National Burn Awareness Week Reminds Parents to Keep Kids Safe

 Most common cause of hospitalizations from burns to children under 5 is scalds from hot liquids

 

Washington, D.C. Each year 465 children ages 14 and under die due to unintentional fire or burn related injuries, with children ages 3 and younger at the greatest risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

 

Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Illinois and North Carolina are in the top five for having the most fire and burn related deaths in children ages 14 and under, according to the CDC’s latest data in 2007.

 

 Safe Kids USA reminds parents that February 6 – 12 is the American Burn Association’s National Burn Awareness Week and to take a few simple precautions to ensure their child’s safety.

 

 

 

A 2009 report from the American Burn Association indicates that the most common cause of hospitalizations to children under 5 years of age is scald burns caused by hot liquids. Hot tap water accounts for nearly 1 in 4 of all scald burns among children and is associated with more deaths and hospitalizations than any other hot liquid burns.

 

“A burn is one of the most painful injuries a child can suffer,” said Safe Kids USA’s President Meri-K Appy. “Because young children have thinner skin than adults, their skin burns more deeply and at lower temperatures — and young children often cannot react quickly enough to escape harm. A little planning and a few simple precautions can prevent devastating injuries and even save a child’s life. ”

 

According to a study in Pediatrics, of the non-tap water scalds, 90.4 percent were related to hot cooking or drinking liquids. Major causes of injury to children ages 18 months to 4 years were from hot microwave food or from when an older child, 7 to 14 years of age, was cooking or carrying the scalding substance or supervising the younger child.

 

“Parents should set their water heater thermostat to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) or if you are unable to control the temperature that comes out of your faucet, install water faucets and shower heads that can shut off the flow of water when it gets too hot,” said Appy.

 

Safe Kids USA reminds parents of these simple safety measures to use in the kitchen and bathroom to prevent burn injuries to their children.

 

Kitchen

• Keep children at least 3 feet from hot appliances, pots, pans, or food.
• Use spill-resistant mugs when drinking hot liquids around children.
• Avoid using tablecloths or anything a child can pull and cause hot food to spill.
• When cooking, use back burners, and turn pot handles towards the back of the stove.  
• Always tuck appliance cords where children cannot reach them.  
• Never hold a child when cooking something hot.
• Stir all food and drink before serving children to make sure it is cool enough to eat and drink.
• Closely supervise children when they are in or near the kitchen.

Bathroom

• Always test the bath water with your hand before bathing children.
• When children are in or near the bath, watch them closely, and check the water temperature frequently.
• If you are unable to control the temperature that comes out of your faucet, install special water faucets or shower heads that can shut off the flow of water when it gets too hot.  

 

When to Transition to Booster Seats

One of the most important jobs you have as a parent is keeping your child safe when riding in a vehicle. Each year thousands of young children are killed or injured in car crashes. Proper use of car safety seats helps keep children safe. But with so many different car safety seats on the market, and some much information on how to use them; it’s no wonder many parents find this overwhelming. The type of seat your child needs depends on several things including your child’s size, age, maturity level and the type of vehicle you have.


Toddlers/ preschoolers and young school age are the most at risk (from 3 to 7). Although the recent passed Mass Booster Seat Law gives us a pretty good guideline for when to transition our children from booster seat to seat belt, there continues to be a need for child passenger safety awareness education. And there are too many considerations and no clear cut standard to determine when is appropriate to transition our children form a 5 pt harness to a booster seat.

Unfortunately the guidelines are not so clear on transitioning our toddlers from 5pt harness to booster seats. A few years back most car seats held children in harnesses only up to 40 pounds, at that time because of the limited choices most 40 pounds children would transition to a booster seat regardless of age and maturity. Now, recent research suggests that in many occasions’ children who are less than 4 years old, regardless of their height and weight, are not mature enough to stay bucked in position to withstand the impact of a car crash. In response to this finding, more and more manufacturers are developing and marketing a variety of Child Safety Seats that can hold a child in a 5pt harness up to 50, 60 and even 80 pounds.

The recent influx of high weigh harness child safety seats help us better transition toddlers into better seats. Having all this options, is making not necessarily making things easier for parents to chose the appropriate child safety seat for their children, but is providing them with other safety options.

If you have questions in how to choose the best child safety seat for your 3 to 7 year old child you can call us at 413 794 6510.

REMINDER... MASS BOOSTER SEAT LAW

Massachusetts Health Insurance Plans Providing Seats

Here is a list of the Mass Health Plans that currently provide their members with free car seats. We ask all Parents to first try to obtain a seat from your Health Insurance Plan. Some of these plans can take 4 to 6 weeks to send you a seat, so please do this before your child has outgrown their current seat.

Boston Medical Center HealthNet: Call the member number on the back of your card or 1-888-566-0010. BMC HealthNet currently supplies parents with a Convertible car seat only.

