Hospitals nationwide seek to cut injuries with child safety program

ST. LOUIS -- Emergency room doctors and nurses who treat children see things the rest of us don't even like to think about, injuries from car crashes and hot coffee spills, falls down stairs or into swimming pools.

Now, hospital staffs around the nation are taking part in an effort called "Get on Board with Child Safety" aimed at reducing the number of children who pass through their doors.

"I don't want to bubble-wrap every child. They still need to explore and have fun. I'm trying to prevent injuries that are lifelong and long-lasting," said Dr. Robert Kregenow, a pediatric emergency physician at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

The program, led by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions and Dorel Juvenile Group's Safety 1st brand, is at 11 hospitals nationwide this year, after a smaller pilot program in 2005.

The 11 hospitals each received 3,000 home safety kits and 150 child safety seats to give away. Families can receive a starter kit with a room-by-room guide about home safety, along with a few items to begin childproofing -- like a doorknob cover, outlet cover and cabinet lock provided by Dorel.

About 190 other hospitals in the association can provide safety information and low-cost safety products.

"Each year, more children ages 1 to 14 die from unintentional injuries than from all childhood diseases combined in the United States," said Karen Seaver Hill with the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of Children's Hospitals.

"There's no substitute for attentive parenting and adult supervision," she said, but the program focuses on changes in behavior and childproofing techniques that could help prevent injury. "There are some things that can buy us time as parents."

Hospitals are tailoring parts of the home safety program to their own regions.

In St. Louis, about 600 free or reduced-cost booster seats have been given out through the children's hospital since a new Missouri law effective this year requires children to ride in a booster until they reach 8 years old, 80 pounds or 4 feet 9 inches tall.

In New York City, livery cab drivers were given 300 free children's booster seats and magnets they could place on their doors -- advertising that it was a kid-safe cab -- after a law went into effect last year in that state, requiring booster seat use for children under 7.

In Madison, Wis., the University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital has taught how to securely anchor furniture with straps after two children died after furniture fell on them, Seaver Hill said.

And hospitals in areas with longer warm seasons, like Texas and Florida, have stressed pool and water safety.

That's important to Danielle Pelham, 33, of Land O' Lakes, Fla. Her son, James Jr., was just getting steady on his feet at 11 months old. She was having an addition built onto her house, so part of a screened-in enclosure around her pool had been taken down.

On Jan. 7, Pelham was fixing lunch when she realized her son wasn't with her young daughter in the next room.

She found him face-down in the pool. She started CPR and paramedics found a faint heartbeat. He was hospitalized for 11 days, but is doing fine now.

"It still haunts me to this day," she said.

Pelham supports programs like the Get on Board effort to make parents more aware.

"Everyone thinks it'll never happen to them. They think it'll happen to everyone else," she said.

"Expect the unexpected when it comes to little ones."

---

On the 'Net:

Get on Board with Child Safety:

http://www.coscojuvenile.com/childsafety/index.asp

-----

(The Get on Board with Child Safety hospitals are Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle; Rady Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego; Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore; Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn.; Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.; Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis; St. Louis Children's Hospital; St. Joseph's Children's Hospital of Tampa, Fla.; Texas Children's Hospital in Houston; University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital in Madison, Wis.)