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By
Catherine Pruissen
Did
you know that from 1982 to 1995, ten children between
the age of two and ten died in Canada when their clothing
or drawstrings got caught on playground equipment
or fences?
Did
you know that by the end of 1995 in the U.S.A., most
clothing manufactures had eliminated drawstrings from
children's clothing?
Playgrounds
pose special dangers for strangulation incidents.
As in most cases involving injury to children
events can take place in the blink of an eye. Playground
fun should be closely supervised.
Children
should be taught to play safely and to use playground
equipment appropriate to their physical development.
Parents and caregivers should inspect playground
areas for unsafe or broken equipment before allowing
the children to play. The following suggestions
will help parents, caregivers and children bring safety
into play:
- Always
remove cords and drawstrings, and tuck in all clothing
that can strangle a child.
- Five
children between the age of four and ten died when
they became entangled in ropes or skipping ropes
attached to playground equipment. Always remove
ropes and skipping ropes tied to slides and playground
equipment.
- Loose
clothing, hoods, scarves, drawstrings, mitten cords,
ropes and skipping ropes can get caught on playground
equipment or fences and strangle a child!
- Zip
up the child's jacket.
- Make
sure gaps in equipment cannot snare a child's clothing
or body.
- Although
helmets are important pieces of protective equipment,
be aware of the dangers of wearing them on the playground.
Strangulations have occurred because helmets
have became trapped between rungs on climbing equipment.
From:
Kids for Keeps by Martin Lesperance, Kids for
Keeps Ltd., Cochrane, AB. and Playground
Safety Tips from Health Canada.
(See
Business Forms in our Exclusive Products section to
order ready-to-use Accident/Illness/Injury Report
and other valuable forms and our Safety-Tip
of the Month Cards.)
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©
Catherine M. Pruissen
Catherine M. Pruissen is the CEO of About Child Care
Consumer Services and developer of child care online.
She has published numerous child care related literature,
including Start and
Run a Profitable Home Day Care, The
Daycare Alternative, How to Find Good Child Care,
Caregiver Aids: Business
Forms for Caregivers and Parents, Income
Tax & Record Keeping for Child Care Providers,
and a host of workshops and workbooks. She was the editor
and publisher of the bi-monthly newsletter, Parent Care,
Your Child Care News-line. Catherine was also the coordinator
and workshop facilitator for The Child Care Information
Centre in Calgary, Alberta, and ran a successful dayhome
for eight years. |
