Summer Safety for Kids Cared for by Nannies

Summer is here, and the American Red Cross offers tips for having fun and staying safe as you enjoy the great outdoors.

What’s your plan for this summer? Enjoying the water? Going camping? Firing up the grill? Whatever you prefer, we have safety steps to follow. And don’t forget your furry friends. There are steps you can take to help keep them safe too.

WATER SAFETY
Every day, an average of eleven people die in the United States from unintentional drowning—and one in five of those are children fourteen or younger according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Red Cross wants everyone to know critical safety knowledge and skills that could save your life in and around the water. We encourage families to build confidence in the water by learning to be safe, making good choices, and learning how to swim and handle emergencies.

• Preventing unsupervised access to water, providing constant, active adult supervision, and knowing how to swim are critical layers of protection to help prevent drowning.
• Classes to learn how to swim are available for both children and adults. Check the map for learn-to-swim providers in your community. Everyone should learn first aid and CPR too so they know what to do in an emergency.
• Download the Red Cross Swim app, sponsored by the ZAC Foundation, for safety tips, kid-friendly videos, and activities, and take the free Water Safety for Parents and Caregivers online course in English or in Spanish.
• It’s best to swim in a lifeguarded area. Always designate a “water watcher” whose sole responsibility is to keep a close eye and constant attention on everyone in and around the water until the next water watcher takes over.

• Drowning behavior is typically fast and silent. Unless rescued, a drowning person will last only twenty to sixty seconds before submerging. Reach or throw—don’t go! In the event of an emergency, reach or throw an object to the person in trouble. Don’t go in! You could become a victim yourself.

GRILLING SAFETY

More than three-quarters of US adults have used a grill, yet grilling sparks more than ten thousand home fires on average each year. To avoid this, the Red Cross offers these grilling safety tips:

• Always supervise a barbecue grill when in use. Don’t add charcoal starter fluid when coals have already been ignited.
• Never grill indoors—not in the house, camper, tent, or any enclosed area.
• Make sure everyone, including pets, stays away from the grill.
• Keep the grill out in the open, away from the house, deck, tree branches, or anything that could catch fire.
• Use long-handled tools especially made for cooking on the grill to help keep the chef safe.

SUMMER AND PETS 

Summer’s heat can be dangerous for your family pets. Follow these steps to help ensure your pet stays safe this summer.

• Don’t leave your pet in a hot vehicle, even for a few minutes. The inside temperature of the car can quickly reach 120 degrees, even with the windows cracked open.
• Animals can suffer heat stroke, a common problem for pets in warmer weather. Dogs with short noses or snouts, like the boxer or bulldog, are especially prone to heat stroke, along with overweight pets, those with extremely thick fur coats, or any pet with upper respiratory problems such as laryngeal paralysis or a collapsing trachea.
• Some of the signs of heat stroke in your pet are heavy panting, an inability to calm down, even when lying down, brick-red gum color, a fast pulse rate, and an inability to get up.
• If you suspect your pet has heat stroke, take their temperature rectally. If the temperature is above 105 degrees, cool the animal down. The easiest way to do this is by using the water hose. Stop cooling the animal when the temperature reaches 103 degrees.
• Bring your pet to the veterinarian as soon as possible, as heat stroke can lead to severe organ dysfunction and damage. Download the Red Cross Pet First Aid app for instant access to information on how to treat heat stroke, other emergencies, and general care for cats and dogs, and take the Cat and Dog First Aid Online Training course.

VECHILE SAFETY

According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about forty children a year die from heatstroke, either because they were left inside a car or became trapped in one. That’s about one child every ten days killed in a hot car.

The majority of hot car deaths—53 percent—happen because someone forgets a child in a car. You may be asking yourself, How does this happen? Families who lost a loved one thought the same thing at one point, but then the tragedy happened to them. Hot car deaths don’t just occur in the summer heat. On average, the first vehicular heatstroke of the year happens in March, according to Jan Null, who has been tracking such deaths since 1998. These are among the trends he has discovered over the years:

• About 46 percent of the time when a child was forgotten, the caregiver meant to drop the child off at a daycare or preschool.
• Thursdays and Fridays (the end of the workweek) see more deaths than other days.
• More than half of the deaths (54 percent) are children under two years old.

Parents and caregivers, get in the habit of always checking the back seat of your car before locking the doors. Remember: check the back seat.

 

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds, and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members, and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit https://redcross.org/ or https://cruzrojaamericana.org/, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

Reprinted from https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/news/2022/have-a-safe-summer.html

About the NHTSA: 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation, focused on transportation safety in the United States. For more information, please visit https://www.nhtsa.gov/child-safety/you-can-help-prevent-hot-car-deaths.

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