Accidents just a splash away for children

ACCORDING the Health Service Executive, the single biggest cause of death for children over one, is not disease but accidental death, and a change of routine is cited as a key cause for accidents to occur.

Summer play adds a new dimension to the challenge of keeping children safe while at home and on holiday.

Dr Chris Luke, head of Accident and Emergency at Mercy University Hospital, Cork, sees a rise in paediatric care every summer. “Adults are hot, even drowsy from the odd drink in the garden, and that’s when something new can cause an accident — the trampoline, the paddling pool, the BBQ,” he says.

Water wise

There is no safe ‘shallow end’ for a child in water, and to the Irish Water Safety Authority point out that 40 children have died by drowning in the past 10 years in Ireland, with children under two especially at risk around ponds. A 500mm deep pond is equivalent to an adult falling into 1800mm of water, but the child would be unable to climb out of the water (www.iws.ie).

Children can drown in 30mm of liquid, and given that a paddling or small plunge pool can hold as much as a metre, it’s easy to see why regular tragedies occur in and around these seemingly innocuous toys every year.

When not in use under adult supervision, a paddling pool for children under six should be emptied completely and rolled up to ensure it does not re-fill with rain. Stay within what Dr Luke terms “grabbing distance”.

Hose pipes can be used by children to fill even shallow vessels such as bin lids creating ad hoc ponds. Detach and store the piping and close all faucets tightly.

Consider filling in that pond or using it as a sand-pit until they are old enough to understand the dangers. If your children are visiting someone else’s garden, check if they have a pond or other body of water on site.

Even when overseas on holidays, be on your guard. “Resorts may have poorer management than you expect around places like swimming pools,” says Dr Luke.

Barbecue behaviour

A barbecue offers a potentially unstable table of smouldering fiery coals loaded with hot oily food. A floor-set temporary barbecue can be stepped on with a child’s bare foot with horrifying results. It’s glowing in ruby colours, delicious with smells, intoxicatingly new and a lethal attraction for babies, toddlers and younger children.

About 79% of the burn injuries admitted to Temple Street Children’s Hospital 2008 were under five years of age. A hefty 10% of these were simply hot food-stuffs falling on a child, with scalds spiking in the month of June.

An outright ban for youngsters to be anywhere near the cooking area is the only approach, as even when unlit the metal parts can be hot enough to deliver a third degree burn. Examine the traffic paths around the barbecue and set it up where you can talk to the children without them having to enter the hot zone or pass through it to get to the lawn or toys.

Never park a stroller or set a young child down near a barbecue as they may roll or pull themselves closer to it in few stolen seconds.

Baby walkers are especially dangerous around patios and barbecues, and a report compiled by the European Child Safety Alliance has recommended a total ban on the market and sale of walkers (www.eurosafe.eu).

At a larger gathering assign one adult to keep children occupied at the other side of the garden while the cooking takes place, and have older responsible children police defiant younger siblings. Finally, keep a bucket of water on hand for emergencies.

Window warnings

The dynamic between outdoors and in changes utterly when temperatures soar, and 44% of injuries to children every year in Ireland start with a simple fall (HSE). Suddenly windows that were routinely closed are thrown open, and blinds pulled up at new and fascinating angles. Be aware of opening upstairs and even downstairs windows where toddlers are allowed free roam.

Drawn to a brightly lit window with some mystifying commotion outside, a toddler and smaller child can also come into contact with blinds and blind cords.

Ensure your pulls are the cut style now obligatory in new blinds, the mechanism hung at least 1.6m from the floor. Don’t allow small children access to venetians which can trap heads and limbs and strangle if the child over balances.

Aaron O’Connell, founder of the essential website for all Irish parents, Window Blind Safety (www.windowblindsafety.ie) points out that relying on the latest new blinds is not enough.

“A window blind may be considered safe by manufacturers when they make it according to the standards, but it is not child safe unless it is installed in a manner in which the cords and chains are kept out of reach of children,” he says. Place cots and beds well away from all blind and curtain elements day and night.

Sun sense

A quietly dozing baby is seldom deliberately roused. Leave a baby under six months exposed to even partial sun and you not only threaten them with heat stroke (when the core body temperature rises above 40°C) but a painful burn that may lead to skin cancer in later life.

Their skin is paper thin compared to our hoary old hides.

Cover baby in loose cotton clothing, shielding the face with a hat or parasol, and keep them out of direct sunlight, especially between the hours of 11am and 3pm when the sun is at its height.

On a sunny day, any child’s skin can easily burn and even blister.

Use a high factor sunscreen all over for all children, of at least 25 SPF, and reapply it after bathing — paying particular attention to the backs of the legs, arms, the neck, toes and of course the face.

Visit the Irish Cancer Society (www.ics.ie) website for its SunSmart Code, together with a useful daily UV Index to plan your defences.

Insects can also be more of a problem in the summer.

Keep that sting treatment of a 1% antihistamine ready in a drawer to take the worst of those inevitable ‘ows’ when nature attacks.