Prevention of Accidents

Introduction

Most accidents can be prevented. It is hardly an unexpected event or an event that happens by chance. It is true that sometimes an accident can take place inspite of all precautions taken by us, but it is not usually the case. An accident is often a  harmful event that could be avoided by a little careful thought.

1 . Road Accidents

Follow the Basic Rules of Road and Automobile safety 

• Wearing a seat belt can dramatically improve a child's chances of survival in  a car accident. Always fasten your own seat belt.
• Never let your child sit in the front seat of the car.
• Ideally make your child sit in the back seat in a special car seat available for small children. Using a car seat is compulsory for children in US and Europe.
• Never drive your toddler in your lap.
• Never let your child put her hand or head out of the window. Irreparable damage may result.
• Do not be tempted to pile your whole family onto a single two wheeler. I was once forced to draw the attention of a scooter driver to the fact that his three year old daughter, clutching his waist, was half asleep.
• Make sure your child is wearing a helmet if she is on your two wheeler. Also put a helmet on her if she is riding a horse.
• While driving give your undivided attention to the road. Do not talk on your mobile. According to one report cellular phones in the US accounted for automobile collisions, deaths and  injuries each day. A study in British medical journal had shown that there was no reduction in accident risk rate with the use of a  hand free cell phone as opposed to one that an individual must hold.
• Teach your older child the safety rules to be observed while crossing the road. Some cities are fortunate to have classes for school children run by the traffic police in specially designed parks for road safety.. Mumbai has such a facility. Take advantages of such facilities. Train your child never to leave your hand and cross the street.

Act but do not panic

If you are at the scene of a road accident, rush the patient to the nearest hospital. A course in the first-aid is helpful to revive a child who stops breathing or to know exactly what precautions to take while transporting the patient to the hospital. Go to the casualty department of the hospital or at trauma center.
 

2 . Burns

In children the common cause of burns are  spilling of hot water, oil or  other liquids, crackers, fire from a stove or any other source, and electricity.

All of us need to be careful about placing stoves or heaters on a platform at home, out of our children's reach.

Diwali Dangers

In general,I am against crackers. however, I appreciate the efforts of parents who help the child buy the right type of crackers and allow them to play with  them under supervision.

Burning oil lamp and candles are other source of burns during Diwali.

The Loss Prevention Association Of India offers useful suggestions to minimize deaths and injuries due to fireworks.

• Buy fireworks from authorized and license dealers. Make sure the packet is intact and instructions for use are printed clearly.
• Have an adult around when children are handling fireworks.
• Never light fire works inside the house or in confined spaces. Use open, clear grounds away from congested localities.
• Do not bend over fireworks, light them from sides. Move away quickly, once they are lit and do not return to them. They may explode on your face.
• Never throw lighted fireworks . You may injure a bystander.
• Wear close fitting clothes.
• Keep a first-aid box and cold water handy.
• Pour water in case of burns. Do not smear ointment, butter, ghee, grease or any other oily substance on wounds. If the burns are serious, see a doctor.

Make your home safer

While an electric heater or immersion rod (to heat water)  are convenient appliances, they can prove hazardous to a small child in the house. Bare electric wires, an electric iron, an open electric sockets placed within the reach of a crawling infant or toddler can be very dangerous.

Go around your house to see how you can prevent accidents waiting to happen.

• Do not keep match stick lying around.
• Make sure all electric points are covered at a height where children cannot reach them.
• Make sure you have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Educate all adults at home an older children on how to use it. Has it been tested lately to ensure it is in good working condition ?
• Do not have tablecloths on your tables that a toddler can pull at and have a full teapot or hot dishes come down on her.
• Do not smoke in bed, or in the presence of children.
• Do not hold your child while sipping hot tea or while boiling water in the  kitchen.
• Please tell your children what to do if there is a fire in the house or in the building.
• Ensure that you do not leave a hot iron where children can access it.

The point here is that you can anticipate danger in order to minimize the risk of burns.

Teach children what to do in the case of fire as soon as they are old enough to understand.

• They must crawl towards the exit if there is smoke in the room.
• They must never take the elevator (lift)  if there is a fire in the building.
• They should not run if their cloths catch fire. Instead they should be trained to stop, drop and roll on the ground. Remember- stop, drop and roll.

Lightening strikes

Please educate your child about the dangers of lightening. Approximately a third of all lightening strikes are fatal. Deep burns, brain injury and cardiac or respiratory arrest can arise from lightening. To prevent the same, teach your child not to take refuge near hill top, river banks, hedges, telephone poles and during a big thunderstorm.

Instead, the safest shelter is  a close home, while automobile, cave ditch, or even lying on the ground, curled up with hands pulled in together, are relatively secure.

Start giving victim cardio pulmonary resuscitation ( C.P.R )  if not breathing till the help arrives.

3 . Poisoning

Only you can determine whether or not your child will be in danger from improperly stored medicines and poisonous items like  insecticides, kerosene, acid for use in the bathroom and drugs.  Nurses are trained to read the label of a medicine 3 times before giving to a patient. Let us learn this principle from them.

Children should be kept away from button sized batteries.

Lead Poisoning

Children can be victim of lead poisoning if they eat wall scrapping or chew on furniture having unsafe amount of lead in the paint or if they have toys painted with the similar unsafe material. Surma applied to the eyes may also have lead in it. Lead poisoning can cause anemia and brain damage. Most paints , especially those of yellow colour, have a dangerous amount of lead. while paints are relatively safer.

