Archive for the ‘Baby’ Category
Child Choking and Prevention
Choking is the fourth most common cause of accidental death in children. However, for children under one year, it is the most common cause, ranking above even car accidents. In one recent year alone, 440 infants under a year old choked to death.
Children choke easily. Babies put everything they come upon into their mouths. It is a way of exploring. In your baby’s opinion, everything must be tasted as well as looked at and touched. Unfortunately, infants are not well coordinated, and small pieces can work their way too far back into the mouth and then get stuck.
If something gets stuck, one of two things can happen. If the object is the right size, it can completely close off the child’s airway, causing him to be unable to speak or breathe. Unless removed quickly, the object can cause brain damage from lack of oxygen, or even death. If the object was sucked into one of the smaller airways, the child will cough, wheeze, and have trouble breathing. Often such objects must be removed surgically.
Children can choke on anything small enough. Before disposable diapers, safety pins were a major hazard. Now, pieces of toys, balloons [even uninflated ones], and coins are frequent dangers. Some foods, such as hot dogs, grapes, nuts, and hard candies, as well as vitamins and baby aspirin tablets, can cause choking.
The federal government has taken action to prevent pieces of toys from becoming the objects responsible for choking. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has mandatory safety standards, and the Toy Manufacturers of America has voluntary product standards regulating toys with small parts.
Since children choke on many things besides toys, it is your obligation to watch what your child puts in his mouth and to keep dangerous things away.
Preventing Choking
- Examine your baby’s toys and clothing for parts that could be easily pulled off and swallowed.
- Don’t allow your baby to play with coins, balloons, or other items that could easily be swallowed.
- Cut or bite your toddler’s food into bite sized pieces.
- Avoid giving a toddler such hard, smooth foods as nuts, carrots, and hard candy. Also avoid foods that may become lodged in your child’s throat, such as hotdogs, potato chips, and popcorn.
- Do not give chewable pills or vitamins to children under the age of three.
- Teach your child to chew thoroughly, and discourage talking while chewing.
- If your child does choke, don’t put your fingers in her mouth- you may push the object further in.
- Learn the Heimlich maneuver, or the back-blow/chest-thrust maneuver recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
for Baby Gifts
Cuddles ‘n Gifts LLC
502 E John St.
Carson City, NV 89706
866-957-8675
Car Safety; Preventing Infant Deaths
Car accidents are the leading cause of death in children after the first few months of life. Of all deaths due to injury, two thirds are related to motor vehicles. In the one to four year old age group, two thirds of the children who are killed in car accidents are occupants of a car, and one third are pedestrians struck by a car. It has been estimated that eighty-five percent of those deaths and sixty-five percent of those injuries could have been prevented by the use of car seats and seat belts.
Children can be injured by cars in two major ways. Children playing on the sidewalk may be hit by a car that jumps the curb, or they may be struck if they venture into the street. But more commonly, a child is hurt in when a car in which he or she is a passenger is involved in a collision. When a car stops suddenly, the unrestrained passengers continue to move at the original speed until he hits something that stops him. This is usually the interior of the car, but may be the ground if the passenger has been ejected. Children, who are at highest risk of injury in an accident, are those who are held in an adult’s lap. Not only is the child thrown forward into the dashboard, but he is smashed from behind from the weight of the adult. Even if the passenger is belted in, it is nearly impossible to hold onto a child in a crash. For example, to hold on to a ten pound infant in a collision at thirty miles per hour requires the same amount of strength as lifting three hundred pounds one foot off the ground!
To prevent an auto injury to your child, you must address the issue of safety from the point of view of each of the ways in which injury occurs; you have to consider both pedestrian safety and auto safety.
To make sure your child isn’t struck by a car, teach her how to respect the road and to walk defensively. Teach her to play in the yard or on the sidewalk, and to stay away from the street. Try to “keep the eye out” for her. As she gets older, teach her to look both ways before crossing the road. Be sure she knows how to read traffic signals.
To keep your child safe in the car, drive carefully and defensively. Follow the rules of the road. Don’t allow your children to distract you-concentrate on driving. Avoid having any sharp or heavy objects in the car that could be flying missiles in a sudden stop of crash. But the most important precaution doesn’t concern your driving skills, but rather one simple plastic and metal device-a car seat.
Nearly all of the states and the District of Columbia require child restraints in automobiles. Tennessee was the first to require them, in 1977. Use of car seats in Tennessee increased from eight to twenty-nine percent in the two and a half years after the law was enacted. The number of children killed decreased from twenty-two in 1979 to ten in 1981. While states regulate their use, the federal government regulates the construction of car seats. Child seats must meet federal standards for crash protection, standards that are based on dynamic, rather than just static, testing.
for Baby Gift Baskets
Cuddles ‘n Gifts LLC
11941 Birch St.
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
866-957-8675