Photo by Scott Cunningham
Summer is, as we all know, a time for swimming, bicycling, hiking, outdoor sports and fun in the sun.
For your kids, though, you don’t want it to turn into a time for upset stomachs, skinned knees, poison ivy, bug bites, sprained ankles and wicked sunburns.
There’s no stopping them from sustaining periodic bumps and bruises, but here are some suggestions for keeping outdoor injury to a minimum.
-Be prepared for wily water. Make sure everyone knows how to react if caught in a rip current. A swimmer caught in a current should not fight against it, but swim or float out of it toward the shoreline, according to the National Weather Service.
-Curb the curb-hugging. Adults riding in traffic should, of course, keep close to the curb so cars can pass safely. But children, who are more apt to ride around neighborhood streets, may encounter more parked cars than moving cars, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends a wider berth so they aren’t surprised by, for example, the sudden opening of a car door.
-Know your pool pH. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a pool’s pH level should be between 7.0 and 8.0. Any higher, and it’s not doing an effective job of disinfection; any lower, and it’ll irritate eyes and skin.
-Let them slide solo. If your little one is spooked by a steep slide, sliding down yourself with the child in your lap is not a wise alternative. A 2009 study by New York’s Winthrop-University Hospital showed 14 percent of tibia fractures in young children occurred on playground slides, and all of them were sustained from sliding in a parent’s lap.
-Sound and sound alike. When hiking, teach children to – should they get lost – respond to any noises they hear by making noises of their own, recommends hikeSafe, a project of the White Mountain National Forest New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. If the noise was made by an animal, it’ll be frightened away; if it was made by an adult, the child’s location will become clear.
-Give it a once over. Checking a play area such as a field or baseball diamond for hazards like rocks and broken glass is a worthwhile investment of time. On a playground, look for sharp edges, hot surfaces, catch points and gaps of 3-9 inches – just the right size for a child’s head to get stuck – in length.
The Agony of the Heat
Making sure the kids are wearing sunscreen is the easy part. Nowadays, the tricky part is figuring out which sunscreen to get them.
Sun protection factor (SPF) refers only to a sunscreen’s ability to guard against UVB rays, which cause sunburns and can, eventually, lead to skin cancer. But recent studies have shown UVA rays, which don’t cause sunburns, also increase skin cancer risk and may contribute to a variety of other skin changes as well.
Fortunately, there are broad-spectrum sunscreens to ward off both types of rays. Search the list of ingredients for ecamsule, titanium dioxide or zinc oxide to ensure a sunscreen has broad-spectrum protection. Avobenzone, oxybenzone and sulisobenzone offer the same degree of protection, but are more likely to irritate the skin of babies and young children.
Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
