Tag: child safety

Baby Einstein Scam:Not a Good Teaching Substitute

We have all heard the “Baby Einstein” commercials and seen the colorful, bright characters. We also have all heard and seen these videos promise that it will make our toddlers and children brighter, smarter, and help them learn faster. It turns out this is not true and this is just turning out to be a “Baby Einstein” scam.  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics children under two should stay away from the television.  According to a study from the Campaign from Commercial-Free Childhood, there is a link between early television watching and problems with a child’s attention span later in life. These videos promised that our children would learn more, be brighter, and smarter later in life, not have attention and other school related problems, clearly Baby Einstein is a scam. This has led to Disney offering a refund to parents that bought Baby Einstein videos and other baby Einstein products and “teaching substitutes”.

                Clearly, this baby Einstein scam has become a wakeup call for many parents who have yet again realized that television and other technology products are not always a good teaching substitute and parents should always supervise their children and help them as they learn and grow to be an active part of their learning process. Yes, the Baby Einstein scam is bad and should not have happened especially since it affects children and their education now and in the future, but maybe this will again reinforce that these products as well as others are never good parenting or teaching substitutes and parents still need to look out for their children’s education and their needs. A child’s education is very important and should not just be looked over by having them watch Baby Einstein videos or other products. Children’s education should also include active learning with both the child and the parent.

                For more information on the baby Einstein scam and other children’s educational products, you may visit: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-great-baby-einstein-scam-531147/

If you feel that you and your child have been mistreated because of improper warning labels due to the baby Einstein scam, you should contact a defective product attorney right away. They will help you advocate for your rights and those of your child.

Animal Safety Tips to help protect your Children

Animals are a wonderful thing and can be very good for children. They can teach them how to be responsible, how to be gentle, how to be calmer and not yell around the animals or scare them. Finally, it can be a really rewarding learning experience for the whole family. Too often though, children do not know to behave around animals and they end up getting diseases or bites from animals. Due to these problems the Center for Disease Control or CDC has recommended some basic safety tips for parents and children for good animal care for them and the animals. These tips include:

  • Children under five years need to always be supervised while with animals
  • Do not allow children to kiss animals or put their hands near their mouth or eyes after touching animals
  • Make sure children wash their hands well with soap and water after touching animals
  • Animals such as snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs and other similar animals should be handled with special care around children due to the spread of disease

So many children and other family members get bite by animals and get other diseases due to lack of knowledge about animal safety. These simple tips can help prevent these situations now and in the future.

For more information on animal safety tips and recommendations, you may visit: http://www.cdc.gov/HEALTHYPETS/child.htm

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to an animal, please contact a personal injury attorney right away. They can help you get the medical care you and your family deserve.

Bathtub Safety Tips that may save Your Child’s Life

Every summer parents and guardians sit by the pool and watch over their children as they swim because they are worried about the possibility of drowning. Not many of us consider that the same thing can happen indoors in bathtubs, bath seats and even buckets every year. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that in 2003-2005, about ninety children younger than five years old drowned in bathtubs, bath seats, buckets, pails, and other landscaping and yard products.  In 2005-2007 there was an average of thirty-nine submersion incidents with the same products involving children less than two years of age. It is important that we remember to always supervise our children in and outdoors while they are around or in these products. Some safety tips recommended by CPSC for parents and caregivers include:

  • Never leave your child alone even for a second while they are near or around water.
  • When in a bathtub always make sure the child is within arm’s reach or take them with you if you leave.
  • Do not let another child watch a younger child around a bathtub or other sources of water.
  • Do not leave buckets with water unattended even if it is a small amount of water.
  • Take a CPR class which can help save children’s lives.

 

It is important that we remember to watch our child the best we can at all times and follow all safety advice and recommendations possible. These things may just help us to save the life of our child or other children.

 

For additional information on child indoor water safety you may visit: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10008.html or http://www.cpsc.gov/library/FOIA/FOIA09/OS/nonpoolsub2008.pdf

 

If you or someone you love has been injured or harmed in anyway by a personal product or unsafe product, you should contact a personal injury attorney right away. They will help you advocate for your rights and the care you deserve.

You and Your Car: Control Your Surroundings Around Your Children

Close calls on the road can be a scary thing, especially when they involve children. This morning, while dropping my children off at school, I had one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. After my youngest son got out of the car, he turned to wave, and ran off towards the building at full speed, anxious to meet up with his friends. He wasn’t paying attention, and ran quickly around the back of another car dropping off their own children. He ran right through their blind spot right as they began to back out, coming very close to getting hit by the rear end of the car. I could only look on in horror, and thankfully, he was fine. While I know my son is very aware of the danger of vehicles, and how to act around them, there are still many uncontrollable factors that lead to terrible accidents involving children. However, there are also many factors which are controllable, which if addressed, can prevent thousand of accidents each year. Below is a list of safety ideas to help keep your young children safe in and around vehicles.

Please follow the following recommendations to keep children safe:

1. Walk around and behind a vehicle prior to moving it.

2. Know where your kids are. Make children move away from your vehicle to a place where they are in full view before moving the car and know that another adult is properly supervising children before moving your vehicle.

