National birth statistics show that more American babies are born in August than any other month, with September and October closely following. Fire departments involved in hospital and community car seat safety/installation programs will be busy over the next two months. While performing this much-needed education, why not also remind new parents about the importance of incorporating fire and CO safety into their baby preparations?
Fires and burns are the leading cause of unintentional home injury deaths for children over age 1, and the second leading cause for infants, according to the Home Safety Council’s State of Home Safety in America. In addition, this report found that fewer than 5 percent of young children die from an accidental fall or poisoning in the home, while 43 percent die from home fires and burns.
In 2007, the national nonprofit organization, the Home Safety Council, partnered with Kidde to commission a survey, which asked expectant parents and parents of children under age 2 their preparations for having a child. Nearly two-thirds of respondents believed their home was as safe as possible. However, survey results revealed that 78 percent of respondents had never conducted a home fire drill even though most had childproofed cabinets and drawers, put up safety gates, and locked poisons away.
In addition to having defenses against fires and burns, parents should protect their children from carbon monoxide—the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that children ages 4 and under had the highest rate of nonfatal CO exposure among those treated in emergency rooms from 2001 to 2003. The only safe way for families to detect this odorless, tasteless and invisible gas in their home is to install a working CO alarm.
Now that you’ve done your job to make the car ride home from the hospital as safe as possible for the newborn baby, why not help make sure their home is safe, too? In addition to reminding families to have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, you can hand them a brochure on it, as well. Kidde has a free, downloadable brochure on fire and CO safety that fire departments can print and distribute when installing car seats for parents-to-be. Click here to get started.