November 18th was Nation Injury Prevention Day. This year, Mary Lee’s House was dedicated to raising awareness about sleep related death, inflicted trauma, and drowning and how you can prevent these injuries from happening.
Sleep Related Death is the leading cause of preventable child death and represents 40% of all preventable child fatalities. Sleep related deaths can be cause by “unintentional suffocation, positional asphyxia, overlay, and undetermined causes”. There are several ways to prevent sleep related deaths from happening:
- Babies should be placed on their backs in a safety-approved crib or bassinet.
- Keep any additional items out of the crib while the baby sleeps.
- Adults should not sleep with babies because of the increased risk of accidental suffocation
Inflicted Trauma comes in may forms but it consists of injuries caused by using the body/hands, weapons such as guns, knifes, fires, drowning or electrocution. There are several ways to prevent inflicted trauma from happening:
- Proper gun storage and safety.
- Keep outlets in reach of small children covered at all times.
- Keep medication, cleaning products, choking hazards and batteries out of reach.
- Secure any furniture such as dressers and tv’s from falling over.
Living in Florida, or having a home with an accessible pool increases the risk of drowning, but did you know that nearly 70% of drowning cases occur during non-swimming activities often in or around the house. There are several ways to prevent drowning:
- Have sufficient and constant supervision of the children or children.
- Always have reliable and effective barriers of protection.