School time is about to start soon and it’s kettle-boiling, cloth-flinging, pan-oiling, phone-ringing, clothes-seeking, breakfast-eating, washer-leaking, overheating time again! Yes, it can be mayhem in the mornings. Earlier this year Child Safety Week, organised by the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), highlighted just how perilous morning mayhem can be and now seems a good time to remind ourselves of the dangers.
Research carried out by OnePoll shows that 30% of parents have had their children suffer a serious accident or a near miss during the morning hustle to get washed, clothed, fed and off to school. The five worst dangers are:
- Tipping over a hot drink
- Grabbing heated hair straighteners, which can be hot enough to fry bacon
- Stepping in front of a vehicle
- Falling down stairs
- Getting into cleaning substances and liquitabs, which if swallowed will swell in a child’s airway and interfere with their breathing
It’s understandable that parents lose sight of safety precautions when they are in a hurry. But Katrina Phillips, chief executive of CAPT, advises that there are obvious ways to help reduce the number of breakfast-time accidents. “Simple changes to your morning routine can protect children from serious harm, whether that’s putting your coffee cup out of reach, popping your straighteners into a heat proof pouch to cool, or practising road safety on the walk to school.”
Dr Asif Rahman, consultant in paediatric emergency medicine, at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, is only too aware of how morning accidents affect not just the children but their families. Dr Rahman said: “Sadly, I see child after child coming in each morning with painful injuries from accidents that could have been prevented, like burns from hot drinks. Every parent I see whose child has been burnt by a hot drink feels the accident was their fault. That is why campaigns like Child Safety Week are vital.”
To help reduce the number of accidents to kids, CAPT has highlighted the serious accident risks to children and how those risks can be reduced. At Hastings’ Conquest hospital 9,521 children under the age of 16 were admitted to A&E in the calendar year 2013 and for the first six months of this year, to June 30th, the number was 5,022. Any actions to bring those numbers down is to be encouraged.
Accidents will always happen, and it’s no good shutting the safety gate after a toddler has toppled down the stairs. But local parents can help reduce the number of child accidents by following CAPT’s helpful advice on how to make breakfast time safer for children and by checking out the website
Image courtesy of Child Accident Prevention Trust