Safety for Children

If you are looking for an interesting parenting site with not only good child safety tips, but overall tips on kids, be sure and check out ParentHacks.com. They have all sorts of fun information submitted by parents on a vast array of topics from how to distract your children while combing their hair to common household items that can be used as child safety devices. Check out this great tip from a parent about administering medicine in the middle of the night:

This hack was obvious to me and my husband, but when my friend just sent me an email and said her four year-old had to go on breathing treatments every 4 hours and that waking up a preschooler at 4am was not easy, it dawned on me that maybe it wasn’t so obvious. When my son was under 1 year old and had to do breathing treatments we let him sleep.  I mean, all he has to do is breathe to get the treatment, so why wake him up?

If you are looking for little parenting tidbits, be sure and visit ParentHacks.com for all kinds of fantastic information and ideas.

As we turn the corner from summer to fall, September not only brings with it the start of school, but Baby Safety month as well. Is your house as safe as it could be for your baby or toddler? Here are some great pieces of advice from the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association:

This September marks the 25th anniversary of Baby Safety Month, sponsored annually by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA). This month-long campaign exists to educate consumers and raise awareness of safety issues surrounding the proper use and selection of juvenile products.

“Keeping a child physically safe is the most basic of all parental responsibilities,” says Mike Bost, vice president of Palmetto Childproofing Inc, a professional babyproofing company that services Charlotte, NC and surrounding areas.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, one million children seek medical attention each year because of unintentional injury, and approximately 50,000 suffer permanent damage.

With over seven years in the child safety industry and extensive experience in childproofing nearly two thousand homes, Bost says that the best defense against injuries to babies and toddlers in the home is for parents to provide a safe environment in which their baby can live, learn, explore, and play.

He recommends that all first-time parents get a child’s eye view of the world. “Get down on your hands and knees,” says Bost, “look around inside your home, and see what your child sees through his or her eyes. You may be surprised at what you see. The obvious hazards and dangers will stare right back at you.”

With the wide variety of child safety products on the market, the prospect of babyproofing a home can seem overwhelming for many parents. Bost says selecting the right safety products the first time is important to avoid the hassle and inconvenience of returning items that do not work or fit properly.

He suggests that parents experiencing difficulty or frustration babyproofing their home consider using the services of a professional childproofer. “Professional childproofers are intimately familiar with child safety products,” Bost says, “and they have considerable experience installing baby gates, cabinet and drawer latches, and many other childproofing products that parents sometimes find difficult to install on their own.”

As Baby Safety Month gets underway, Bost says he welcomes the opportunity to promote child safety and focus parents’ attention and efforts in making their home a safe haven for their little one.

Even with summer coming to a close soon and children returning to school, there are still plenty of child safety risks associated with summer that need to be addressed in the home. The biggest of course being swimming pools, and a news outlet in Ontario, California addresses the issue with swimming pools on the property of unoccupied homes.

"These foreclosed, unmaintained, unoccupied homes are the new killer in your neighborhood," said Joe Powell, emergency medical services coordinator for the Rialto Fire Department.

Forty-four kids in the county from only a few months to 5 years old drowned between 2000 and 2005, according to the California Department of Health. There were 130 nonfatal, hospitalized injuries from near drowning or submersion.

Officials said unsecured, untreated pools at foreclosed homes not only pose a health hazard but can also prove fatal to kids attracted by water toys left by previous occupants.

Older kids are not immune to accidents at the pools either, they said. Abandoned pools turn green with time, hiding plastic bags and other trash that can entangle anyone who may fall in, officials said.

There are 853 vacant, unsecured properties in the city, said David Hernandez, senior code officer. His department has answered 155 calls for abandoned pools. Twenty-one calls remain active.

Hernandez urged residents through the county to call local code enforcement to secure abandoned pools.

Officials reminded the public that drownings among kids nationwide increase by 89 percent between May and August, and home swimming pools are the most common site for drownings among children ages 1 to 4.

If you know of a swimming pool on an unoccupied or abandoned property, call the city codes office immediately and alert them to the danger.

It is every parents worst nightmare, but should your child go missing, Gather.com gives you a great checklist to follow. One thing many forget is that a child can slip any any small space that most adults wouldn’t think about, such as nooks and crannies of closets, under beds, even inside large appliances. Should checking around not yield you finding your child, calling law enforcement is the next step.

If your child disappears in a store, notify the store manager or security office. Then immediately call your local law-enforcement agency. Many stores have a Code Adam plan of action — if a child is missing in the store, employees immediately mobilize to look for the missing child. When you call law enforcement, provide your child’s name, date of birth, height, weight, and any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces. Tell them when you noticed that your child was missing and what clothing he or she was wearing.

Also remember that as soon as you have contacted law enforcement to report the missing child to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which can be done via a 1-800 number or their website.

Are you considering leaving your child home alone once they reach a certain age? Every parent contemplates this at some point, and the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children has put together a great list of things to consider before you make such a big step.

Before allowing your child to go home alone, you should…

• Determine if there are other community resources or organizations providing after-school care or support.
• Ask your child how he or she feels about being alone. Is your child afraid to be left alone, or does he or she have the maturity and initiative to want to assume that responsibility?
• Decide if you feel your child is able to follow directions and solve problems on his or her own.
• Determine how long your child will be alone, accessible you or another trusted adult will be in case of an emergency, and safe the neighborhood is by contacting your local law-enforcement agency and checking the incidence and types of crime in your neighborhood.
• Make sure you’ve set specific rules to be followed by your child while he or she is alone, and give your child specific instructions about how to reach you at all times. This should also include information about what to do if your child needs assistance and can’t reach you right away.
• Remember you’re in charge, even if it is from a distance.

The article goes on to give you tips about what your child should know when the time comes for them to be left on their own. It is a huge step in both of your lives, but one that can be handled easily with this great list of reminders.