FALL-RELATED INJURIES CAN BE EASILY PREVENTED

Each year more than 3 million children are treated in hospitals for fall-related injuries.

The Western Reserve Joint Fire District asks you to check your home and your children's surroundings to ensure they are safeguarded against preventable fall-related injuries.

Childhood falls account for an estimated 2 million Emergency Department visits each year and in 2007, fall-related injuries claimed the lives of 87 children under age 9. The majority of childhood fall-related injuries occur at home, particularly among younger children.

Please consider the following tips:

• Never leave babies alone on any furniture, including beds, tables, sofas, or cribs and changing tables with the guard rails down -- even if they have never rolled over before. In just a few seconds, babies can wiggle or roll off furniture and potentially hurt themselves.
• Use safety gates at the top and bottom of all staircases, indoor and outdoor
• Move furniture and chairs away from windows
• Consider adding window guards on windows from the ground floor and up, unless they are designated as a fire exit
• Check the surface under playground equipment (avoid hard surfaces such as asphalt, concrete or soil. Safer surfaces include shredded mulch, pea gravel or other loose surfaces.)

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, baby walkers should not be used. In 1997, baby walker-related injuries resulted in more than 16,000 children receiving treatment in hospital emergency rooms. Most of the injuries occur when children in baby walkers fall down stairs (80%) or tip over (5%). And falls down stairs are associated with the most severe injuries and are more likely to result in head injury and hospitalization. Supervision is not enough to make these products safe–nearly 80% of the baby walker-related injuries occurred while infants were being supervised. Baby walkers enable children to be more mobile than they are ready to be developmentally. And baby walkers make it easier for infants to reach dangerous things on tables–things they would not be able to reach if they were crawling. A safer alternative to a baby walker is a "stationary walker"–a play table that has a turning seat.