down.
§
Teach children not to play in,
on, or around cars.
§
Always lock car doors and
trunks - even at home - and keep keys out of
reach.
§
Watch children closely around
cars, particularly when loading or unloading
items.
§
Always make sure all child
passengers have left the car when you reach your
destination.
§
Don't overlook sleeping
infants.
§
When restraining children in a
car that has been parked in the heat, check to make sure seating
surfaces and equipment (car seat and seat belt buckles) aren't
overly hot.
§
If
your child gets locked inside a car, get him out and dial
9-1-1 or your local emergency
number immediately.
§
Use
a thin covering to shade the seat of your parked car. Consider using
windshield shades in front and back
windows.
§
Car
trunks can be especially hazardous. Keep the trunk locked at all
times, especially when parked in the driveway or near the
home.
§
Contact your automobile
dealership about getting your vehicle retrofitted with a trunk
release mechanism.
§
Keep the rear fold-down seats
closed to help prevent kids from getting into the trunk from inside
the car.
§
Be
wary of child-resistant locks. Teach older children how to disable
the driver's door locks if they unintentionally become entrapped in
a motor vehicle.
Remember: Never leave your child alone in or around
cars.
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THE SENTINEL – SPRING
2003
If It Has Wheels —
You'd Better Use a
Helmet
As temperatures climb, kids everywhere are anxious to hit
the road — on bikes, skateboards, scooters and roller blades. As fun
as they may be, they're a potential danger for riders who fail to
wear a helmet.
Everyone knows helmets help prevent deaths and injuries;
everyone also knows how tough it can be to get kids to wear them.
So, put your own helmet on, insist that your children wear theirs,
and keep in mind that different activities require different
helmets:
§
A
regular bike helmet can be used for
biking.
§
Skateboards, scooters and
in-line skates require a multi-sport helmet. Designed differently to
cover more of the back of the head, multi-sport helmets can
withstand several impacts; bike helmets are designed for one impact
only.
§
The
Bike Helmet Safety Institute warns against allowing any child 12
months or younger to ride on a bike, whether in a backpack, trailer,
child carrier or a sidecar. The jolting that occurs on a bike ride
could cause Shaken Baby Syndrome or other serious injuries. Take
your infant on a walk instead of a bike
ride.
To increase your chances of getting your child to wear a
helmet on every ride:
§
Let
your child choose his/her own helmet at the store, they may be more
likely to wear it.
§
Store helmets near bikes,
skate-boards, roller-blades, etc. That way they'll always be easier
to find and put on.
§
Wear a helmet yourself. Why
would Junior want to wear one if Dad
doesn't?
And remember:
For a safe summer, if it has wheels…wear a
helmet!
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THE SENTINEL
– SPRING 2003
A Wet, Wild and Worry-Free
Summer
With summer fast approaching, chances are your kids are
planning for a wild time in the water. Pools, lakes, ponds and
beaches can offer exciting recreational opportunities for the whole
family. But water can also be a dangerous place for
children:
§
Nearly 1,000 children die
every year by drowning.
§
60
percent of drownings involving children younger than 5 occur in home
swimming pools.
§
Drowning is a quick and silent
killer. In the time it takes to…
- cross the room for a towel
(10 seconds), a child in the bathtub can become
submerged.
- answer the phone (2
minutes), that child can lose consciousness
- sign for a package at your front door (4 to 6 minutes), a
child submerged in the bathtub or pool can sustain permanent brain
damage.
§
Almost 75% of all preschoolers
who drowned were in the care of one or both parents at the time of
drowning and had been out of sight for less than 5
minutes.
Knowledge is a powerful tool for combating these tragedies.
Knowing how and where children drown, as well as the concrete steps
you can take to avoid danger, may make a life-and-death difference
for your family.
How Can You Keep Your
Child Safe?
The most important thing to remember when it comes to water
safety is that children need constant supervision around water —
whether the water is in a bathtub, a wading pool, an ornamental
fishpond, a swimming pool, a spa, the beach or a
lake.
Young children are especially at risk — they can drown in
less than 2 inches of water.
Drowning can happen where you least expect it — the sink,
the toilet bowl, fountains, buckets, inflatable pools, or small
bodies of standing water around your home, such as ditches filled
with rain water.
Learn to swim, and if your child is older than 4 years, have
him learn to swim, too. Don't assume, however, that just because
your child knows how to swim, she won't drown. Always supervise your
children while they are in the water, no matter what their swimming
skill levels.
Invest in properly fitting, Coast Guard-approved flotation
devices (life vests) and use them whenever a child is near water.
Check the weight and size recommendations on the label. Make sure it
fits your child snugly. For children younger than 5, choose a vest
with a strap between the legs and head support — the collar will
keep the child's head up and his/her face out of the water.
Inflatable vests and arm devices such as water wings are not
effective against drowning.
The bathroom is full of dangers for a young child. Never
leave a young child unattended in the bathroom, especially while
bathing — even if the child appears to be secure in a safety tub or
bath ring.
Awareness can go a long way in preventing injuries outside
the home. Find out where the water hazards in your neighborhood are.
Who has a pool or water spa? Where are the retaining ponds or creeks
that may attract children? Make neighbors who have pools aware that
you have a young child and ask them to keep their gates
locked.
Water play can be a great source of fun and exercise.
Everyone will enjoy the water experience more by knowing and
practicing water safety
precautions.
Source: www.primarychildrens.com (Kids
Health)
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