Fallon Community Health Plan: Contact their Customer Service to put in a request at 1-800-341-4848 (TDD/TTY: 1-877-608-7677) or email contactcustomerservice@fchp.org. for either a carseat OR a breastpump through their “Oh Baby” program – but not both.

Neighborhood Health Plan: Call the Customer Care Center at 1-800-462-5449 or 1-800-655-1761 (TTY) for more information. Receive a free convertible if you are 35 weeks or more pregnant. They also provide a free booster seat. Limit one convertible car seat and one booster seat per member up through age 7.

Network Health: Call 1-888-257-1985 or use their on-line form to request your seat. You can be eligible for a $50 one time gift card to babies r us to use towards an infant or convertible car seat. Once the child has outgrown that seat, you are eligible for an additional $25 gift card to babies r us for a booster seat. .


The American Academy of pediatrics recommends that:

Infants should ride rear-facing until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat’s manufacturer. At a minimum, children should ride rear-facing until they have reached at least 1 year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds. When children reach the highest weight or length allowed by the manufacturer of their infant-only seat, they should continue to ride rear-facing in a convertible seat.


Toddlers/preschoolers
It is best for children to ride rear-facing as long as possible to the highest weight and height allowed by the manufacturer of their convertible seat. When they have outgrown the seat rear-facing, they should use a forward-facing seat with a full harness as long as they fit.


School-aged children
Booster seats are for older children who have outgrown their forward-facing car safety seats. Children should stay in a booster seat until adult belts fit correctly (usually when a child reaches about 4' 9" in height and is between 8 and 12 years of age).


Older children
Children who have outgrown their booster seats should ride in a lap and shoulder seat belt in the back seat until 13 years of age.


Do NOT buy a used seat at a yard sale or thrift store! You cannot verify the history of the seat. It’s ok to use a seat from a friend as long as you trust that the seat has never been in an accident, the seat does is not missing any pieces of have visual damage, the seat harness has never been submerged in water or washed with chemicals, the seat is not recalled, and the seat is not expired. It is far safer to use the convertible car seat provided by the Insurance companies than use an infant bucket with any of the issues above.

Massachusetts Health Insurance Plans Providing Seats

Here is a list of the Mass Health Plans that currently provide their members with free car seats. We ask all Parents to first try to obtain a seat from your Health Insurance Plan. Some of these plans can take 4 to 6 weeks to send you a seat, so please do this before your child has outgrown their current seat.



Boston Medical Center HealthNet: Call the member number on the back of your card or 1-888-566-0010. BMC HealthNet currently supplies parents with a Convertible car seat only.

Fallon Community Health Plan: Contact their Customer Service to put in a request at 1-800-341-4848 (TDD/TTY: 1-877-608-7677) or email contactcustomerservice@fchp.org. for either a carseat OR a breastpump through their “Oh Baby” program – but not both.
Neighborhood Health Plan: Call the Customer Care Center at 1-800-462-5449 or 1-800-655-1761 (TTY) for more information. Receive a free convertible if you are 35 weeks or more pregnant. They also provide a free booster seat. Limit one convertible car seat and one booster seat per member up through age 7.

Network Health: Call 1-888-257-1985 or use their on-line form to request your seat. You can be eligible for a $50 one time gift card to babies r us to use towards an infant or convertible car seat. Once the child has outgrown that seat, you are eligible for an additional $25 gift card to babies r us for a booster seat.  .


The ammerican Academy of pediatrics recomends that
Infants should ride rear-facing until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat’s manufacturer. At a minimum, children should ride rear-facing until they have reached at least 1 year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds. When children reach the highest weight or length allowed by the manufacturer of their infant-only seat, they should continue to ride rear-facing in a convertible seat.


Toddlers/preschoolers

It is best for children to ride rear-facing as long as possible to the highest weight and height allowed by the manufacturer of their convertible seat. When they have outgrown the seat rear-facing, they should use a forward-facing seat with a full harness as long as they fit.


School-aged children
Booster seats are for older children who have outgrown their forward-facing car safety seats. Children should stay in a booster seat until adult belts fit correctly (usually when a child reaches about 4' 9" in height and is between 8 and 12 years of age).

Older children

Children who have outgrown their booster seats should ride in a lap and shoulder seat belt in the back seat until 13 years of age.

Do NOT buy a used seat at a yard sale or thrift store! You cannot verify the history of the seat. It’s ok to use a seat from a friend as long as you trust that the seat has never been in an accident, the seat does is not missing any pieces of have visual damage, the seat harness has never been submerged in water or washed with chemicals, the seat is not recalled, and the seat is not expired. It is far safer to use the convertible car seat provided by the Insurance companies than use an infant bucket with any of the issues above.