Children’s hopes simple steps will help prevent common household injuries

When her children were growing up, Vestavia resident Marilyn Prier was a pediatric critical care nurse.

While that meant she knew a little bit more about her children’s health, it also meant she saw the devastating impact common household injuries can have on kids.

From falling from a changing table to being left in a hot car, Prier said she has seen the “downstream” effects unintended but preventable events have on children, often leaving them seriously injured or worse.

Now Prier — the mother of four and a grandmother of 15 — works for Children’s of Alabama as the leader of the Patient Health and Safety Department. She said she is working “upstream” to keep children safe and healthy.

“It’s very important to educate the community about all kinds of pediatric and child safety,” Prier said.

In April, Prier and other experts in pediatric health care hosted an event to get the word out about how parents or anyone around youth can better prepare for and prevent common household injuries.

Poison Control

Managing Director of the Regional Poison Control Center Ann Slattery gestured to four bottles on a kitchen counter. Two held household cleaning products, while one held a fruit punch drink, and one held apple juice.

She asked if, without reading the labels, one could tell by looking which one was safe to drink, and which one could cause serious bodily harm if ingested.

“A child doesn’t know the difference between a poison and a food product because they look so similar,” she said.

Prescription and over-the-counter medicines, which can look like hard candies, also can be dangerous.

Slattery had two major suggestions.

“Never put cleaning products or non-food items in food containers,” she said.

Even more importantly, she said, all cleaning supplies and other dangerous items should be kept out of reach of children, preferably with an additional latch to secure any cabinets or drawers.

If a parent or guardian suspects a child has been exposed to a harmful substance, whether by ingestion, skin exposure or otherwise, Slattery encouraged a call to the Regional Poison Control Center at 800-222-1222, which will connect the caller to the closest poison control office, 24 hours a day.

“Any route of exposure, you’d want to give us a ring,” she said. “They will tell you in less than five minutes what we need to do.”

Car Safety

Of the things that lead to injury or death for children, car accidents and not being properly restrained in a vehicle are one of the top culprits, said Leslie Brown, the coordinator of Safe Kids Alabama.

The biggest issue, Brown said, is parents not knowing how to properly restrain a child ormaking the switch to only using a seatbelt too early.

“We really want them to be mindful about keeping them harnessed for as long as possible, not turning them around too soon and making sure their installation is proper,” she said.

Ideally, children would remain in rear-facing car seats until age 3, then move to a forward-facing seat until they reach 65 pounds, and then moving to a booster seat.

Even once out of a booster seat, children should not ride in the front seat of a car until age 13, she said.

Brown said her team also sees significant numbers of car seats improperly installed, which can sometimes prove just as harmful as not having one.

In addition to restraint concerns, Brown said the most dangerous thing they try to educate parents about is leaving children in a hot car.

When schedules are different or distractions come up, parents can forget they have a child in the back seat, which can have devastating consequences even on mild days.

“It’s a tragic event when a child gets left in a car because we just forgot,” she said.

Their program aims to prevent the hospitalizations and deaths from hot cars with “ACT”:

► Avoiding heatstroke by never leaving a child alone in a vehicle or in a position to get trapped in one.

► Creating a way to remember a child is in the car, such as leaving a cellphone or shoe in the back seat.

► Take action by calling 911 if you see a child alone in a car.

All in all, Prier said the biggest key is to watch children as vigilantly as possible, because emergencies can arise at any time, for any reason.

“There are things people would just never think of,” she said.