Summer Childhood Injuries

The kids are out of school and they have a lot of time on their hands and less supervision. This means more scrapes, bumps, bruises and other injuries from increased outdoor activities. With the extra time, kids are skate boarding, scooter riding, swimming, boating, camping, bike riding and participating in other outdoor sports. The National Center for Health’s Statistics show that deaths among children increase by as much as 45% during the summer.

One of the things that can be done to help prevent your child from being injured is to make sure that your child has the proper safety equipment, such as a helmet, knee pads and elbow pads for skating and riding, and a life jacket for swimming and boating. Also, it is important that your child stay hydrated if they are participating in outdoor sports during these hot Florida months. We too often hear of a child losing their life simply because of the heat.

We all know it is hot, and the kids want to cool off in the pool. Unfortunately, it seems that each week so far this summer, I have heard of one or two children drowning in their backyard pools. Make sure that your pool is secured! A combination of pool alarms, pool fences and simply locking the doors (with childproof locks) that lead to your pool can save a child’s life.

Also, with families going on vacation during the summer, there are many more cars on the road and many more car accidents resulting in injuries. Make sure your child wears their seatbelt and sits in the backseat! Kids can be sneaky and take their seatbelts off without you evening knowing because as you know the seatbelts can be uncomfortable on long car rides. I have too many clients whose children have been injured in a car accident because they weren’t wearing their seatbelts and the parents didn’t even know. Please also check out my previous blog discussing child car safety seats for more information about the proper use of car seats.

Kids just want to have fun, and they will have more fun this summer if they aren’t injured! Hope you and your family have a wonderful and injury free summer!