Protect Your Little Ones Against Injuries

I have a safety tip for parents who have small children (really all kids under 10).  As you know, I work at a children's hospital so I  am privy to see what kind of injuries and accidents affect our kids.  Since the beginning of this year, I have seen four kids from this type of injury.  Two weeks ago, an 18-month old boy was a victim of this.  Unfortunately, it took his life.  The culprit is free standing flat screen TV.  Kids are able to wiggle/push on a dresser and the TV falls on top them.  On lower stands, they can push them off because the flat screen TV is top heavy.  The weight of a 42" flat screen plasma TV is about 66 pounds;  a one year walking child is about 22 pounds.  So, even though 66 pounds doesn't really sound like a heavy item, it's 3 times the child's weight.  There is an easy solution to this:

Now, this is just an example of TV safety straps.  I went to Amazon  and typed in "TV Safety Straps"  to find the one above.   There are many different types and styles you can choose from depending what your needs are.  I know that a little boy would be alive for an item that cost about 20 dollars.  Truly, a sad outcome for this family.  Please, don't let this happen to yours.

AAAHHH....Monday

So it's Monday.  I'm sewing and it feels great.  I truly need this solace to recover from work.  As I have mentioned in my previous post,  I work in a children's  hospital.  I love it.  It's easy for me to work with children.  It comes naturally to nurture these kids.  But it does have a down side.  In the past two weeks that I have worked, one child came to our hospital as a full code which means they came to us receiving  CPR and  life giving care but unfortunately, this child didn't make it.  Then this weekend, another child came to us as a near drowning.  His mother was able to give CPR continuously until he had a heart beat.  I believe this child will make a full recovery but I'm not so sure that the mother will fully recovery from seeing her child face down in the pool and then giving life saving CPR.  The look on her face was of a woman who wasn't about to forgive herself  taking her eyes off her child and him being found in the pool.  It is easy for many  hospital employees to judge this family.  We see this over and over.  But I believe we shouldn't judge.  I'm a parent who knows how easy it is to be distracted (maybe even with another child) and still you believe your child is safe in your house. Then you go looking and you can't find them.  And then someone finds the child face down in the pool.  I don't think we should punish the parent with judging them; they are punished enough with what happened to their child.  I plead with parents to do all that can be done to protect children around their swimming pools.  Please teach little ones very early on how to swim.  Practice with them to make sure that they can swim even if they accidentally fall in the pool.  Some kids learn to swim but then panic when they fall in accidentally so they drown.  I know this subject is a real downer but I'm passionate about kids.  I know that we can't/don't see every thing that kids are doing.  So I want parents to protect them in different ways.  Teach kids to swim, have a pool gate, have a door alarm so if the door to the pool area opens the alarm  goes off.  Also, have a pool alarm that stays in the pool and sounds an alarm when something over 10 pounds is in the pool.  Please spread my words... I don't want to write a letter of condolence to one of my blogger friends.  

OK, enough of my soapbox .  Tomorrow, I'll share what I'm working on.  So until then, have a happy Monday.