Jon Jantz, MD

Cottonwood Pediatrics

700 Medical Center Drive, Suite 150

Newton Kansas 67114

Phone: 316-283-7100

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The 15 Biggest Safety Mistakes Parents Make

By Amy Zintl

Unintentional injury remains the leading cause of death among children. In 2000, more than 120,000 were permanently disabled from injuries, and 5,600 died. Children younger than 5 account for nearly half o such fatalities.

"Parents often think that if we just watch our kids, they'll be okay," says Gary Smith, MD, director of the center for injury research and policy at the Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "But accidents, by definition, occur quickly and without warning. All it takes is that one second when a hot cup of coffee is within reach or a door is left open."

Leaving your child alone in the bathtub

Of course, most parents don't leave their kids alone in the tub as a matter of course. Yet more than half of all infant drownings occur there. "It's that one time when you're waiting for a delivery or a phone call," says Angela Mickalide, PhD, program director for the National Safe Kids Campaign. "You dash out, and in those few moments your child can get submerged and drown." A child will lose consciousness within two minutes underwater and irreversible brain damage occurs after four minutes.

Bath seats or rings are often involved in bathtub drownings. Parents think the seats will hold a child while their attention is diverted, but bath seats are not safety devices. The suction cups on the bottom can come loose, causing a child to tip over, or a baby can slip through the leg openings. Each year, eight babies drown in such incidents.

Serving Unsafe Foods

Food accounts for the majority of child choking injuries, and the most common culprits are small, round, hard or gummy foods that easily block the airway. These include nuts, grapes, gummy and hard candies, carrots, popcorn, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, hot dogs, taffy, marshmallows and caramels. Children younger than 3 are most at risk for choking on food because their airway is so small and they tend to put everything in their mouths. "Even spoonfuls of peanut butter can be a hazard, because globs of it easily get stuck in a child's tiny esophagus," says Mickalide. (Peanut butter and peanuts are also a danger for kids younger than 3 because they're highly allergenic.)

Forgetting About the Pool Next Door

I admit it. My attention wandered every time I heard or read about pool dangers. After all, we don't own a pool. Then one day I found my 2-year-old on our neighbors' deck, ready to jump into their pool. We had been playing in the yard, and I stopped to say hello to another friend from the neighborhood. My daughter simply climbed over a low stone wall into our neighbors' yard and up their steps and unlatched their gate. I was lucky to have noticed in time to stop something horrible from happening. But this scenario isn't uncommon. The majority of children who drown in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight for less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time.

Using a baby walker

Do you really want your child to have the ability to slide here and there at will, banging into furniture and pulling down plants and electronics?  In 2001, 6,400 babies were injured badly enough to go to the hospital as a result of using a walker, and each year two children die. Of those who sustained injuries, three quarters fell down stairs. Eighty percent were supervised at the time of the incident, and more than half had caregivers in the same room. "Kids can scoot four fee per second in a walker," says Dr. Smith. "Even a triathlete parent can't sprint across a room to prevent a fall that one time a safety gate is left open."

Neglecting to use a meat thermometer

Cooking food properly is key to protecting your family from food-borne illnesses like E.coli and salmonella. And while a case of E.coli can certainly make an adult ill, it can overwhelm a child's body and potentially result in kidney failure. Unfortunately, not even half the population owns a meat thermometer. The next time you think you can eyeball when those hamburgers are done, consider this: 1 in 4 turns brown before reaching a safe temperature.

Forgetting to change the batteries in your smoke detector

While most homes in the U.S. (94 percent) report having at least one smoke alarm, only 75 percent have a working one. Often the batteries are dead or were removed because the alarm sounded while someone was cooking or taking a hot shower. Each year nearly 40,000 children are injured in home fires, with children younger than 5 twice as likely to die, mainly from smoke inhalation.

Getting latex balloons

Parents really get a mixed message when it comes to balloons, says Dr. Smith. "You can walk into any store and find a bag of latex balloons imprinted with 'Baby's First Birthday.' But this is exactly the age when your child is most at risk for choking on them." When balloons pop, toddlers manage to find pieces to put into their mouth. The latex easily gets lodged in their throats, which is why balloons account for 44 percent of all child toy-related choking deaths.

Using soft bedding

For children younger than 1, suffocation is the number one cause of unintentional injury-related death. Sixty percent of these cases occur in baby's sleeping environment: infants can wedge their faces into soft, fluffy pillows, quilts, comforters and stuffed animals that easily cover their nose and mouth.

Drinking coffee while holding the baby

You're desperate for a cup of joe but reluctant to put down the baby in case she wakes up. However, you could be setting yourself up for an accident. Scalds from hot liquids are the most common type of burns for young children, whose thinner skin burns more easily than an adult's. "Even coffee that's not too hot to drink can really scald a child," says Mickalide.

Setting the water too high

Hot tap water accounts for about a quarter of all scald burns but causes more deaths and hospitalizations than other hot liquids, because these injuries tend to be more severe and cover a larger portion of the body. Manipulating the faucet to get water the right temperature for hand washing, or to fill Barbie's pool, is a skill young children simply don't have yet. And there's no need for tap water to be so hot anyway. Most people take a bath at 96-98°.

Forgetting to childproof Grandma's purse

Nana's handbag can be a real hazard, possibly containing medications, cosmetics, cigarettes, a sewing kit, loose change, gum and hard candies. In almost 1 in 4 cases of children ages 4 and younger ingesting prescription drugs, the medicine belonged to someone who didn't live with the child—usually a grandparent. Many seniors opt for non-childproof, easy-open caps on their prescriptions, or they carry a week's worth of doses in flip-top plastic boxes marked with the days. Even an adult vitamin can be toxic to a child.

Allowing kids to ride in the front seat

The backseat is the safest place for children because it's farthest away from the impact of a front-end collision—the most common kind of car accident. In addition, the passenger-side air bag, while life-saving for most adults, can deploy with such force that it's deadly to young kids. Just since last October 127 children have been killed by air bags, including 22 babies in rear-facing car seats that were placed in the front seat.

Turning the car seat around too soon

You may be eager to see your baby's face in the rear-view mirror, but your child must be in a rear-facing seat until he is at least 20 pounds and 1 year old, at the minimum. Some kids reach 20 pounds before 1 year of age, but that doesn't matter. "Under age 1, a child's head is disproportionately large compared to her body," says Mickalide. "If she's facing forward in a crash, her head will fall forward dramatically and do serious damage to the spinal cord and neck. If a child rides backward, the force of the crash is distributed over a larger surface of the body—the shoulders, back and buttocks."

Storing your firearm loaded

The unintentional firearm injury death rate among American children is nine times higher than in 25 other industrialized countries. About one third of families with children have a gun in the home, and an estimated 2.3 million American children live in homes with firearms that are always or sometimes kept unlocked and loaded.