Perhaps a component of your legacy is to serve as the family guardian angel to your grandbabies. Take action to become conscious of the greatest risks to your loved ones, create safe environments and behaviors, and educate your grandchildren on the most important safety issues.
Many reading this are now having the thought….BO-RING! How fast can I click away to a more fun topic?
Or...were you destined to spend the next few minutes on this page?
Minutes that could save your life...
Safety is not a fun or exciting topic…but one you must consider with your wise grandparent glasses on. (Yes, those readers that sit on the end of your nose will do just fine!)
All kidding aside, think about this…Becoming a safety champion for your family could save your life! Yes, your life.
In 2004, nearly 28,000 children under the age of 14 lost their lives in the United States.
Health related causes account for a large portion of these, especially for children less than 1 year old. But, even still, a whopping 5,359 children were lost due to what is categorized as “unintentional injuries” by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention
Unintentional injuries are broken out by the CDC in detail for various age brackets, and essentially consist of accidental deaths.
Accidents.
The Encarta dictionary defines an accident as: Chance, the way things happen WITHOUT ANY PLANNING, apparent cause, or deliberate intent.
Accidents are part of life, or course. And perhaps only if you’re extremely lucky (or live as a hermit) you haven’t already felt the devastation of losing a loved one to one of life’s unfair turns in the road. But most of us have.
And probably more than once.
Yes, life has a way of challenging us beyond our perceived limits at times. Forced into a painful new reality, people often speak of intense new recognition of life's dangers. And the notion of having taken life for granted. Don't we all take lifes' blessings for granted all too often?
Generations learn from the past and develop new technologies and safety concepts to minimize the risk & harm of potential accidents.
But sadly, our society as a whole has not managed to maximize these learnings. It is the most common sense safety issues that continue to plague our children. And doubly upsetting, there are many learnings and modern technologies to help prevent these tragedies which are under-utilized.
Think about that number again…over 5,000 children (our kids!) gone each & every year due to situations of chance.
That’s 14 kids per day...every day.
Is this not a silent National tragedy?
You can’t cheat death…but you can absolutely tip chance in your favor.
Geez…I’m depressed writing this. So, let’s turn this around and find the silver lining in all this gloom.
Can we take action? Yes!
Perhaps your calling, your family contribution is to be the safety champion.
Don’t worry...you won't be issued the hall monitor sashe and have to nag your kids and grandkids. But simply, being the safety champ might involve creating awareness & remedying problem areas you identify.
But where to start?
To make your efforts as meaningful as possible, I've done some safety-related research. We don't want to become obssessed with every and all possible dangers...but it certainly does make sense to know where you can have the most impact.
The research breaks out the top 10 categories for unintentional injuries for the age groups <1 and for children between 1-14 years old. This breakout makes sense, because as you might imagine, the general risks of infants differs from older children.
(Another reason to celebrate with your whole heart when your grandchild hits the 1 year old mark! )
For infants, as noted in the chart here, suffocation accounts for the most significant risk. Constant attention and oversight is of course, the most practical means of addressing this risk.
But, particularly as babies gain mobility, you’ll find it nearly impossible to keep up! Just ask any seasoned grandparents. So, while your constant attention is a must, it is equally important to take the action to “baby-proof” the child’s surroundings.
Your general anxiety will lessen as a result and this simple preparation could be the difference maker. As a grandparent, have you baby-proofed yet? If not, here's a free guide.
Choking
While suffocation is predominantly a danger for very young children, choking on foods is a very real danger for young children through the age of 3 or so. It has been shown that children who eat while rushed, walking, running or laughing may have a tendency to choke.
Teach your grandchildren the importance of meal time being a relaxed activity. One that takes place while sitting down. Avoid the urge to rush them to finish to get out the door. Even if you're late...think about your role-modeling and how they'll behave when you're not right there to watch them.
Keep the encouragement simple. Let them finish at their pace. Take children-sized bites and chew thoroughly.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that foods that are round, hard, small, thick, sticky, smooth, or slippery, should not be served to children less then four years of age due to their potential choking hazard.
Examples of such foods are: • Banana rounds • Chips • Grape/Cherry tomatoes • Gum • Hard Candy • Pretzels • Hotdogs • Lollipops • Marshmallows • Nuts • Peanuts • Popcorn • Raisins • Raw carrot rounds • Raw peas • Seeds• Spoonfuls of peanut butter • Whole grapes
When serving any of these items, cut them in a way to avoid the chances of blocking a young child's airway....ie, into small, non-rounded pieces.
Foods for infants and should be cut into quarter-inch pieces, those for children under the age of four into half-inch pieces.
Motor-Vehicle Accidents
For infants, motor-vehicle accidents account for the second most critical risk.
No surprise that car accidents rise to the top of the list quickly. Seems aggressive driving is only getting worse as the years tick by.
In fact, once a child reaches 2 years old, automobile accidents remain the most significant risk of death for the next 39 years until the age of 41.
