Safe Kids Worldwide recently partnered with Nationwide and released a study titled Report to the Nation: Protecting Children in Your Home. In it, there are some startling and important findings that parents and grandparents everywhere need to be aware of, including a critical missing link.
Dr. Gary Smith, who is the Director at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, summarizes a sentiment that might be contributing to a discrepancy between parental concern about injury and the fact preventable injuries are still the leading cause of death to children, "Many parents believe that because they're good parents (and they are), an injury will not occur in their homes, until it actually does."
This is something I've been saying for the past ten years about tip-overs alone. Unfortunately, the research continues to prove that simply thinking "it" can't or won't happen to you is not going to keep your child safe. Parents must take action to prevent injuries from happening and in order to do that, they must know both what the dangers are and how to prevent them.
The Facts
* Preventable unintentional injury is the leading cause of death to children in the United States
* More children die from preventable accidents than homicide, suicide and cancer combined (the next 3 leading causes of death in children)
* In 2013, the most recently available statistics, 8.3 million children (under 19) were seen in an ER for an unintentional injury, and 7,600 died! That's a child almost every hour that dies from a preventable injury in the US.
*50% of these injuries and deaths happen in the home, often quickly and silently in the time it takes a parent to answer the phone or send a "quick" email. Common causes of preventable death in the home include suffocation, drowning, falls, fires, and burns to name a few.
*3.5 million children go to an ER every year for injuries sustained in or around their homes alone.
* 2,200 children die every year from an injury that occurred in their home!
* Because they are preventable, these injuries and deaths could have been avoided, if only parents knew of the danger and what to do to prevent it from happening to their child.
The Leading Causes of Injury-related Death to Children
1. 1200 children died from suffocation or strangulation in 2013
2. Drowning took the lives of 249 children in 2013 under the age of 5 drowned at home (pools, standing water), 91 died in natural water, and 53 children drowned in a bathtub.
3. Fire/Burns
4. Being struck by or against an object (includes tip-overs)
5. Falls
6. Poisoning
The Leading Causes of Unintentional Injury in the Home
1. Falls
2. Being struck by or against an object (tip-overs included)
3. Cut or piercing injuries
4. Fires/burns
5. Poisoning
6. Suffocation
7. Drowning
Results of a Parent Survey on Household Safety
Safe kids surveyed over 1000 parents with children under the age of 12. They asked questions about common household dangers and how concerned parents were about them. What they found was eye-opening, as there seems to be a disconnect between what parents are concerned about, and what they do to prevent injury to children in and around their home.
Parents are concerned and want their kids to be safe, and many think they are doing all the right things. Yet preventable injuries are the #1 cause of death to children. There is clearly a missing link. It seems to be awareness and knowledge about how to protect their children and keep them safe in and around the home. Some parents were simply unaware of the risk/danger or did not understand the seriousness of them. Others simply didn't believe it was a danger to their child. Many others thought they were doing the right things to keep their children safe, but there was more they could do to keep their kids safe that they were not doing .
The Statistics are Eye-opening
The study found that:
* 72% of parents were not aware preventable accidents are the leading cause of death to children
* Only 39% of parents surveyed were concerned about injuries happening in their homes
* Only 37% of parents believe they could be doing a better job of keeping their kids safe at home (which means 63% think they are already doing everything they can to keep their kids safe, even though the data says otherwise)
The researchers found there was both a need and an opportunity to educate parents about the dangers in and around the home and how to prevent them, as well as to help them understand why prevention is so important. Injuries can happen very quickly, silently, and sometimes even when the parent is in the same room. Children can drown in just a few inches of water or strangle in a blind cord in the time it takes a parent to answer the phone. A TV can fall across the room and a parent simply cannot get there fast enough to stop it from happening.
Specific Findings About What Parents Do Worry About:
When asked, "Thinking about home safety for your children 12 years old or younger, what hazard or risk worries you the most?" The #1 answer was fire with 16% of parents listing this. 12% of parents worried about falls, only 4% of parents reported being worried about poisoning including carbon monoxide or chemicals and only 1% are worried about their child drowning yet drowning is the 2nd leading cause of death to children in and around the home. 14% said they were not concerned about anything!
Interestingly, 77% of parents felt their home was safer than most and 76% worried about their child's safety in other people's homes.
With regard to tip-over, they asked, "Have you secured televisions and furniture to prevent them from tipping over?"48% of parents said no. 24% of parents are securing TV's to the wall (presumably flat screens, but it was not specified) , 11 % are securing furniture (it was unclear if it was just furniture in the child's bedroom or all furniture), and 24% know to put TV's on low stable furniture. While this is a definite improvement over previous years, over 50% of parents are still either not aware of the dangers or don't believe tip-over is something they need to do anything about to protect their children.
The study breaks down the findings by room of the home, and provides a wealth of information and additional charts/graphics to help explain their findings and make it easier to understand. I encourage you to read the report to learn even more!
What You Can Do
Making our kids safer is something we all have to do together. It will take not only the leading experts on child and home safety, but healthcare providers, parents sharing with parents, and those in the community at large to help us raise awareness, get the information into the hands of parents, and teach them how to make their homes and their children safer. Public policy has helped reduce injures with regard to car seats, seat belt use, and other dangers to children, and the efforts of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and their recall system have made great strides in child product safety. It's all helped to significantly reduce the number of unintentional injuries and deaths to children. Still, these preventable accidents are the #1 killer of children in the home. More needs to be done.
I am thrilled that Nationwide is spearheading a campaign to increase awareness and educate the public about what is taking the lives of our children and how to prevent it. Nationwide has convened a Make Safe Happen Advisory Council which brings together leading organizations in child safety and well-being to work together to reduce the number of unintentional injuries and deaths to children. This is a wonderful way to get the best of the best with regard to the health and safety of children in the same room working toward a common cause: Keeping kids safe. The current members of the Advisory Council include Nationwide, Safe Kids Worldwide, Nationwide Children's Hospital, The Compassionate Friends, The AD Council, The International Association of Fire Fighters, Safe States Alliance, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, the International Association for Child Safety, and Farm Safety for Just Kids.
The Make Safe Happen program will raise awareness, provide tools to parents to make their homes safer, convene experts, take action to bring their program and message to the community, advocate for change, and give back to support organizations that benefit the well-being of children and their families. The goal is to protect what matters most to all parents: their children. Our children. Your children.
You can help by sharing what you know with other parents, grandparents, and child care providers. Visit the Make Safe Happen Web site and check out the app for your smart phone or tablet. Share on social media, in an email, at play dates and when talking with friends and family. Learn what you don't know by taking a safety class, reading the report referenced here, or by doing your own research. It quite possibly could safe a life.
Together, we can make safe happen.
Disclaimer:
Meghan’s Hope and Nationwide are partners in the Make Safe Happen campaign. While all opinions expressed here are my own, I have received compensation from Nationwide for promotion of their Make Safe Happen campaign materially or financially.
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