3. Teach children that “parked” vehicles might move. Let them know that they can see the vehicle; but the driver might not be able to see them.

4. Consider installing cross view mirrors, audible collision detectors, rear view video camera and/or some type of back up detection device.

5. Measure the size of your blind zone (area) behind the vehicle(s) you drive. A 5-foot-1-inch driver in a pickup truck can have a rear blind zone of approximately 8 feet wide by 50 feet long.

6. Be aware that steep inclines and large SUV’s, vans and trucks add to the difficulty of seeing behind a vehicle.

7. Hold the child’s hand firmly when leaving the vehicle.

8. Teach your children to never play in, around or behind a vehicle and always set the emergency brake.

9. Keep toys and other sports equipment off the driveway.

10. Homeowners should trim landscaping around the driveway to ensure they can see the sidewalk, street and pedestrians clearly when backing out of their driveway. Pedestrians also need to be able to see a vehicle pulling out of the driveway.

11. Never leave children alone in or around cars; not even for a minute.

12. Keep vehicles locked at all times; even in the garage or driveway and always set your parking brake.

13. Keys and/or remote openers should never be left within reach of children.

14. Make sure all child passengers have left the car after it is parked.

15. Be especially careful about keeping children safe in and around cars during busy times, schedule changes and periods of crisis or holidays.

These precautions can save lives.

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CONSUMER ALERT – CHILD SAFETY SEAT PERFORMANCES ARE UNDER PAR

“In a government crash-test video, the infant car seat flies off its base, smashing the baby dummy – still strapped into the carrier – upside down and face-first into the back of the driver’s seat.” (Patricia Callahan, Chicago Tribune).

A deep look into the data of several tests carried out by the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission (NHTSA) has revealed an industry-wide problem regarding the testing of safety for child car seats.

In a crash test study by the NHTSA, a total of 31 child safety seats flew off their bases or exceeded injury limits in a series of frontal crashes. These results however, were never released to the public. Why? Because the performance of these child safety seats was not the primary concern of the testers; they were only concerned with the general safety of the vehicles being crashed. It took a Chicago Tribune investigation to unearth these troubling results, and bring it to the public attention.

What this newspaper investigation has revealed a possible lack of rigor in the safety testing for child safety seats. Perhaps more important however, is the revelation that parents simply are not given any information they need in order to make an educated purchase. “You can compare the safety ratings for cars, but not for the safety of car seats. Parents often have no way which seat fits best in their car and whether conventional wisdom is accurate.” (Patricia Callahan, Chicago Tribune)

Joan Claybrook, president emeritus of the advocacy group Public Citizen and former administrator in the NHTSA was straightforward in her response, stating, “What you’ve uncovered totally reveals the flaws in the current safety standard and also NHTSA’s negligence in not reporting this to the public.” Fortunately however, this recent uproar has come to the attention of the newly installed Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who in a written statement said he ordered a, “complete top to bottom review of child safety seat regulations,” while also directing the staff of the NHTSA to make results “more available” to the public.

At this point, it appears that the Federal Government has gotten the message, responding that it will toughen safety standards and increase public accessibility to results when testing child safety seats. Unfortunately, the corporate world has not gotten the message. Among the failing restraint systems in the federal test was a product called the “SafeSeat,” by the Graco Corporation. In a response to the Tribunes investigation, Graco released a written statement explaining that the failed seat was, “anomalous, not a repeatable event,” and that the tests were, “worthless for the purposes of evaluating and comparing infant restraint system performance.”

It appears that there is a lot left to accomplish in order to get the government to properly regulate the safety of infant restraint systems, and to get corporations to live up to those standards. In the mean time however, the best weapon a parent can have while purchasing a child safety seat is knowledge of important safety factors and an ability to compare across brands. If you are currently searching for a child safety seat for your family, please visit KeepKidsHealthy’s website on child safety seats.

If your family has been victim to a failing child safety seat, please do not hesitate to contact an attorney immediately.

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Child Accidents Raise Concern Over Automobile Safety

According to a global study performed by the World Health Organization and Unicef, it has been found that around the globe, accidents kill 830,000 children each year.  Over all, although 95 percent of all injuries to children occur in poor and middle-income countries, injuries account for 40 percent of all child deaths in rich ones – Including the United States.

Dr. Étienne Krug, director of injuries and violence prevention at the World Health Organization, believes this is because wealthier nations tend to not have much better child health care, but do not attempt to remedy the causes of childhood accidents.  In a recent article in the New York Times, Dr. Krug was quoted saying, “This is a huge public health problem, and it’s been ignored for a long time.  It’s a combination of ignorance about how big it is, and because of fatalism, of thinking, ‘Oh, it’s an accident, we can’t do anything about it.’ ”

The Center for Disease control reports that in the United States, accidents kill 12,175 children a year.   That is more than all diseases combined.  At the center of this statistic lies a fact, which many American law makers already know, but choose to ignore.  Automobile accidents claim the lives of many infants and toddlers, however by the time children reach their teenage years, automobile accidents instantaneously become the leading cause of death. 