At that point, other health anomalies start to climb up the list. However, for the category of unintentional injuries, motor vehicle accidents rank the #1 risk clear until you turn 75 years old!
Here are 4 of the most impactful steps you can take to tip fate in your favor to avoid a motor-vehicle related accident in your family...
#1 Buckle Up!!
You absolutely must buckle up. Bear in mind this tactic alone will greatly reduce your childrens’ risk. Of the children 0 to 14 years who were killed in motor vehicle crashes during 2005, nearly half were unrestrained.
Said another way, of the roughly 2,500 children killed in car accident, one half or 1,250 were not buckled up.
Simply using child safety seats will reduce the risk of death in passenger cars by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers 1 to 4 years. (NHTSA 2006b).
Unfortunately, seatbelts won't save you in all situations of course. But from these basic safety statistics, it means that approximately 800 children die each year when a seatbelt could have saved them. Over 2 kids per day, every day.
Saving these children takes two important things...
1) 5 seconds to buckle up
2) A willing parent or grandparent to make sure it gets done.
I KNOW you have the 5 seconds. Will you please commit to getting it done for your family?
#2 Use restraint systems properly
If you breezed past item #1 with a shrug since you always buckle up…consider this fact. In a study of 3500 users of child restraint systems, it was found that 72% were misused in a way that would be expected to increase a child’s risk of injury during a crash. (NHTSA 2006c).
Have you read your car seat manual? Had your safety seats inspected by a local professional? Check the local hospital or firehall for guidance.
And, keep in mind the NHTSA recommendations that booster seats for children be used until they are at least 8 years of age of 4’ 9” tall.
Booster seats for children 4 to 7 years old will reduce the risk by 59% compared to safety belts alone (Durbin et al. 2003)
And, all children ages 12 years and younger should ride in the back seat. This eliminates the injury risk of deployed front passenger-side airbags and places children in the safest part of the vehicle in the event of a crash.
Overall, for children less than 16 years, riding in the back seat is associated with a 40% reduction in the risk of serious injury. (Durbin et al. 2005)
NHTSA = National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Infant Seats
Toddler Seats
Booster Seats
Looking for more choices? Follow this link for a broad range of Car Seats.
#3 Never Drink & Drive
In 2005, 16,885 people died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, accounting for 39% of all traffic-related deaths in the United States (NHTSA 2006a)
Now, situp for a second. Because I'm about to share a statistic with you that is truly shocking. It certainly opened my eyes...
A CDC study showed that more than TWO-THIRDS of children ages 14 years and younger killed in alcohol-related crashes were riding WITH the drinking driver (Shults 2004).
Did that grab you in the gut…?
Chances are that if your grandchild is killed due to a driver under the influece...there is a 66% chance that driver is YOU, or a family member you love.
Can you honestly say you’ve NEVER gambled (even slightly) with your kids or grandkids in the car after a drink or two? NEVER?
Remember car crashes are the number 1 risk of premature, accidental death. Why bring alcohol into the equation at all?
#4 Avoid the Backover Hazard
In the U.S. fifty children are being backed over by vehicles EVERY week. Forty-eight are treated in hospital emergency rooms and at least two children die as a result every WEEK. (www.kidsandcars.org)
Over 100 children annually. And the families left behind are of course, devastated. I feel enormous pain for those families and can barely stand to write about the issue.
Still today, automakers do not consider rear cameras or auduble warning sensors as common safety equipment. The industry, unlike decades ago, has rightfully focused on first integrating seatbelts and airbags. Only certain luxury car models offer the option to incorporate the technology of today to avoid back-over deaths.
But, there are thankfully, a growing number of after-market options.
Your seatbelts & airbags are there to protect your family in a road-crash. But your extreme awareness and ideally, a technical edge will prevent your family from experiencing the terrible tragedy of a back-over death.
Next time you leave the house having said bye-bye to your child or grandchild...practice extreme awareness.
Did the child follow you out? Can you see everything behind the car?
Many back-over deaths arise from the child wanting to go with you too. No matter how late or busy you might be, slow down and be sure your path is clear.
Drowning
Beyond suffocation, and car accidents, Drowning accidents account for the third largest risk to infants. And, second most-critical risk to children through 15 years of age.
Most of us are now thinking of backyard pools. About 350 children under 5 drown in swimming pools each year.
But the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns of several household dangers as well...which account for an additional loss of 115 children per year.
From 1996 through 1999, 459 children drowned in bathtubs, buckets, toilets, spas, hot tubs, and other water containers around the home.
Two-thirds of these deaths occurred in bathtubs. Nearly all occured in the few moments of time it takes to step out of the room to get a towel or answer the telephone. In at least 10 percent of the fatalities, the child was in a bath seat.
5-gallon buckets, kind you can pick up at the hardware store account for nearly 20 drownings per year. A small amount of water can be deadly...don't leave out any water buckets.
Toilets are often overlooked, but each year about 4 children die by falling headfirst into a toilet.
Other items to be cautious of include landscape ponds, sinks, and fish tanks.
