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By Jerry Starkey, EMT-P & Belinda Starkey, NREMT-B
Summer time is here and families are planning activities inside and outside. Many new or different situations and environments may pose a potential for injuries or illness of family members. The good news is, with some simple preparations and honest talks with your children, the risk for your entire family can be drastically reduced.
Back to Basics
A lot of basic health and safety concepts that your children practice regularly throughout the school year get ‘forgotten’ in the summer. One of the most important things you can continue to do to keep your family healthy is wash your hands often. This isn’t just a reminder for flu season or back-to-school time when your kids are exposed to more germs than usual. This should be practiced every day, not just when someone is sick. Basic steps of hand washing include using a mild liquid soap when possible and warm running water. Anti-bacterial soaps are not advised for everyday use and hand sanitizers should only be used when soap and water is not available. Scrubbing all hand surfaces for about 15 seconds will remove almost all the germs and dirt. You can teach younger children to sing their alphabet or say a short poem to time themselves. Even in a family home, paper towels instead of a shared cloth towel will spread less germs. Cover your cough to help prevent airborne germs. Use an elbow or tissue to catch the germs. Put the tissue in the trash, not in your pocket. And then wash your hands. Model this for your children and it will become a lifetime habit.
Sun Safety
Drink plenty of water every day, not just when the weather is hot. But even in warm weather, it is hard to get some family members to drink enough water. Basic rule of thumb is that you should have to urinate every two hours. If you feel thirsty, your body is telling you that you are already slightly dehydrated. Teach children that we drink water to keep from getting thirsty, not when we are thirsty. Sports drinks in our climate are usually too salty. Mix them with equal parts water to improve the ratio of water to salts. Mixing fruit drinks with more water than the directions call for will also help children get more water. Avoid too much fruit juice. It has too much sugar. And throw those old salt tablets away, they will only cause more dehydration.
Think sunscreen and mosquito repellant before going outside. It is advised to apply sunscreen 30 minutes before sun exposure and repeat according to directions. Children should be encouraged to wear a wide brim hat with the brim shading the eyes. Wearing sunglasses will also provide additional protection for the eyes, provided the sunglasses are of a wrap around type and with both UV A and UV B protection. These sunglasses should be of a polycarbonate construction. Sunscreen should never be used on infants under 6 months of age. This age group should have very little to no direct sun exposure. Be sure that someone puts sunscreen on for older infants and young children so they don’t forget the back of the neck and ears. Sunscreens with mosquito repellant will help in the evening or where mosquitoes are abundant in the daytime. West-Nile virus is not something you want to spoil your summer, and cases have been reported in the Central Valley.
Home Alone
Children left at home without adult supervision is a common factor for summertime injuries. Parents and guardians should take time before school is out to educate or remind children of the safety rules of being home alone. In the event that you have to send someone your children are unfamiliar with to check on them at home, determine a preset code word that the person can say so your children will know it’s safe to let them in.
Leave phone numbers of trusted friends or neighbors for children to use if they are not sure of a situation. Please remember to cover all safety rules and suggestions on activities with your children so they will feel more comfortable now that their daily schedule has changed. Consider enrolling yourself and your child in a first aid class. There is no perfect age for a child to be taught these skills. As parents, you need to make that judgment call. Children as young as six years old have been taught to perform basic skills such as how to open an airway and stop bleeding, and these children can perform the skill as well as most adults. Children as young as 3 years of age have been taught how to call 9-1-1 to summon help and have actually used this skill to save a life; often it is the parent that taught the skill, and sometimes the parent is the one in need! This can be a lifetime skill. Develop and practice a home emergency situation so your children can practice. It is important they know that this is the emergency procedure to follow both when you are home and if they are home alone. Identify a
rendezvous point for children to go to in case of emergencies when they must leave the home. Practice this as a game or have a prize waiting at the meeting place.
Parents can teach children about the four services that can be reached by calling 9-1-1: Ambulance, Law Enforcement, Fire Dept. and Poison Control Center. The local Poison Control Center number should be posted with emergency numbers. Our local center is at Children’s Hospital and their number is 1.800.876.4766. Using this number does not tie up the 9-1-1 system.
Summer Specific
Water sports are something we look forward to in the summer. Family activities with water can be structured or not. Structured activities like water parks can be great fun but do pose risks that can be avoided with planning. Review the park rules with everyone before entering the park. Know where the first aid station and park office are located in case of injury or problems while at the park. Have a meeting place and time set to avoid looking for missing family members. Keep an eye on personal items while at the park. Items left unattended may “walk off” or be lost. Remember, cell phones and some watches aren’t water resistant. Have a safe place to store these items.
