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WE worry
so much about our children, regardless of their ages. I
shake my head in disbelief after hearing about a
two-year-old girl causing her own death last month when,
reaching for a remote control, she pulled a 25-inch
television down on herself. And I can’t imagine the
pain—haunting so many families—after the arraignment of
a 17-year-old youth who crashed his father’s car,
killing his two passengers and a third person, a
passenger in another car.
“As kids
get older, the dangers don’t just stop,” says Alison
Rhodes, a self-proclaimed Safety Mom. “They just get
worse.”
Other
than taking away their keys, I’m not sure about how to
get our young people to drive slower and with more care.
The teen was driving 85 mph when he crashed.
Every
time I hear screeching tires, images of my children,
driving or as passengers, flash before my eyes. Four of
my five kids drive and, thank heaven, we’ve been lucky
so far. Nothing more than inconsequential fender
benders.
We
probably were lucky, too, when our children were
younger. Like Rhodes says, parents are just too busy,
too wrapped up in other things to make home safety a
priority. But what could be more important than our own
children?
I say my
wife and I were lucky as young parents because one of us
was always home with the kids. We worked different
shifts, and we always had one eye on the children.
But
Rhodes, a Wilton, Connecticut, mother who lost a son to
sudden infant death syndrome, says all parents always
think they’ll never let their children out of their
sight. “That’s what every first-time parent, every
grandparent, thinks,” says
Rhodes, whose web sites, www.thesafetymom.com and
www.peekaboobabyproofing.com, promote child-safety
issues. “They say to themselves, ‘It can’t happen to
us.”’
But, of
course, it can. The last week of April is National
Children’s Safety Week. That event, as much as the
recent tragedies involving children young and younger,
prompted this column.
Instead
of just worrying about our children, we should move to
make our homes and cars a little safer. Just look
around, use some common sense.
“So many
first-time parents are thinking about the design of the
baby’s new room or baby clothes,” Rhodes says, “and they
never take a second to consider child safety before the
baby is born. We really should be proactive.”
For
example, long cords on blinds and window coverings,
electrical outlets and stairwells can be dangerous to
children. The cords can cause strangulation; outlets can
cause electrical shock; and stairwells can be
invitations to deadly falls. Preventive measures include
adjusting the length of the cord, using outlet covers or
plastic inserts that fit into the plug opening, and
installing child-safety gates.
As for
common sense, well, I’ll let
Rhodes tell it. “Hospitals tell me that 50 percent of new parents
show up with their car-safety seats uninstalled,” she
says. “And studies show 80 percent of the parents who do
have them installed have them installed incorrectly.”
Rhodes
says it’s all about taking time to think and act.
In some
instances, it’s fine to think small. When our oldest two
were toddlers, they’d often empty the bottom shelves of
our kitchen cupboards to play with mixing bowls and
utensils. We quickly made sure all the contents of all
the lower cupboards and vanities in our house were
childproof. We moved anything that could be dangerous to
places they could not reach.
Rhodes
also says parents should think about health risks. The
Back to Sleep campaign, which promotes putting infants
to sleep on their backs, has reduced SIDs deaths by 50
percent. Even banking the stem-cell rich blood from a
baby’s umbilical cord (www.cordblood.com) should be
considered, she says, because it can be used to fight
disease.
“You
just don’t think things will happen to your baby,”
Rhodes says. “It’s not the natural order of things.”
Again,
as parents, we should know better.
“In this
country,” I say to
Rhodes, “we need
a license for virtually everything—except for having
children.”
“That’s
true,” she says. “And sometimes it’s frightening.”
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