Is your home safe from everyday hazards? Is your child riding safely in a car seat?Do you need help protecting your child against accidental injuries? Safe Kids USA offers safety tips on ways to keep your child safe. Click here for a list of topics.
 

Looking for safety issues related to South Florida? Click on a topic below:

Drowning
Excessive Heat
Poison Prevention

Drowning

Three children die every day in the United States as a result of drowning. Here are some steps to protect the ones you love:

• Actively supervise children in and around water. Keep a phone close by in case of an emergency.
   
• Establish barriers to keep curious children away from water. Secure pools with four-sided fencing and self-closing, selflatching gates.
   
• Cover and lock hot tubs. Empty buckets and other containers of standing water. Children can drown in a very small amount of water.
   
• Learn CPR. In case of emergency, CPR can be performed immediately, even before paramedics arrive. This can prevent brain damage and be the difference between life and death.
   
• Enroll your child (and yourself, if necessary) in swim lessons.
   
• Put a life jacket on your child every time you are all boating or on a dock.
   
• Avoid or moderate alcohol consumption while boating. If you boat frequently, consider taking a boating safety class.

For more information on safety around water, click here to read CSC's newsletter, For Our Children or click here to visit the Drowning Coalition of Palm Beach County.

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County

Keep Your Child Safe from Excessive Heat Exposure

When temperatures rise, so does the risk of an unthinkable tragedy of kids accidentally left strapped in a car seat and dying from excessive heat exposure (hyperthermia). Parents and relatives aren't the only ones who forget a child in the back seat while going to work or running errands; each year there are reports of child care providers who accidentally leave kids in a daycare bus or van. According to an Associated Press analysis, the number of incidents of child heat exhaustion deaths from being left in a hot car has risen dramatically since the mid-1990s.

Having a visual reminder such as a pacifier or other small baby item on your keychain can help to make sure you don't leave your child in a hot car. other ideas include: A sticky note with the word "baby" stuck on the dash, or even a small picture of baby placed in a highly prominent position that the driver can't overlook.

Child care center operators driving multiple children can utilize body counts, two-part tagging systems (where a driver collects one part as kids board a bus and then re-distributes them when they exit), or a simple name roster
check-in/check-out system to offer additional safety assurance.

Parents can set up a simple "reminder" system for babysitters, grandparents or other relatives watching their young kids as a memory jogger as well.

Poison Prevention

If you have questions about a possible poisoning, call 1-800-222-1222. 
 
If this is an emergency and someone is having trouble breathing, call 911.

When it Comes to Poison, Knowledge is Power:

• Did you know a poison is anything that can harm someone if used the wrong way, by the wrong person or in the wrong amount? This can include plants, animals, bugs, food, chemicals and medications.
   
• Did you know different poisons can be harmful in different ways – through your skin or eyes, by breathing it in or swallowing it?
   
• Did you know more than 2 million possible poisonings are reported to poison control centers every year?
   
• Did you know 93 percent of poisonings occur at home?
   
• Did you know 51 percent of possible poisonings involve children under 6? 

That’s why poison control, especially around children, is so important. Here are some recommendations from the American Association of Poison Control Centers to help you protect children from poisons:

• Post the telephone number for your poison control center (1-800-222-1222) near your phone, in a place where all family members would be able to find it quickly in an emergency. 
   
• Remove all nonessential drugs and household products from your home. Discard them according to the manufacturer's instructions. 
   
• If you have small children, avoid keeping highly toxic products, such as drain cleaners, in the home, garage, shed, or other place children can access. 
   
• Buy medicines and household products in child-resistant packaging and be sure that caps are always on tight. Do not remove child-safety caps. Avoid keeping medicines, vitamins, or household products in anything but their original packaging. 
   
• Store all of your medicines and household products in a locked closet or cabinet–including products and medicines with child-resistant containers. 
   
• Crawl around your house, including inside your closets, to inspect it from a child's point of view. You'll likely find a poisoning hazard you hadn't noticed before. 
   
• Never refer to medicine or vitamins as "candy." 
   
• Make sure visiting grandparents, family friends, or other care givers keep their medications away from children. For example, if Grandma keeps pills in her purse, make sure the purse is out of children's reach. 
   
• Keep a bottle of syrup of ipecac in your home–this can be used to induce vomiting. Use it only when the poison control center tells you to. 
   
• Avoid products such as cough syrup or mouth wash that contain alcohol–these are hazardous for young children. Look for alcohol-free alternatives. 
   
• Keep cosmetics and beauty products out of children's reach. Remember that hair permanents and relaxers are toxins as well.

For information about poison prevention, please visit the following sites:

www.poisonhelp.hrsa.gov

www.miamipoison.org