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Today, we thought we’d give you a break. For a change, you don’t have to be the one lecturing the kids about safety. Let an online game take over for a while. Here are eight of our favorite safety-themed games for little ones; please let us know about any others you like:

1. Your kids might glean a bit about germs from this PBS Kids game. One warning for the grown-ups though: There’s animated spit. Nope, they don’t even do us the favor of calling it “saliva.”

2. Another cool PBS game teaches older children (or patient ones) about Internet safety.

3. Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago brings us a memory game; when you find two matching cards, you learn a safety tip.

4. It’s definitely not pool season, but this game about water safety is so cute that kids won’t mind.

5. Disney’s Chuggington site features an activity that lets kids advance across a game board and answer traffic safety questions.

6. It turns out Smokey the Bear is still hard at work, all these years after we met him as children, and now he’s got a few fire-themed games online.

7. For games that offer a little less fun and a few more lessons than Smokey, check out the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s fire safety site for kids.

8. This Highlights magazine-type hidden picture game teaches about emergency preparedness. It’s also courtesy of FEMA.

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1. Summer Safety Tips: Preventing Heat Exhaustion in Kids
2. Fall Safety Tips for Kids
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In the winter, kids run a higher risk of getting hypothermia, frostbite, or other cold-weather ailments. Children should be dressed differently than adults, especially if they are unable to tell you how they feel, to protect them from the elements. Below I have compiled a guide for dressing kids for winter with help from this Parenting magazine article: Winterproof Your Baby.

Outdoor Clothing

A general rule of thumb for dressing children in the winter months is: kids should always have on one more layer than adults. Here are a few suggestions for children spending time outdoors this winter:

• Skip the snowsuit for kids who won’t be playing in the snow. Instead, wear a heavy coat or jacket on top and cover legs with a blanket or bunting.
• All children should wear hats that cover their ears. Options that wrap under the chin are best because they stay on and keep kids warm.
• Many thin layers are more effective than a few large ones. Thin layers keep kids warm without overheating. Try variations of long-sleeved shirts and long johns underneath coats and jeans.
• The feet are just as important as the head. Just as a hat should always be worn, insulated boots that are water-resistant are cold-weather essentials.

Bedtime Clothing

Base body temperatures drop during times of rest. We want to keep kids warm and safe without overheating at bedtime. Follow these tips for nighttime clothing:

• One-piece sleepers that keep the majority of the body covered and warm are best for infants and toddlers.
• Resist using blankets in the crib for babies under one year, they may pose a choking of suffocation hazard.
• Use flannel sheets on the bed to stay warm at night.

Use these outdoor and bedtime dressing tips as well as others from the Parenting magazine article to keep kids safe and warm this winter. Remember, it is always easier to remove layers than to add!

For more winter safety tips, read my previous post about Safe Winter Sledding.

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Ken Levinson is a child safety expert in Chicago. If you have a story about your child’s winter wardrobe, share with Ken today.

Photo credit: QUOI Media

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The reality of traffic accident related injuries for children in the United States is shocking. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that every hour there are 150 children (ages 0 to 19) hospitalized for injuries sustained in car accidents. The risk of death from car accident-related injuries is higher for children aged five to 19 years-old than from any other injury.

The types of injuries that are sustained in an auto accident can be especially devastating to a child. As a parent, it is important that you do everything possible to reduce the risk of injury. Making sure your attention is on the road at all times and avoiding distraction will reduce the risk of accident. Parents can also protect their children while on the road by utilizing the right safety seats and restraints.

• Babies 0-1: should be in a rear facing child safety seat. The rear facing seats should be used until your child is one year old and they should weigh at least 20 pounds.
• Children 1-4: can be placed in a front facing car seat, but should continue use of them until they are four years old and weigh at least 40 pounds.
• Children 4-8: should be placed in a booster seat while riding in the car. A booster seat should be utilized until they are eight or until they are 4’9” tall.
• Children 12 and younger: should ride in the back seat. They should not be subjected to the front seat airbags before then or they are at risk serious injury.

In New Jersey, crash-related injuries had the highest death rates from 2000 to 2005, with 4.7 child deaths per 100,000 residents. This greatly exceeded the death rates from any other unintentional injury.

Another way to help protect your children is to be sure that you research the safety seats you are using. There are federal standards that all safety seats must meet, but as a parent you need to make sure they are used correctly.

• Make sure the seat fits your car. Not all seats will be a perfect fit in your car. Test out the seat before you use it making sure that the seat fits securely in your vehicle.
• Read the instructions. This may seem silly, but make sure you read the instructions that come with your seat to ensure you are best protecting your child. The New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety reported that three out of four children use car seats that are not properly secured.
• Check if the car seat utilizes LATCH (lower anchors and tethers for children). Nearly all car seats have LATCH, which was made to make installing the car seat easier, but older handed down seats may not. Be sure to buy a seat made after September 1, 2002, all seats made after this date is required to have LATCH.

Taking these extra measures to ensure safety are some very good ways to protect your children from injury in a motor vehicle accident. If you have further questions about this post, contact a South Jersey accident attorney at Console Hollawell, PC.

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1. Keep the space heater on a level, hard surface at least three feet from anything that can burn, such as a bed or curtains.

2. Don’t use the heater in a young child’s bedroom, and teach kids to steer clear of it.

3. Don’t use an old heater, which might not have the latest safety features. Some new models will shut off if they get tipped over or overheat or if an object gets too close.

4. Turn it off when you leave the room.

5. Make sure your heater has a “UL” label on it, to ensure it meets safety standards.

6. If possible, plug the heater directly into an outlet, not into an extension cord.

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An Australian study followed a small group of children for ten years after head injuries from falls or car accidents.  As expected, the more severe the TBI suffered, the worse the outcome for the child.  However, researchers found an “injury threshold” where children with less severe TBIs were able to make developmental progress — though they may never reach the level of non-injured children.

