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How Safe is Your Child?

Things You Should Know to Keep Your Child Safe

A Child Disappears Every 18 seconds in the U.S.

1) Don't let your child wear clothing with his or her name on it. A child will tend to pay attention to anyone calling him or her by name.

2) Videotape and take black & white photos of your child two or three per year, including profile shots.

3) Do not leave a child unattended while shopping, visiting with neighbors or friends, or running errands. Under no circumstances should you leave a child alone in a car or truck.

4) Make sure your child always checks with you before going anywhere with anyone.

5) Make sure your child learns his or her address and phone number at an early age. A second phone number of a friend or relative is also helpful.

6) Teach your child how to make a collect phone call, and to begin with "Operator...I'm in trouble; I need your help."

7) If your child is a latch-key kid, make sure that he or she knows to keep all doors and windows locked, never let anyone know that he or she is alone, and never let anyone in the house, not even if they say its the police or fire department. Those kinds of professionals know to forcibly enter in case of an emergency.

8) Have your child fingerprinted (SafeSam ID-Kits are available from Child Search).

9) Know whether your child is left or right handed.

10) Keep a written log of all birthmarks, scars and identifying features, like moles or freckles.

11) Keep a growth chart of your child; know his or her height.

12) Make sure your child knows to scream and run if approached by anyone.

Emergency Procedures - IF YOUR CHILD IS MISSING!

Lead Based Paint

Lead is a poison and serves no useful purpose in the body.

The severity of health effects caused by lead contamination is only now being fully realized.

Lead is even more dangerous to children than it is to adults because a young child's growing body will absorb a significantly higher percentage of ingested lead.

The absorption of lead is increased if a child has a poor diet, is malnourished or has deficiencies of iron, zinc or calcium.

1 out of every 11 children, under the age of six in the United States, has dangerous levels of lead in their bloodstream.

Nearly 9% of our nations preschoolers, 1.7 million children, are affected by lead poisoning and it remains the foremost preventable disease of childhood.

Lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust in older housing are the major sources of childhood lead poisoning in the United States.

Lead contaminated dust comes from lead-based paint that is deteriorated, abraded by constant wear, such as raising or lowering a window, or disturbed by renovation or remodeling.

Lead contaminated soil is due to the past use of leaded gasoline, deteriorating exterior paint and industrial sources such as battery manufacturing and smelting.

Even children who appear healthy can have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Lead poisoning, for the most part, is silent; most poisoned children have no symptoms.

The most common cause of lead poisoning in children is the ingestion of lead-contaminated dust. A child's hand to mouth activity is the major method of transmission.

Lead contaminated surface dust may be so fine it cannot be seen by the naked eye. It is difficult to clean up and can be tracked into the house from exterior dust and soil.

Window sills are just the right height for small child to teeth on and since lead-based paint has a sweet taste, a child will chew on it.

The most common symptoms of acute lead poisoning are:
Colicky adbominal pain, irritability, fatigue, weakness, or muscle pain.

In more severe cases of lead poisoning, warning symptoms of serious brain swelling are:
Vomiting, irritability, restlessness, tremors, and progressive drowsiness.

Low level lead poisoning in children causes permanent nervous system damage including: Reduction in intelligence, attention span deficits, reading and learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and behavior problems.

Very high levels of lead exposure, which is now very rare in the United States, can cause:
Mental retardation, coma, convulsions, and death.

Recent research has even linked lead exposure to juvenile delinquency and adult criminal behavior.

Lead is a naturally occurring element and is one of the nine chemical elements known and used in ancient times.

The Romans were the first to mine and industrialize lead. It was used in the fabrication of sheet lead and pipe for their elaborate water system, as a lining in vessels storing water and wine, in utensils and as a glaze on pottery.

It is thought that the decline of the Roman Empire can be attributed, in part, to lowered birth rates and increased mental disturbances caused by lead poisoning.

In 1713 Bernardo Ramazzim described lead intoxication in potters working with lead glaze.

In July 1786, Benjamin Franklin wrote to a friend detailing serious medical problems attributed to the use of lead as far back as 1724.

Lead can be traced back many centuries. The oldest known lead object is a statue excavated in Turkey and dated somewhere around 6500 BC.

Today the world production and consumption of refined lead exceeds 6 million tons per year.

5 million tons of lead was used in gasoline prior to it being banned. As a result of the ban, atmospheric lead concentrations dropped 84% between 1978 and 1988.

57 million housing units built prior to 1980 contain lead-based paint. Of those units, 10 million are occupied by children under six (6) and 4 million of those are considered priority hazards because of peeling deteriorated paint.

Poor children are five (5) times more likely to have elevated blood lead than wealtheir children.

Once lead is mined, processed and introduced into man's environment, it is a potential problem FOREVER.

No known or foreseeable technology will destroy lead or render it harmless.

Poisoning is one of the most common pediatric emergencies, especially among children under five years of age. It is also one of the most difficult to treat. Each year more than 500,000 children swallow household materials left within their reach - and some die.

These common household substances are poisonous:
alcohol, ammonia, bleaches, cosmetic (including nail polish, removers, and permanent wave solutions), detergents fertilizers, medicines (including liniment, iron pills, aspirin, cold medicine and tranquilizers), furniture polish, kerosene, gasoline, lighter fluid and other petroleum products, lye and other caustics, paint removers, paints, paint thinners, turpentine, pesticides, or rat poisons, plants - decorative/household, weed killers.
(Where are yours?)
Most poisoning accidents occur in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. All poisonous substances should be kept locked up and in their original containers.

Should poisoning occur, immediately take the following action:

1) Try to determine what substance was swallowed

2) Immediately call your doctor, or Poison Control Center for advice as to the first-aid treatment of the victim.

Vomiting SHOULD NOT be induced:

1) IF a corrosive such as lye or a strong acid has been swallowed.

2) IF the child is drowsy, unconscious or convulsing.

In cases where KEROSENE or other PETROLEUM DISTILLATES are ingested, your Poison Control Center should determine appropriate treatment, which may include the use of Syrup of Ipecac.

A child who has swallowed a poison is likely to attempt again within a year. PRACTICE POISON PREVENTION!

E-Mail me: huenema@hotmail.com

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