Please write a paragraph with your opinion based on the text bellow. Please include citations and references in case you need to used for the question.

The factors that may cause injury, illness and death in school aged children are drowning, guns, and car or bicycle accidents. Using proper safety techniques can prevent these injuries and deaths. The family, community, and the children should be educated on the safety precautionary measures to avoid fatal consequences.

Water safety: Drowning is the second most cause of trauma in children in United States.

• Never leave young children alone around bathtubs, pools, or natural bodies of water.

• Teach children to swim when they are old enough, usually around age 5 and never let children swim without an adult watching, even if the child knows how to swim.

• All kids should use a life jacket when on a boat, fishing, or playing in a river or stream.

Pedestrian skill training: For kids under 10 years old, most accidents occur in marked crosswalks during the day, in the after school hours.

• Do not let kids younger than 10 years old cross busy intersections alone.

• Teach younger children to stop at the curb and wait for an adult before crossing the street.

• Do not let kids play in driveways, alleyways or near streets.

• Older kids learn to cautiously cross quiet streets on their own.

Seatbelt and Booster seats: Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause for death in school-aged children in United States. Proper restraints can reduce the risk of death and serious injury by 60 to 70 percent.

• Kids 4 to 8 years old, 40 to 80 lbs, and less than 4 feet 9 inches tall should be in a booster seat.

• The shoulder belt should always be worn together with the lap belt, crossing the chest, shoulder, and collarbone to prevent abdominal and spinal injuries.

• Children younger than 13 years old should not sit in the front seat.

• Never leave the kids alone in the car without adult supervision. It can cause injury and death by heat and suffocation (Hall, 2011).

Bicycle helmets: Bicycle injuries result in approximately 200 deaths each year in children and use of bicycle helmets can reduce the risk of head and brain injury by 85 to 90 percent.

• Everyone should wear a helmet whenever riding a bicycle.

• Make sure the helmet does not move around on the head or slide over the eyes.

Gun safety: More than 40 percent of US homes with children have guns. Having a gun in the house increases the risk of homicide by three times, and the risk of suicide by five times.

• Keep all guns out of the home.

• Talk to your child about the danger of guns and tell them to stay away from them.

• If there are guns in the home, make sure they are always kept locked and unloaded, with ammunition locked
  separately and keys hidden away (Hall, 2011).

General safety:

• Teach the kids fire safety and teach them to dial 911.

• Teach stranger awareness, including that a stranger is someone that they do not know, to never get into a car with a stranger and never take anything from a stranger.

• Keep the medications outside the reach of children or lock up in a cabinet.

• Maintain smoke free environments for your children.

• Teach playground safety, including not playing on trampolines (Keep Your Kids Safe, 2001).

As health care providers, we can educate the children, parents and community about the importance of safety and accidents that occurs in children. This teaching can be done in schools, hospitals and doctor’s offices with the help of personnel’s from fire and safety department and police.

References

Hall. D.A. (2011, April). Safety and Your School-Aged Child. Retrieved from.http://www.pacificmedicalcenters.org/index.php/physician-
articles/safety-and-your-school-aged-child/

Keep Your Kids Safe. (2001, November 15). Retrieved from http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/schoolage/schoolagesafety.html