Dr. Douglas Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair and professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, noted that kids do better than adults at recovering from brain injuries because “the younger you are the more plastic your brain is.  That makes it easier for the brain to rewire.”

A key factor in a child’s recovery is access to rehabilitation.  In addition to appropriate rehab, a child’s environment can have an impact.  For example, a stimulating and healthy home environment can help (family outing, board games, etc.).

Overall, the study provides some hope for families dealing with a child who suffered a TBI.  Children can improve over time (even benefitting from treatment years after the injury) and the negative effects eventually stabilize.  Still, the research shows that children may never catch up with their peers.

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You put the kids on the bus in the morning.  You wave good-bye as the big yellow vehicle pulls away, taking your little loved ones to school for the day.  Later, it will bring them home safely.  Is this scenario realistic?  What happens when the school bus gets into an accident, and your child is hurt?  Who is responsible?

Although school bus drivers are well-trained and licensed (at least they should be), accidents still occur.  The most common causes of school bus accidents involving child injuries are as follows:

• Driver error or distraction
• Collision with another vehicle
• Children falling while entering or exiting the bus
• Children struck when crossing in front of the bus
• Defective equipment related to the bus

Determining liability for a school bus crash is often more difficult than what may appear at first glance.  For instance, if a driver is distracted, we may need to find out what caused the distraction.  And when a bus collides with another vehicle, we need to learn more facts to answer the question of liability.  Who was careless?  The bus driver or the driver of the other car?  Or both?

An experienced child injury lawyer knows the proper steps to take in order to protect a child and her family.  Oftentimes an investigator needs to go to the scene of the collision right away to take measurements, photograph the points of impact and conditions, and look for revealing evidence.  Many times, important information needs to be gleaned right away.

Many times parents of injured children are reluctant to hire an attorney right away.  This could be a mistake.  The bus company and their insurance company representatives are often on the scene immediately with the sole purpose of making sure their pocketbooks are protected – even despite clear facts that show their school bus driver was at fault.

If your child has been injured as a result of a school bus accident, you need a child injury lawyer to help you win your case.  Your lawyer will guide you through the process so you can focus on the most important thing – making sure your child makes a full and speedy recovery.

For more on school safety tips, read my previous post; ‘Back to School Safety Tips.’

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Ken Levinson is a Chicago child injury attorney.  If your child has been hurt on the school bus, contact Ken today.  You are eligible for a free case review.

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks

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When digging into the new car-seat safety recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, we here at the Safest Line thought of all the one-year-olds who had been riding in forward-facing seats, only to be abruptly flipped back around for another year of staring at upholstery. What did the poor toddlers do to deserve this? We’re reminded of what a five-year-old we know once insisted: “Explain it to me in a kid way.” So, here’s our kid way of clarifying the new car seat safety advice:

Babies and toddlers, you need to face the back of the car until the car seat says you’re big enough to face the front. That might be when you’re two years old. If a car bumped into us, you would be lots safer facing the back. No, you can’t watch the videos that show this. They make Mommy cry. Yes, you can watch Elmo.

Sobering Child Car Safety Statistics

And, for the grown-ups, here are the technical details: In 2008, 297 kids age four and younger died in car crashes. Based on new research, the American Academy of Pediatrics is now stressing that kids need to stay in rear-facing car seats or rear-facing convertible seats until they reach the maximum height and weight for their seat, often around age two. Before, the AAP listed a minimum of 12 months and 20 pounds for a child to be allowed to ride forward-facing. Of course, this means you can’t see what your kid is doing back there. She’s probably drifting off to sleep for 30 seconds, which means she’ll skip her two-hour nap later. It’s definitely inconvenient, but definitely safer. And safer is the only way to go.

After reaching the maximum height and weight for the rear-facing seat, kids should use a convertible seat or forward-facing seat with a harness, until they reach that seat’s maximum. Then comes the booster, which the AAP says most kids need until they’re 4 feet 9 inches tall and between 8 and 12. Kids should keep riding in the back seat until they’re 13.

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Given what I do as a lawyer, I am constantly reminded how fortunate I am that my three boys are happy, healthy, and safe. Helping families that have lost a child lets me see just how incredibly difficult and heartbreaking the experience can be.

Recently, though, a good friend of mine — one of my son’s basketball coaches — introduced me to a wonderful woman, Raquel Gorman, who heads up the Illinois chapter of The Tears Foundation.

The Tears Foundation provides support for families who have lost children. The non-profit charity helps suffering families honor their deceased children by providing financial support and other resources.

Sarah Slack founded The Tears Foundation in 2002 after she and her husband experienced a stillbirth with their son, Jesse Curtis Slack, in 2000. Slack and her family wanted to reach out to others who had endured the same loss. Since its inception, The Tears Foundation has helped hundreds of families across the country with emotional and financial support following the death of a child.

Each year, The Tears Foundation hosts a charity “Rock and Walk” in locations throughout the U.S. Participants walk and “rock” in rocking chairs set up at the race in remembrance of the lives of children lost. This June, the foundation will host their first “Rock and Walk” in Illinois.

June 3, 2012, The Tears Foundation “Rock and Walk” will take place at the St. James Farm Forest Preserve in Warrenville, Illinois. Early bird registration is just $5. View the Illinois “Rock and Walk” page to register today. Your contribution to the foundation will help grieving families.

For a list of other “Rock and Walk” locations, click here.

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Ken Levinson is a child safety lawyer in Chicago. If you know of other great organizations that benefit children and their families, contact Ken today.

Photo credit: The Tears Foundation

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