| Family Focus - 10 Ways to Save Your Child's Life | |
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| The most important information you need to make sure your kids are safe and sound--and you're a little more sane. |
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By: Laura Flynn McCarthy, Photo: Stephanie Rausser/Getty Images You’ve sheepishly thumbed through nanny-cam brochures, wondering if you should plant a few in teddy bears to spy on your child’s caregiver. You’ve considered backpack-attachable GPS systems to track your child’s whereabouts. You’ve even stashed your stick deodorants far out of reach after hearing about a little boy who ate one and had to have his stomach pumped. Moms know that dangers lurk in our homes and out in the world. But did you realize that accidents—not illness or kidnapping—are in fact the main hazard to children? “Injuries cause more deaths in children than the next seven leading causes of death combined, and parents actually have lots of control over that,” says Garry Gardner, MD, chair of the Committee on injury, violence and poison prevention for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Read on to find out the leading child safety dangers and the easy steps you can take to keep your kids out of harm’s way.
Read Also: Cool in a Crisis: Information every child needs to know to handle emergencies
1: Get Car Smart
The Danger
Motor vehicle accidents are the No. 1 cause of death for children ages 1 to 19, accounting for about 13 percent of unintentional injury deaths in infants and more than half of all such deaths in kids 5 to 14.
The Problem
Kids are often in the wrong car seat or one that was installed incorrectly. Seven out of ten kids in child safety seats are not properly buckled in, according to data from the national campaign SeatCheck (seatcheck.org). What’s more, hundreds of children are injured each year when struck by a car in a driveway or parking area, likely because drivers didn’t realize the kids were playing behind the car when they backed out. And last year 42 children in the United States died because they developed hyperthermia, or heatstroke, when playing in or left in cars that became too hot very quickly. A report from San Francisco State and Stanford universities notes that the temperature inside a car can rise about 40 degrees an hour.
The Solution
Follow these guidelines for buying and using the right car seat. Your infant should be in a rear-facing car seat until at least a year old and at least 20 pounds (or at the upper limit set for the specific car seat model).
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| ummserious |
2009-07-12 |
I would like readers to know that the AAP recently changed their guidelines. The new guidelines suggest that children remain rear facing in their carseats until at least 2 years old and it is in fact safest to keep the child rear facing until the limit for their particular seat. ... |
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