Celebrating Safe Kids Week

Safe Kids Larimer County Celebrates Safe Kids Week with Resources to Help Parents Protect Kids from Preventable Injuries

Safety Advocates Unite to Remind Busy Parents to Take Time to Focus on Simple Steps to Keep Kids Safe at Home, at Play, and on the Way

In honor of Safe Kids Week (May 8-14), Safe Kids Larimer County, based at UCHealth, is providing tips, resources, and activities to educate parents and caregivers about simple ways to keep their kids safe from a range of preventable injuries.

At a time when parents are focused on many priorities at once, Safe Kids Week is a national celebration dedicated to celebrating kids, raising awareness about child injury prevention, and inspiring parents to take the time to focus on proven and practical tips to keep their kids safe.

Preventable injuries are the number one cause of death of children in the United States, and millions more are injured in ways that can affect them for a lifetime.

“Safe Kids Week is a wonderful opportunity for Larimer County residents to celebrate kids, learn about how to keep them safe and, ultimately, save lives,” says Alison Weston, Safe Kids Coordinator. “This is a week where we can all take just a little bit of time out of our busy schedules to focus on a few simple steps that can make a big difference in the safety of our children.”

To support parents and caregivers, Safe Kids Larimer County is offering helpful resources, including:

Parent’s Guide to Child Safety – a comprehensive 24-page guide with expert advice and easy-to-follow tips to help families reduce risks, prevent injuries and keep kids safe at home, at play and on the road. Available in English and Spanish.

Family Safety Activity Book – a fun booklet that includes a maze, word search, coloring pages, puzzles, and other exciting games to keep you and your kids ages 4-8 entertained and safe. Available in English and Spanish.

Home Safety Graphic – an interactive graphic that takes parents room by room to show useful tips on how to keep their kids safe no matter where they live.

Medication Safety for Children

On April 26, 2022April 22, 2022 By Safe Kids Larimer CountyIn home safety, Medication SafetyLeave a comment

Drug Take Back Day is this Saturday (4/30). Safely getting rid of unneeded medications is a great start to keeping children and teens from getting into them.

Medicine is the leading cause of poisoning in children. In 2017, nearly 52,000 children were seen in the Emergency Room for medicine poisoning. This is why it is extremely important to keep your children away from medicine. Keep this in mind when childproofing your home. Here are a few tips on how to keep your medicine safe from children.

Get rid of unneeded medications. Visit one of the law enforcement agencies who are participating in the Drug Take Back Day this Saturday, April 30th or find a permanent drop off location here.
Store medicine up and away and out of site from children. Children are naturally curious and ready to explore, especially places within their reach. Keeping medicine/vitamins at or above counter height will prevent children from reaching it – this includes medicine you use every day.
Consider common places where medicine is kept. Many people tend to keep medicine in their purses or on the counter. Consider hanging bags on a high shelf or putting medications away when children come to visit.
Understand which products are harmful to children. Many common products such as eye drops, diaper cream, and vitamins are harmful to children. Store these items as you would over-the-counter or prescription medicine.
Save the Poison Help number to your phone and have it visible at home: 1-800-222-1222. Poison control specialists are available 24 hours a day and provide free medical advice for poison emergencies.
Share medicine safety information with family and friends. Share this information with babysitters, grandparents, and other family members to keep medicine out of reach and out of site from children to prevent medicine poisoning. Also make sure they know the Poison Help number!

Prevent Accidental Poisonings in Your Home

On March 4, 2021February 17, 2021 By Safe Kids Larimer CountyIn Medication SafetyLeave a comment

Where do you store your medicine, cleaning supplies, or items such as bug spray? If you are like most of us, you may have said in a cabinet or under the sink. Storing items such as these may not seem to be a big deal, however, incorrectly storing these items could put your children at serious risk for accidental poisoning. It only takes a bit of time and effort to drastically decrease the chances of this happening.

Let’s take a look at a few statistics according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

91% of poisonings take place at home.
Poisoning is the leading cause of injury-related death in America.
The exposure to cleaning products we typically store within the home is the second leading cause of poisoning in children.