In a New York Times article, Ileana Arias, The Center for Disease control’s chief of injury prevention, reports that the three changes that would save the most lives of American children would be for more states to pass “graduated driver’s license” laws, which forbid teenagers to drive at night or with teenage passengers, to enforce seat-belt laws on teenagers and to make all children younger than 8 ride in booster seats.

Currently however, these suggestions do not carry the power of the law.  They are however the best solution to an epidemic problem.  As Ms. Arias recommends, please keep your child in a booster seat until they reach the age of eight.  If you have a teenage driver, remember that they more than likely don’t share your priorities and equal judgment when it comes to driving.  Please talk to your teenagers often enough about the importance of the seatbelt, and the effects of distracted driving. 

If you or someone you know has been seriously hurt in an accident, please contact an attorney immediately. 

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Window blinds and shades recalled after 1 child strangled, another nearly killed

By NATASHA T. METZLER, Associated Press Writer
7:04 AM PST, November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) _ About 677,300 IKEA and Green Mountain Vista window blinds and shades were recalled in the United States on Thursday after a young child choked to death.The Consumer Product Safety Commission said a 1-year-old girl from Greenwich, Conn., died in April when she got caught in the inner cord of a set of IKEA Roman blinds over her playpen.

The agency also received a report of a 2-year-old girl from Bristol, Conn., who nearly died in June on the beaded-chain loop hanging from a set of Green Mountain Vista shades. The girl’s neck was deeply bruised, but she was saved by her older brother.The recall includes about 670,000 IRIS and ALVINE Roman blinds, manufactured in India and distributed by IKEA Home Furnishings. They were sold at IKEA stores nationwide between July 2005 and June 2008. Another 4.8 million blinds were sold outside the country.

The blinds can be returned to any IKEA store for a full refund and its better to ask for help www.longmontwindowcompany.com.

Also recalled are about 7,300 insulated blackout roller shades and insulated Roman shades manufactured in China by Green Mountain Vista Inc. The shades were sold around the country by Country Curtains, Plow & Hearth, The Linen Source, Sturbridge Yankee Workshop, Ann & Hope, The Sportsman’s Guide, Target.com, The Curtain Shop of Maine, and the Solutions catalog. They were available between June 2005 and September 2008.

Green Mountain Vista shade owners should check to see if the tension device is attached. If not, contact the company for a free repair kit and installation instructions.

For more information on the Green Mountain Vista shades, call (800) 639-1728.

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Surge in Reported Crib Dangers Call for Increased Regulation

Recent surges in federal recalls of defective cribs have renewed the discussion of crib and child product safety standards.

“Less than a month ago, the federal government recalled nearly 1.6 million cribs sold by the Delta Corporation – the world’s largest distributor of baby beds. But parents who asked Delta Enterprise for a kit to fix the cribs’ hazardous drop rails may have a false sense of confidence, according to a Tribune investigation. Government documents reviewed by the newspaper reveal at least 19 instances of an entirely different hazard on the Delta cribs—mattress platforms that drop and create a gap that can entrap and strangle babies.” –Patricia Callahan, The Chicago Tribune

Cari Myhra's daughter, Sabrina, narrowly escaped injury when a corner of her crib mattress fell to the floor during a nap. (Bill Alkofer/For the Tribune / November 3, 2008)

As the causes of reported infant injuries from crib accidents continue to mount, it becomes increasingly clear that regulators are not facing a singular design flaw, but an industry wide safety problem.One recent industrial trend has become evident: Baby beds are now made almost exclusively in overseas factories in and mills where construction standards and labor laws are frequently ignored.The product is packaged overseas in a manner to reduce shipping costs to a minimum and then shipped to huge US retailers.These retailers do not inspect the products for safety.Instead, they put them on shelves to be sold to unsuspecting parents who have little information on whether the crib is safe.Finally, these parents must then assemble multiple parts (big and small) while trying to follow complicated and inadequate assembly instructions.

The latest such defective product was imported by the Delta Corporation.Although Delta Corporation earns millions selling infant cribs, they have ignored the concerns of parents who have purchased their products. Customers of the Delta Crib Corporation have reported a general lack of concern to solve the problem when they have called to report crib accidents.In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has publicly reported and that, “…Delta employees seemed indifferent when they reported the problems.”Other parents have been told by Delta that the company is, “…aware of prior incidents and that assembly instructions were faulty.” (Callahan) Despite having knowledge of this problem and earning millions in profits, the Delta Corporation has yet to take any action to remedy these multiple hazards.

If you are expecting a new child, you can take several steps to keep your baby safe.Please remember to research all cribs you are considering purchasing.Please also research any crib that you are currently using.Check to determine where the crib was actually manufactured and whether it has been inspected by any recognized safety organizations such as The Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association.Check parenting magazines for reviews of cribs.Finally, remember that the simpler the crib, the better.Remember to perform safety checks to ensure that: 1) all screws and bolts are tight, 2) all moving parts and exposed angles are safe, and, 3) the mattress and supports are properly aligned and positioned.

For more information on Crib Safety, including recommendations and safety tips, please visit the American Association of Pediatrics Crib Information site.

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