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12 Av 5761 - August 1, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
Ounces of Safety Prevention Part II
adapted from an article by Rochel Gil

"Each time my skin prickles when I hear about minor accidents from `innocent' cups of boiling coffee or tea left on the table," says Michal Klein from Beterem, an organization aimed to increase adult awareness of danger areas BEFORE accidents happen. "A moment of non-attention, and a curious child will pull the cup to him and be scalded. People are still blind to the fact that a boiling cup can mar a child for life with scars on his face, neck and chest, skin grafts, long periods of recovery and rehabilitation. I see so many children hospitalized in the surgical ward after having tugged at the wire of an electric kettle or pulled a water urn. I feel so helpless when I see this again and again."

Falls, even from low places, categorized as the No. One cause of child injuries regarding serious results and frequency, are still ignored by the public as hazards that could be easily avoided. Too many parents `rely' on the fact that a month-old infant will not suddenly roll over, and will leave them on a bed or in a carriage, unfastened. For an infant, such a fall is 2-3 times its height, and critical and can even be fatal, like the recent case of a death from such a fall. "We have already warned the public not to let a child sleep in a stroller but to transfer him to a bed as soon as he has fallen asleep. This should become a basic rule."

Despite the many stories of children drowning in a bathtub, parents continue to ignore the danger and the public panic and will blithely go to fetch a towel, answer the phone or the door. There was the case of a responsible 12-year-old who left her two sisters, aged three and 1 1/2, for a moment. Upon her return, she discovered that the older one had turned on the hot water faucet full blast, causing severe scalding. Professor Sofer, presently treating a three- year-old who was found unconscious in the bathtub, is altogether frustrated and helpless. What more can be done than rousing public awareness over and over again? How can we crack the public indifference to these basic rules of home and child safety? Babies have been known to drown in a pail of water, left momentarily untended, or remain brain damaged for life.

The town of Beitar, and the entire country, for that matter, was shocked last month to hear about the two-week-old infant that choked to death when a brother tried to feed her an olive! "Don't tell me! I can't hear such stories!" is the reaction of many young mothers, who continue to ignore these warning messages. But how else can we drive the lesson home if the positive approach fails to rouse general awareness and caution? Why must it take a tragic accident?

This does not mean to say that one should react hysterically and begin protecting children with helmets around the house and so on, says Dr. Kadmon. There is a big gap between negligence or lack of precaution -- and panic. People should not rely on miracles or on protecting angels. He sees people driving cars with children standing up. Not only aren't they strapped in properly, but they are not standing firmly, and any short stop will send them tumbling. "These are not other people's children -- they are your own!"

It is not so much a question of negligence and blame, for most normal parents are concerned for their children's safety and do take precautions. Mainly, it's a lack of awareness, a matter of ignorance. Every year, the Council for Child Safety distributes leaflets on "Getting Through the Summer Safely," and does widespread advertising. But this apparently does not justify the outlay, claims Dr. Kadmon, who is extremely frustrated. Professor Sofer from Siroka Hospital in Beer Sheva also expresses pessimism at the general lack of understanding of the basic dangers that lurk in every corner.

"Take the Bedouin, for example. They are beginning to progress in their standard of life, from tent to shack to apartment building of three stories, without the minimum awareness of the need for banisters on the stairs and railings on the roof. When the construction reaches the stage of windows, there is no longer any budget left for safety bars. And then they are surprised that children keep on falling out of windows or down stairwells and reach the hospital in critical condition, sometimes from the same family! They don't think twice about filling an empty cola bottle with kerosene and leaving it within children's reach. Open medicine bottles are also left around." Then there was a Bedouin child who was poisoned by colored strychnine pills scattered in a village to wipe out rabies. It was inevitable that children be attracted to the colored tablets."

When we hear about a toddler who had just learned to walk pushing over an electrical appliance that was standing on shaky legs -- and being crushed by its weight when it toppled over, we can suddenly understand the drastic statistic publicized by Beterem of one out of every two children in Israel being involved in some accident. Dr. Kadmon says that prevention does not require huge effort and can spare parents extra vigil. A few cents for a plastic electric outlet covering to prevent curious children from inserting nails etc. A rubber mat for the bathtub is a negligible expense. Poisoning from household cleaning agents, which increases annually right before Pesach, can be so easily prevented by changing the stupid habit of storing these products under the sink instead of up high.

Now that we have shaken you up, we will follow up with some very practical suggestions which we hope will not remain on paper, but be implemented in each and every home. To be continued...

 

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