Although these thoughts and numbers may pose as fear-invoking, you can easily make changes to where you store potentially harmful items. Storing harmful items in areas that are out of reach to children can lower the risk of poisoning. There is a common misconception that “storing” the medicines you may not take on a regular basis is enough, but it is important to do the same with medicines you take frequently. Let’s go over simple, yet effective ways to protect your children from accidental poisonings.

Keep all medicine out of the sight or access of children, even if it is something you take daily. Children are inquisitive and will get into items such as medications if it is within their reach.
Child-proof areas that you may store your cleaning supplies, or medications. Items such as safety cabinet locks can prevent children from gaining access to these items or try storing them out of sight and out of reach.
Buy items with child-resistant packaging when you can. If medication bottles or cleaning supplies are not child-resistant, it is crucial to store these items both out of sight and out of access.
Use alarms to keep track of medication intake. Instead of leaving medications on counters or surfaces that children can get to, set alarms to remind yourself when to take the medication.
Keep and list the Poison Help number in your phone and home for yourself and caregivers: 1-800-222-1222. There are 24-hour services provided to help you with poison related questions, emergencies, and overall medicine safety.

It may not be possible to entirely eliminate the chance of accidental poisoning, but it is possible to take steps to decrease the risk of this happening. Being more aware and taking preventative steps to eliminate access to medications or cleaning supplies can heighten your child’s at home safety. Take a look at these links for more resources on this topic.

https://www.safekids.org/checklist/medication-safety-checklist

https://www.safekids.org/tip/parent-medication-tip-card-pdf

A Parent’s Guide to Child Safety

On July 14, 2020 By Safe Kids Larimer CountyIn bicycle safety, Car Seat Safety, Medication SafetyLeave a comment

Usually summer is full of camp, sleepovers and maybe even a vacation. This year it looks quite different. As we continue to try to navigate all of our priorities at once some things may slip through the cracks. Active supervision might be one of these as we have seen a nationwide increase in accidental injuries to children.

Being in the hospital is never where we want to be but it is more important than ever to try to stay safe and healthy to allow our healthcare staff to focus on our truly sick patients. (This does not mean to avoid the hospital or wait longer than normal if you have an emergency! It is absolutely worth going and safe to do so when needed!)

Safe Kids Worldwide recently put out a colorful and easy to follow booklet with proven advice and top tips to help reduce your family’s risk of injuries and to keep kids safe at home, at play and on the road. We know you are busy but taking a few minutes a day to make your home safer over the next few weeks will give you piece of mind and can prevent a future accident from happening. Download the booklet below and take action today!

A Parent’s Guide to Child Safety Download

Keep Medications Up and Away

On March 4, 2020 By Safe Kids Larimer CountyIn Medication SafetyLeave a comment

Today’s world is a fast-moving and busy place. Parents often struggle to balance competing demands while working hard to make safe and healthy choices for their families. With more medicines in the home than ever before, parents face increasing challenges to protect their children from accidental medicine poisonings.

Every day, poison control centers get a call almost once a minute because a young child got into medicine and emergency departments see enough children each day to fill roughly four school buses for the same reason.

You wouldn’t rely on only telling toddlers to stay away from pools to protect them from drowning, and it’s the same with medicine. Young children are naturally impulsive, and parents can’t rely on just talking to them about the dangers of medicine.

Here are some steps your family can take to keep young children safe from accidental poisoning:

Store all medicine up and away and out of sight and reach every time.

Safe medicine storage means out of sight and out of reach, not one or the other. To be safe, medicine should be stored out of sight in a cabinet or drawer where children can’t see it and out of reach (at or above counter height).

Keep medicine in its original child-resistant packaging. If you or another family member do choose to use a pill organizer or baggie to help manage taking medicine, make sure you always store it up and away and out of sight and reach.

Practice safe storage of medicine as soon as your first child is born. Babies as young as 3 weeks of age have ended up in the emergency department after getting into medicine left within reach.

Put the Poison Help number – 1-800-222-1222 – into your phone and post it visibly at home.

Instead of keeping medicine handy, use safe reminder tools to help you remember when to take and give doses.

Set an alarm on your watch or cell phone or write a note to yourself and leave it somewhere you look often, like on the refrigerator door. Try combining taking daily medicines with a daily task like brushing your teeth or using a medication schedule card.