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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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