- Knowledgebase: Child Safety, Injury Prevention and Treatment
- Questions about child safety and injury prevention, as well as treatment for minor injuries.
- 35. An ounce of prevention... - Top
- October is Child Health month and this year's slogan is 'Solutions before Problems.' As Mom would always say, "an ounce of Prevention is worth a pound of cure." With all our emphasis an reducing medical cost, money and efforts spent on prevention are saved many times over the cost of treating illness.
There are three areas of prevention in children that can be both money and life saving. They are 1) Disease prevention, 2) Injury prevention and 3) Substance abuse prevention.
Many self limiting diseases or illnesses and a few more serious diseases can not be prevented. However, many other diseases can be avoided or at least greatly reduced through some simple measures. The first of these would be the early and complete immunizations for all children. All diseases for which vaccines exist have either been greatly reduced or essentially eliminated. Less than 50% of 2 year old children in North Carolina have received all of the immunizations they should have by 2 years of age (Henderson County's figure is approximately 75%). The second disease prevention item is good nutrition. Good nutrition can prevent childhood and adult diseases and should start even before birth (during pregnancy). Seventy percent of our youth have an excessive weight problem and this commonly carries over into adult life. The final disease prevention item is regular health supervision visits to identify problems early so that their effect can be reduced or eliminated.
Due to children's youth and inexperience they are obviously prone to accidents, so injury prevention is more important with, them then adults. The use of seat belts and car seats has greatly reduced injuries and deaths in children and adults. Despite this fact, many people still do not take advantage of this single safety measure. Unfortunately we still see children unbuckled, sitting in parent's laps, or riding in the back of trucks. Realizing what a 2000 to 3000 pound vehicle can do to a child at any speed, we need to constantly be aware of children moving into traffic, especially in neighborhoods, around schools and near school buses. Bicycle safety is under much more emphasis now than in the past. There is a big push for the use of bicycle helmets because head injuries from bike accidents are the most serious. The last injury prevention I wish to mention is gun safety. Guns and ammunition should be separated at all times and LOCKED away from children and teenagers. Accidental gun shot injuries and suicides are devastating and can be avoided. - Updated: March 22, 2001
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