Child and Adolescent Safety Statistics (follow the feedback guide please)

Guided Response:  Respond to at least two of your peers.  In your responses, 1) consider how these safety statistics have changed over time and address how this may have impacted survival rates in our parents’ or grandparents’ generations.  Then,  2) provide a different statistic than the one they found regarding the specific safety regulation addressed or address another change we have seen that neither your classmates nor you identified in your original post. 

Kristen Polanis

How child and adolescent safety regulations have changed over the past few decades?

Many things over the last few decades have changed, including many safety precautions and regulations. Wearing helmets for all types of sports is much more common now than when I was little and especially when my parents were children. Children sitting in the back seat and being properly restrained has become a much more serious issue than years ago. Many regulations have changed on how to properly restrain a child in their car seat. Also the regulations have changed on when children can be transitioned between front facing seats to rear facing seats to booster seats. Many things have changed as well in our households when it comes to safety. Just a couple years ago when my son was younger we used so many things around our house to keep him from danger such as outlet covers so he couldn’t stick his fingers in the outlet. We used cabinet locks, which are plastic traps that hook around the cabinet handles to lock them so children cannot get into them. A major concern with cabinets is ones that contain cleaning products that could be poisonous to children.

Infancy/toddlerhood: Car Safety – Children who are unrestrained in a car or restrained improperly in a car seat is very dangerous for the well-being and health of that child if there were an accident they would not be safely restrained to their seat. “In 2000, 539 children younger than 5 years died while riding in motor vehicles; almost half were restrained improperly.”

(Selecting and Using the Most Appropriate Care Safety Seats for Growing Children: Guidelines for Counseling Parents, 2002)

Childhood: Playground safety – Children see playgrounds as a fun place to run, jump, and swing with friends. However, playgrounds can be very dangerous if children fall off of the playground equipment. “About 56% of playground-related injuries that are treated in EDs are fractures and contusions/abrasions. About 75% of injuries related to playground equipment occur on public playgrounds. Most occur at a place of recreation or school.”

(Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015)

Adolescence: Teen drivers - Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens. Some teens do not take the responsibility of driving seriously or have not practiced enough to handle real life scenarios. “Six teens ages 16 to 19 die every day from motor vehicle injuries. Per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to be in a fatal crash.”

(Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015)

References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015, Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/teen_drivers/index.html

Selecting and Using the Most Appropriate Care Safety Seats for Growing Children: Guidelines for Counseling Parents. (2002). Pediatrics, 109(3), 550.

Aubra Jones

Looking at kids and what they now days, is dramatically different. From gaming systems, television shows/cartoons, to cellphones, infant toys, clothing, even to the games and outside activities. Everything is so much more expensive, as well as some the toys and games they come out with are ridiculous now days, just as some are amazing, helpful and teach kids. I'm 33, so I grew up in the 80s and 90s, I also grew up outside, with no electronic devices to keep me occupied, no gaming systems (and if there was one, you had to play outside more than on the game). Some things I have noticed more kids are shoved in front of the television or these gaming systems and they aren't monitored, so they sit for hours, no exercise, no moving around, nothing. This leads to laziness and obesity in kids, which can lead to all kinds of health problems in the future, it can also interfere with education and the socialism they may need. Now I won't say many laws have changed, but I will say they are way more enforced now than when I was growing up, for instance, I was 13 buying cigarettes and alcohol. I get carded more now than when I was actually not old enough to purchase either. Another that comes to mind is being 17 and getting into bars and clubs, because again, I look older than I was, (now I look younger) no idea. Oh, I used to drive everywhere when I was 10 and older and never got pulled over, don't try that now, both parent and child are going to jail, lol. Something that has really stuck out is how a DR is really quick to throw ADD/ADHD as something wrong with a child, when in some cases they only need a good ol fashioned spanking. I have lived with and struggled with both ADD/ADHD, I will say I have more ADD moments in my older years, but my hyper-activety pops out sometimes and I can't be still. The point is, I can spot someone with it quicker than most. So many things have changed, some for the better, some not so much, I believe that if people took more time t actually listen to listen and not listen to respond, things could be a little better and understood a lot better.

 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856709631373

http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Child_Passenger_Safety/CPS-Factsheet.html

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/12/5/353.short