As families prepare for the holiday season, it’s also the time to take extra precautions to help children avoid serious injuries.
Children’s Hospital Colorado tends to see a higher rate of injury related to toys, winter sports and activities, and motor vehicle crashes during this time of the year. Injuries at home, which includes falls, are always a top cause of injury consistently year over year, followed by motor vehicle crashes.
“As humans, we always have this idea that bad things aren’t going to happen to us,” said Britney Lombard, injury prevention expert at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “What we need to do is set all of these things in place to prevent any injuries from happening.”
To empower and educate parents and caregivers with prevention tools, the trauma program and injury prevention community health outreach teams at Children’s Hospital Colorado recently secured a proclamation by the Aurora mayor to establish Nov. 18 as National Prevention Day.
Car seat safety
Last year, motor vehicle crashes were the second leading cause of serious traumatic injury for patients seen across the Children’s Hospital Colorado system of care. From January to June of this year, there were more than 70 pediatric visits to Colorado hospital emergency departments for motor vehicle incidents.
According to Children’s Hospital Colorado, about 29% of children between the ages of 2 and 8, and less than half of children age 9 and up, were properly wearing a seatbelt in the crash.
“We’re seeing older kids in vehicle crashes at higher rates than we see the younger kids,” said Lombard. “It is really important that families don’t get complacent and make sure they’re still following those safety recommendations.”
Earlier this year, CDOT released a statement that nearly 80% of Colorado parents and caregivers are not using a car seat correctly.
The most common car seat misuse in 2023, according to CDOT, was the harness, either being loose or an incorrect placement of the harness slots. Other forms of misuse found were children moving from a booster too soon, and the car seat being the incorrect size for children.
CDOT’s Car Seats Colorado suggests parents and caregivers refer to the car seat manufacturer’s manual and vehicle owner’s manual for car seat installation instructions, ensure the child is in the correct seat for their size and age, and periodically check for any recalls.
“We know that the back seat is safest for children, it keeps them away from the airbag,” Lombard said, adding that airbags deploy at high speeds and with lots of power. “Children’s skeletons just are not able to handle those forces.”
Going into effect in early 2025, HB24-1055 will enhance car seat laws to better protect children by changing the child restraint system requirements.
The new legislation will require children to use a booster seat in the car until they’re at least 9 years old, which is an extra year from what previous law currently required, Lombard said. The law will also require children under the age of 2 to be in a rear facing car seat.
“(This) is following best practices or what we’ve known to be safest for many years,” said Lombard. “We have a lot of work to do making sure that families have the information and resources to get those car seats checked.”
Fire prevention and avoiding other hazards
The holiday season also brings an uptick in the number of patients treated at Children’s Hospital Colorado due to injuries from within the home.
Lombard said it’s important to focus on fire prevention and ensuring children can’t get into dangerous things that could contain hazards. Some holiday decorations that could be hazardous are holiday lights, breakable ornaments and anything with buttons or batteries as they can pose a hazard if ingested.
“We want to make sure that all of those extra items we’re adding into our house, that we’re considering the safety of those items,” said Lombard.
She added that parents and caregivers might consider putting up child safety gates, especially around the fireplace, and other home proofing tools, avoid standing water, ensure firearms are locked up and that ammunition is stored separately from those firearms.
Children’s Hospital Colorado does work through Safe Kids Colorado coalition, which provides tools and resources to help prevent choking, kitchen safety tips and winter safety.
Some of the winter safety tips recommended are putting on sunscreen, removing puffy winter coats before putting children in their car seats, always having an adult present during winter activities and to stay hydrated.
Many injuries seen at Children’s Hospital Colorado system of care can be prevented, said Lombard, which is why she wants parents and caregivers to take time this holiday season to be preventative.
“When we’re trying to prevent these injuries, the best way that we can prevent them is through layers of protection,” said Lombard.
For more safety tips, visit childrenscolorado.org/community/community-health/injury-prevention/.
RELATED
link