Summer Safety for Children Depends on Parents Being Effective Role Models

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 24 May 2005 - 16:00 PDT

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As the weather warms and families head outdoors for summertime fun, research shows it's critical that parents proactively role model safe behavior in order to protect their children from potentially serious injury.

Kids learn by example. Telling children what to do is not enough -- parents must also practice good safety behaviors themselves to teach kids how to be safe. Research from the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and Johnson & Johnson found that while 98% of parents agree it is important they are role models for safe behavior for their children, the percentage of parents who report actually practicing safe behaviors is significantly lower.

By practicing safe behaviors themselves in such outdoor activities as biking, playing around water, and crossing busy intersections parents may be able to reduce some of the 2.7 million accidental injuries to children that result in emergency room visits during the summer months.

Biking Safety: Use Your Head -- Wear a Helmet

Head injury is the leading cause of death in bicycle accidents. Yet only 40% of children say they wear a helmet while biking -- leaving six out of every 10 children unprotected and at risk for a traumatic brain injury or worse, even from a low-speed fall or a quick ride to a friend's house down the street. Only 25% of parents always wear a bike helmet themselves which according to SAFE KIDS, is a big reason why so few children wear one themselves.

SAFE KIDS advises parents: Use Your Head -- Wear a Helmet! Your children will learn by your example, and be safer on bikes, scooters, skateboards, rollerblades, and other wheeled toys.

Splash Into Water Safety -- Wear a Life Jacket

Childhood drownings are the second leading cause of unintentional injury- related death for children 14 and under, but not enough parents and children are practicing safe behavior around water by wearing a life jacket. An estimated 85% of boat-related drownings can be prevented with the use of a properly fitting life vest. SAFE KIDS advises parents to model safe behavior by wearing life vests while boating, and to actively supervise their children around water.

Pedestrian Safety: Cross at a Crosswalk

Children are often outside walking during the warm summer months. Research shows that one in four children fails to cross at an intersection on a busy street. Parents must talk to their children about using crosswalks and looking both ways for oncoming traffic before crossing. Plus parents must always do it themselves so their children see them literally "walking the walk." This is particularly important for children under age nine who are not developmentally capable of judging critical road safety factors such as speed, distance or sound.

"Summertime is a break from school, but children learn year-round by observing their parents," explains Dr. Martin Eichelberger, president and CEO of the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and director of Emergency Trauma Services at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "Injuries can be prevented and lives can be saved if parents set the example. Summer safety starts with them."

Information about summertime safety, as well as a copy of the SAFE KIDS/Johnson & Johnson report Follow the Leader: a National Study of Safety Role Modeling Among Parents and Children, can be found on the SAFE KIDS website: http://www.safekids.org.

The National SAFE KIDS Campaign is the first and only national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to the prevention of unintentional childhood injury -- the number one killer of children ages 14 and under. More than 300 state and local SAFE KIDS coalitions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico comprise the Campaign.

Johnson & Johnson, with approximately 110,600 employees, is the world's most comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of health care products, as well as a provider of related services, for the consumer, pharmaceutical and medical devices and diagnostics markets. Johnson & Johnson has more than 200 operating companies in 57 countries around the world, selling products in more than 175 countries.

National SAFE KIDS Campaign
http://www.safekids.org

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