4 . Accident at Home

Injuries from Sharp Objects and Doors

• Careful planning in the placement of furniture can prevent  many of the  accidents that involve children falling out of windows and from balconies. Never play with babies or children near open windows, on balconies or  terraces. Also ensure that you have grills or bars installed on all the window frames, and that the child's head and neck cannot get struck in them.
• Make sure that  proper guards restrict access to the  stares till the child is able to navigate them safely.
• Children playing 'hide and seek' should not be allowed to hide in open cupboards lest they lock themselves in.
• Door handles of bathroom should be at higher level so that a small child cannot lock herself in. Also ensure that if  the child accidentally locks herself in the room or bathroom you have some means to enter the rooms.
• Also be careful while closing and opening room doors or car doors. Severe injuries can be caused to fingers being caught between doors if we are not cautious enough.
• Also be careful while closing and opening room doors or car doors. Severe injuries can be caused to fingers being caught between doors if we are not cautious enough.
• Sometimes we do not realize that sharp objects like knives, scissors and blades lying around the house can be dangerous for our kids.
• Cords on curtain or window blind can be dangerous.If a child puts them around their neck while playing, it can be fatal.

Suffocation

• Plastic shopping bags lying around the house can prove hazardous. An infant or a toddler playing with a bag may put it on his head and then not be able to remove it.
• Small children can also choke on the scraps of balloons, that have burst. Peanuts, tamarind (imli) seeds, buttons and beads are often aspired by unwary infants and toddlers or get pushed into their nostrils.  a child may also choke on a thin, raw carrot that he has bitten off. Never allow a toddler to have a food like nuts while he is playing, talking, laughing, or running around because he is more likely to choke on them.
• There is also a possibility of suffocation when a child tries to to put in rope around another's neck or when he tries to wear a tie around his own.
• Infants do not need pillows to make their head rounded or for any other reason. If you want to raise a child's head, put the pillow under the mattress. I am in favor of small infants sleeping with the parents.  I have never seen a baby crushed because of this. However if the mother is drowsy because of some drugs or alcohol, then the child should not be made to sleep with her.
• I am against the umbrella type device to protect an infant  from mosquito bite. Because this may close automatically and suffocate the child. The net covering the whole bed is preferable.
• Rarely co-sleeping can cause an accident. Strangulation of an infant has been reported due to  long hairs of her older sister who was sleeping with her. Fortunately the father noticed it in time. He cut hair from the head of the five year oil sister and unwrapped the hair from the infant to free her.

Swallowing undesirable objects

Smaller children should not be allowed to handle coins and small objects like safety pins and needles. Small round objects without sharp edges may smoothly pass out of the stomach and intestines, but others may get struck and cause problems.

Unsafe toys

Infants and toddlers should not be allowed to play with games or toys having small parts that they can swallow or aspirate. Some parts of lego, for instance may not be safe. Watch out for stuff toys with buttons, used for eyes or nose, which can get detached and be swallowed. Toys with sharp edges could cause injury. Even expensive toys may not always be safe.

Children are often inspired by terrestrials like Ramayana and Mahabharat to play with bows and arrows., which can lead to major eye injuries. Some toy guns available in the market also release dangerous projectiles.

Only toys that meet the Bureau of Indian Standards specifications should be available for sale. I have noticed that  toys made by village craftsmen from unpainted woods or mud are often (though not always) quite safe.

Flying kites is fun, but quite a few children cut their fingers (or even neck)  on the sharp thread used for flying kite. Similarly it is not uncommon to see children  forgetting all safety measures while running around in a street or on a terrace to catch a kite. Caution your child against this.

I am against'walkers' they are not good for the sequential development of the child's milestones and can also result in serious injuries.

5 . Dog Bites

If you are a dog lover you must have made sure that your dog is regularly vaccinated against rabies and other diseases as advised by your doctor. But what about the stray dogs, which is seen around your building ? Have you made sure that, that the dog is also vaccinated. Teach your children to stay away from stray dogs and not to tease them or hit them.

6 . Drowning

It goes without saying that you should not take children to beaches that have been declared unsafe, like Aksa beach in Mumbai.

But more positively take the time to teach your child to swim, or to make sure that  she is well versed with the need to wear  a life jacket when she enters the  water or goes on a boat ride. It makes sense to carry your own, if boating facility does not provide it.. Young children can also drawn in bathtubs and in  stored water which is kept uncovered. Never leave an infant alone with  even a bucketful of water, she may put her head into it and 'drown' herself. Keep wells in and around the house covered. Make sure that lifeguards are always on duty  at private swimming areas or pools.  A child below three years should not be allowed to learn swimming. He can play with his parents in the water.

Accident Prone Children

Some children (and I would say even  some adults)  are more prone than others to get involved in all sorts of accidents. Similarly there are children who have  the habit of putting everything into their mouth.  All such children need extra attention, to ensure prevention of accidents.

The persistently hyperactive  child or the child prone to attacks of epilepsy should also be kept under supervision in special circumstances, when there could be the possibility of an accident. For instance, a child with epilepsy can go swimming, but  under a watchful eye of a guide or his parents.

Learning from accidents

Parents who allow their child to touch a hot object and yet make sure that  he does not harm himself in this process are educating him about prevention of accident.  Parents who let the child climb a tree  after having made sure that he is old enough to do it  and that the branches of the tree are strong giving the child confidence to learn new activities.  But a child who is suddenly pushed into the water to learn swimming  may remain afraid of water throughout his life. No purpose is served by it . It may do permanent harm to his psyche.

https://madhuchhandacdmo.blogspot.com/2021/03/prevention-of-accidents.html