What Are the Most Common Injuries, Accidents, and Issues I Need to Protect My Child From?
Accidents and injuries are the leading cause of fatalities for children despite the fact that it’s possible to take measures to protect them. While some can be classified as freak accidents, most others are very common and therefore preventable to a high degree. That said, here are the most common injuries, accidents, and issues that you need to protect your child from.
Slips and Falls
Slips and falls are very common accidents in the house and everywhere else. This is because they may be caused by a number of things, from spills on the floor and objects placed haphazardly on the floor. To avoid slip and fall accidents, you need to clean up spills as soon as they occur, something that may not be the most fun part of parenting but is necessary. You should also remind everyone in the house who is capable of cleaning up after themselves to do so. Since slips and trips are responsible for 15% of all accidental deaths that occur, it’s crucial to minimize the risk of someone tripping in and around your house.
Drowning
Drowning is another common accident around the house. Younger children are especially susceptible to drowning since they can drown in very shallow water, including bath water. That said, you must minimize the occurrence of bodies of water in and around the home. If you have natural puddles or a pool, set up a barrier that children can’t get past. When bathing young children, never leave them unattended in the bath, not even for a minute. They may lose stability and fall into a position that makes it easy for them to drown. Remember that parenting involves ensuring that your children are safe at all times so you should work hard to eliminate risks around the house.
Choking
Another serious hazard, especially for children, is choking. Small children will put everything that they can get their hands on in their mouths without a second thought. This makes it important for you to supervise their playtime or make sure that there are no small toys that they can choke on. You should also ensure that the toys you give them can’t be taken apart and turned into choking hazards. Another important parenting role you have is to ensure that your children’s oral health is good. This will enable them to eat comfortably and chew their food well enough so that it’s not a choking hazard. According to the CDC, over 42% of children aged between two to 11 are going to have a cavity. Lower the risk of this happening to your children by taking them to the dentist on a regular basis.
Burns and Scalds
Burns and scalds can also harm your children as they result from hot liquids and steam. They’re painful to treat and could lead to more issues if serious enough, so do your best to keep them from happening. Don’t keep hot drinks near the edges of places where children can reach. Also, don’t place hot things on top of table runners and other materials that trail off the edge of a surface. This is because a curious child can easily pull down a hot item onto themselves.
Car Accidents
Car accidents are another common accident that you need to protect your child from. Because road safety depends on the collective effort of all road users, it’s important to play your role. This involves making sure that your child is secured in their car seat before you drive anywhere. If they’re old enough, get them used to always wearing their seatbelt so that they can be safer in case an accident occurs. This is important to do, with about 500,000 backup auto accidents alone occurring in the United States every single year.
Keep these accidents and issues in mind so that you can work on keeping your child safe at all times. You may feel like it’s a lot to do, but you simply need to start the safety practices and it will get easier as time goes by.