Archive for the ‘Baby Safety’ Category
In response to a number of entrapment issues in the United States and Canada, Stork Craft Manufacturing, Inc., of British Columbia, Canada, in cooperation with the U. S Product Safety Commission, has voluntarily recalled 2.1 Million drop-side baby cribs to improve the baby’s safety. A number of the cribs have the Fisher Price label.
Stork is providing a repair kit which will convert the crib from a drop-side to a firm sided crib. They are requesting that you do not attempt to repair the crib yourself without the kit. Please find other sleeping arrangements for your baby until the repair kit arrives. You can call to order the free repair kit to (877) 274-0277 or log in the www.storkcraft.com.
Sometimes when the temperatures really drop, it seems impossible to keep warm with our regular heating system and we add extra blankets and electric heaters. There are several safety tips to keep the children safe around this new environment.
- Keep this children away from the space heater.
- Do not allow them to move or adjust the temperature.
- Do not use an extension cord and keep the cord extended straight.
- Keep the heater away from flammable materials, such as: drapes, bed clothing, towels, or items that could fall on the heater.
- Always place the heater on the floor.
- Do not dry items in front of the heater.
- Turn off the heater before leaving the house.
We hope everyone can keep warm during these cold days of winter.
Dr. Barry Lester, Ph.D., director of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk, has led a team which has developed a newborn exam called the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS). School readiness and behavior at age 4 could be identified with this exam to show if there is a developmental delay. Early intervention to prevent these problems is a possibility.
This new tool could be very beneficial to children throughout their lifetime and give parents an opportunity to make a difference by providing the proper intervention efforts. The NNNS exam is already being used around the world, as well as in the U.S., for both research and intervention.
A fire in the home is inconceivable to many of us and some have experience in that disaster. To provide for the safety at home, a plan for your family in case of fire is a must. In fact, a home fire drill would be appropriate for such a dangerous event.
Each of the children and adults should have an exact plan in mind in case of fire. They should know their escape routes. It is better to have more than one. They should know who is responsible for each of the children and for disabled adults. There should be a meeting place agreed upon where each person who leaves the home goes to make sure they are all there and everyone has left the home.
Some of the fires produce great amounts of smoke. It is important to know the effects of the smoke and toxic gases in the home where it is almost impossible to see and people can become disoriented and dizzy.
Cooking for the holidays is a fun thing. Christmas cookies and candies are first on the list for many family cooks. While you are cooking or baking, please keep in the the baby safety issues of the kitchen. Here are just a few.
- Always stay in the kitchen while the stove is on.
- Try to use the back burners as much as possible.
- Point handles inward.
- Keep the stove, toaster, etc., clean.
- Keep things away from the stove that are easily flammible, such as: towels, curtains, potholders.
- Keep pets and children away from the cooking area. Some people place tape on the floor to let the child know how far they can come.
Most home fires start in the kitchen, usually from placing an item on the stove and forgetting it. I am sure you can think of this and many more safety tips. These are only a few.
If you do catch fire from wearing loose fitting clothing, drop to the floor immediately and rock back and forth over the burning area until the fire is out.
Happy Holidays!
It seems after reading several articles on co-sleeping, I found that the writers are in disagreement with me and state that babies should only sleep in a bassinet or crib. It is okay to place the seperate sleeping arrangement near the parents bed. They are advocating against children sleeping in the parents bed under any circumstances and feel that baby safety is at risk.
The babies deaths from co-sleeping tend to increase during the winter months when there are more covers. Babies do not necessarily waken when they are having breathing difficulty. The recommendation is the child sleep in the crib with a tight fitting bottom sheet with thin bumper pads, if any.
When a child is being introduced to a dog for the first time, it is safer for the child to put out its fist to the dog to smell, rather than fingers. This way the dog will not be afraid of the flapping fingers and the child is protected from having his fingers bit if the dog reacts in that way.
Dogs do not see children as authority figures and seem inclined to see them as equals. The child shouting commands at the dog will not have the same response as an adult issuing commands. If both children and dogs are taught to be loving and kind to one another, it will produce a great relationship and child safety will be maintained.
One of the first steps in development of your baby is when he/she learns to crawl. This adds worries to your life about a multitude of accidents that could happen. One of the basic accidents is when a child looks at a large wall and only sees the wall electrical plug. There is only one place to go. I am presently seeing the baby poking something into the hole.
For baby home safety one of the most important tools we can have is the inexpensive wall plug. When something is unplugged from the wall plug, this fixture automatically plugs the hole, thereby making it impossible for the baby to poke things into the hole.
A dog in most instances is a child’s protector, companion and best friend. The potential is there for a very sweet relationship. A child under five years old should not be left alone with the dog. There is too much of a chance for the child to challenge or injure the dog which could cause disastrous repercussions from the animal.
A dog should never be tied outside where neighborhood children can get to him, upset him or scare him and he reacts in a threatening way. A dog should have a yard to run loose in, but we should make sure that the neighborhood children cannot get into the yard and become exposed to him. It is very important that we teach the dog and the child to respect each other. We should always put the child’s safety first when we have pets.
Nearly one-third of children under five years of age could be saved if governments would rebalance health spending to provide simple intervention in basic child safety measures. Budgeting more funds to educate and bring to the forefront these projects can save lives. The most common of these are the following:
- safe water and hygiene
- bed nets
- basic maternal and newborn care
A new report reveals that if we put priority on the top child killers of pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria, by scaling up simple preventive health measures for mothers and children, we would make rapid progress in saving lives.
For more information about this study, see World Vision (2009, November 16). Prioritizing low-cost, simple health measures would save 2.5 million child lives a year. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 16, 2009 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/09lll6085045.htm.