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CHILDHOOD INJURY PREVENTION
Keeping your grandchildren safe

Remember the days when your kids were little and the family piled in the car for a Sunday drive? Remember when you tucked them in at night with a bottle to help them go to sleep?

These are fond memories, but we now know that these practices could have been dangerous.

"Injuries are a greater threat to children than all diseases combined. However, since 1987, death rates of young children from injury have declined almost 40 percent," said Dr. Joan Shook, chief of emergency medicine at Texas Children's Hospital and associate professor of pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine. "Much of this decline is due to the formation of new habits. As of September 1, 2005, Texas law requires parents to transport children younger than 5 in car seats or booster seats. Child advocates are pushing for laws requiring children under 8 to ride in booster seats and children younger than 12 to ride in the back seats of cars. Changes like these save many children's lives."

Here some ways to keep your grandchildren safe:

  • Put babies to sleep on their backs on a firm, flat mattress with no soft bedding, pillows, or stuffed animals. This greatly reduces the chance of crib death. Babies may choke on formula if their bottles are propped or if they fall asleep while they feed.

  • Make sure the crib is sturdy with no loose hardware. Bars should be no more than 2-3/8 inches apart to keep little heads from getting trapped. Place cribs and furniture away from windows to guard from falls.

  • If you use a baby walker, take the wheels off. Better yet, use one of the new stationary activity centers instead.

  • If you have stairs in your home, install safety gates at each end. Do not use the older accordion-style baby gates; children get their heads stuck in the openings. Make sure they are securely mounted in the doorway or stairway they are blocking.

  • When young grandchildren come to visit, keep their car seats, too. Use car seats even on short trips within the neighborhood. The safest place to install a car seat is the center of your car's back seat.

  • Protect exploring babies and toddlers by covering electric sockets with safety plugs, latching cabinets and toilets, and emptying buckets of water. Almost any non-food item can be poison: your medicines and vitamins, household cleansers, and even mouthwash. If you have medicines out or in your purse, put them out of reach and out of site.

  • When you buy toys for your grandchild, follow the safety guidelines for age even if the child seems advanced. Take care that the child does not play with toys appropriate only for an older sibling.

  • Above all, be alert at all times to your grandchildren's activities and anticipate dangers that could happen. Injuries can happen in the blink of an eye.

Nine out of 10 grandparents care for their grandchildren at some point during a year--and one in 10 are the child's primary caregiver.
 

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