Take some steps to minimize exposure of your grandchildren to these hazards and coach yourself to NEVER make the mistake countless others have...I'll just be gone for a second.
And learn CPR. It can be a lifesaver.
Fire
Imagine right now a fire breaks out in your home...right away, what do you do?!
Even an imagined fire can induce a sense of panic. Fires have a tenacious ability to destroy in a very quick manner and so time is short.
Being prepared with a practiced action plan is critical in giving your family the extra moments they need to survive.
Of course, preventing fires in the first place are the best proactive step. Be sure to educate yourself on avoiding the dangers of the leading causes of home fires. Remind yourself of these basic preventive measures and be sure to educate your grandchildren to the same...
Portable heaters - Use with extreme caution.
Kitchen - Practice cautious and conscientious cooking techniques...never leave the kitchen while a meal continues to cook.
Fireplace - Never leave a fire unattended and have you kept up with having it professionally cleaned once per year?
Smokers - If you smoke...quit! It's a terrible example for your grandchildren, and is ruining your health. Besides that, cigarettes cause the deaths of 1,000 North Americans each and every year.
Matches & Lighters - Be sure they're safely secured from children and that children are educated on the dangers of playing with them. For children under 5, playing with matches is the leading contributor to fire-related deaths and injuries.
Candles - More popular than ever, candles offer us refreshing scents and great ambiance. Practice an overabundance of caution, however. Keep children at a safe distance, and never let them burn unattended.
Holidays - Water that Christmas tree daily to keep it from drying out. According to the National Fire Protection Association, candle fires double in the month of December.
Taking the steps to elevate your consciousness about the potential fire hazards above might just prevent your own catastrophe.
In addition, however, you better have a plan to address the situation when a fire does break out in your home. Make sure your household, and the homes where your grandchildren live have the following items addressed:
Smoke Detectors - When a fire breaks out, working smoke detectors will cut your risk of dying in half. 60% of fatal fires were in homes that DID NOT have working detectors. They should be installed in every bedroom and at least one on every level of your home. Change the batteries annually. Test them monthly. And, be sure your grandchildren KNOW what they sound like and WHAT TO DO when they hear the alarm go off. Many children's natural instinct is to hide in the event of a fire.
Fire Extinguishers - Place them strategically around the house. In my home, we keep one under each sink...so in the kitchen and in each of the bathrooms. Also wise to have one in the utility room where your heater is. If you have a workshop or garage, keep one there too. Fire extinguishers can be a life-saver when a small fire breaks out. But make sure someone is calling the Fire Department FIRST. And, if the fire has grown beyond a very small area...get out of the house!
Escape Routes - Take the time to plan 2 escape routes per room of your house. Make sure there is no obstacle preventing an escape (heavy furniture, non-working windows, etc.) Also, you'll need an escape ladder IN EACH BEDROOM for upper floors.
Educate your Grandchildren - Teach them the basic dangers of fire. Fire spreads quickly, and most deaths occur due to smoke inhalation. Getting out of the house quickly is the key. Cover the techniques of crawling low, under the smoke when evacuating. Using a moist towel over ther mouth & nose to keep out dangerous fumes. Touching a door to see if its hot before exiting. Not to take the elevator. To look for the exits when entering a hotel or movie-theatre. To leave personal belongings (and even pets) behind. To exit quickly and not re-enter. To run next door to call 911. The stop,drop, and roll technique for extinguishing clothing.
Practice the FireDrill - Remember, when a fire breaks out, it is very difficult not to panic. Taking time to practice the firedrill can be the very action that saves your family's lives. Discuss the multiple exit routes for each room of your home with the children. Designate an outdoor meeting point to account for everyone. Then, a couple times per year...have a firedrill. Observe whether the family follow the escape routes and rally outside within 2-3 minutes. Address weaknesses in the plan and make changes. Practice again until you get it right.
More Safety & Security Gear
Reflect & ACT
Losing a child or grandchild is a devastating experience. I know if that horrible nightmare became my own, I too would feel my life was over.
So, while this is not a “Hollywood” topic to consider, please force yourself to explore further and educate yourself on how you could be the family hero…a silent hero for an event that never comes to pass.
I’m sure you recall the anxiety felt as parents of young & growing children. Back then, you thought that the world sure had changed since you were a child.
More dangerous, less friendly. Faster paced and with less chance to appreciate life going by.
Fast forward those parental experiences to today’s world and you’ll soon recognize that your grown kids have inherited the anxiety and face a whole new set of fears.
Yes, even today, the world is rapidly changing each year for your “kids” who are now bringing up their own youngsters. What support might you lend in knowledge or tools to better equip them to face these challenges?
Or, perhaps you are also an active caregiver for your grandchildren & could use some support yourself!
Take action and stack the chips in your families favor. Lower the odds that the daily nightmares of the evening news each night…never happen to your family.
Your actions to protect your loved ones can prevent a lifetime of heart-ache and regret...and yes, that is an amazing legacy.
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