Unstructured water activities like going to the lake or river will have different safety precautions than going to a friend or family member’s home swimming pool. Lakes and rivers should be checked first by an adult before children have access. Review the water rules with everyone. At lakes and rivers, these rules will need to be more detailed. Is it safe to swim? How far? Is there an area to dive? If we have to go for help, where should we go? Some cell phones do not work in lake areas. Does everyone have a swim partner? Never swim alone. Even adults can get in trouble in the water. Younger children and poor swimmers should have Coast Guard approved floatation devices on at all times while near or in the water. Be sure to assign someone as the “lifeguard” even at home pools. This person should avoid swimming while on duty. Getting distracted can be deadly. We advise having a whistle on a lanyard to use to advise swimmers about emergencies. This serves to help remind us of our job and can be passed to another adult when we need a break or it is our turn to swim. Many a swim party have turned to tragedy because the adults all thought someone else was watching and no one was. If a child goes missing from your party, the first place you should look is the water. Children can drown in as little as 2 inches of water. Statistics tell us we lose about 250 children each year in the U.S. due to drowning. This can be in pools, spas, bathtubs, toilets or even 5 gallon plastic buckets. These are lost treasures. There are almost 2,000 children that are brought back to life after a near drowning, but sadly some of these children develop brain damage, lung problems, or other injuries that will affect the rest of their lives. All could have been avoided with good supervision.
Planning a road trip or family vacation this summer? Most of us spend more time driving as a family during the summer and holidays than other times of the year. In fact, almost 50% of all child deaths in this country are due to motor vehicle incidents. Whether this is due to improper restraint use in the vehicle, inattentive driving, or being struck by another vehicle is not clear in the research. But, California law is crystal clear: Buckle Up. Everyone should wear the proper restraint in the proper way. Car seats should be used for children until they are 4 years old and weigh 40 pounds. When children get above the 4 and 40 level they can then sit in a booster seat until they are 6 years old or 60 pounds. After the 6 or 60 level they can then use a seat belt. The belt should cross their hips, not the belly and the shoulder strap should fit across the chest, not the neck. It is recommended that children do not sit in the front seat of a vehicle until they are about 12 years old or are 4 foot 9 inches tall. Airbags are designed to save an adult life but can take a child’s life. Parents should check with the California Highway Patrol if in doubt about their child’s needs.
How to Talk
When talking to your children about potential risks, you will need to understand that they may develop some fears. Explain to them that you do not expect these events to happen, but if we plan and prepare for them as a family and they do happen, then we will all know what to do and we don’t have to be afraid. Knowing how to protect themselves and others may even create a new kind of confidence in your child. Help for teaching children about emergencies can be found through organizations like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts via their manuals and reading materials. Most of these books are written for age or grade specific groups; ask the staff at your local scout center which “Rank Book” is best for your child. The American Heart Association has several programs for younger students for both first aid and CPR. Have your children help with building a first aid kit for the home and for your vehicles and give them some spare supplies to practice with. Making a fun activity or game out of the practice will help to reinforce the information. Set up a relay game or a scenario that the youths can solve with little to no guidance.
Cell Phone Use
In today’s busy world, we often say that ‘in case of emergency’ we’ll just use our cell phones. And that sounds like a good idea. The problem, however, is we often forget that emergency services needs an address to respond to. If we are on the road, we can usually give an approximate address using cross streets and distance. But if you are at a recreational site (movie theater, theme park) you need to find out the address for the facility before an emergency arises, or use a hard wired land phone if one is available, as this information is locked into the data base and can provide an automatic address indicator (ALI) to the dispatcher or 911 operator. Also, the average GPS system can only get a fix to within a 50 meter radius of your location. That is an area bigger than a football field. Consider a classroom parent or helper following the procedure for an active shooter on campus: lock classroom doors and notify law enforcement. That parent probably has a cell phone, but do they have the school address memorized? Probably not. This is an extreme example, but one that gives you reason to pause. Of course, in a situation such as this, the location of the school would be quickly identified. But for more minor, everyday situations, things might take a little longer. If you plan on using your cell phone ‘in case of emergency’ (as you should), do yourself a favor and start taking advantage of all the options phones offer these days. Saving the addresses of your children’s schools, neighbors’ and friends’ homes, local movie theatres and recreation places should be easy compared to texting while driving—another huge no-no!
About the Authors: Jerry and Belinda of Alert Medical Training, Inc. are instructors in various levels of emergency medical treatment including advanced levels,
water safety, and preventative safety and health. Between them they have over 60 years experience in emergency services.
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