Every year we (Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons) celebrate the pediatric surgery week. The theme for this year is
“Pediatric Surgeons-Partnering Care Givers for Child Safety”
With this initiative we would like to make all the caregivers of children aware about the potential dangers to children in our surroundings and how to avoid them. Thus preventing many of the accidents before they happen and keeping our precious little ones safe.
Why is Child Safety so important ?
Statistics prove that accidents in children is much more than generally imagined and many of these accidents are fatal. More than 7 lakh children die every year worldwide from unintentional injuries. More than 2000 children die every day from road traffic accidents / drowning / burns / poisoning.
About 75 – 90 % of all these accidents can be avoided. Hence we need to look into child safety more closely.
Why are Children vulnerable ?
Children love to explore things around them. Toddlers especially explore things by touching them, holding them and tasting them. That’s the reason children keep anything around that comes into their reach, into their mouths. They put small things like coins, button batteries, safety pins, small parts of toys into their mouths leading to major health issues.
Also they are very easily distractible, leading to accidents.
What are the common but serious accidents that children suffer from at home ?
Burns : mostly scalds from fall of hot boiling water / tea / coffee on them .
Choking : from small objects (peanut is the most common object leading to choking) like peanuts , nuts ,small parts of toys, button batteries, coins
Poisoning : esp from liquids (sanitisers , cleaning liquids, spirit)
How can we avoid the accidents ?
- Keep sharp things away from them.
- Keep electrical appliances out of their reach.
- Cap the plug points.
- Never leave children unattended in the bathrooms.
- Keep cleaning liquids (spirit , sanitisers ) out of their reach.
- Avoid toys with small detachable parts.
To conclude I would like to say that we need to be aware of all these potential dangers. We have to be the role models for our children for safe behaviour. Remember, prevention is always better.