Stating that injuries caused by domestic accidents are among the most important causes of death and disability in children, experts said that there is no place that children cannot reach and that families can minimize such accidents by simply keeping their children under observation.
Children's sense of curiosity and their desire to get to know the environment can sometimes have negative consequences. The most common domestic accidents experienced by children are falls, burns, drowning and poisoning. These types of accidents can sometimes result in injury, sometimes in lifelong disability of children and sometimes even loss of life. Explaining the causes of domestic accidents and how families can protect their children from such accidents, Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Osman Kılıç stated that there is nowhere that children cannot reach and that families can minimize such accidents by just keeping their children under observation.
“Children are at a slightly higher risk of being injured in domestic accidents”
Reminding that injuries caused by domestic accidents are among the most important causes of death and disability in children, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Osman Kılıç, Member of the Department of Pediatrics, said, “Domestic accidents are the most common forms of injury in children. Why are children more often injured in domestic accidents?Because children are very related to their environment, curious, have a high sense and desire to learn, tend to realize the emotions they experience with their 5 senses, like to imitate adults and have relatively weak reasoning skills, they may have some difficulty in understanding the danger and are not afraid of danger.Therefore, children are at a slightly higher risk of being injured in domestic accidents.Injuries can be categorized as falls, burns, poisoning and drowning. It is possible to classify more, but these are the most common situations we encounter.”
“For children to fall, they need a place for their heads to pass through”
Stating that falling is the most common domestic accident in children, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Osman Kılıç said, “It is considered as falling from the same level or falling from a height. These falls can lead to serious health problems in children. There are simple measures to prevent fall accidents.Among these measures; falls can be easily prevented or reduced with measures such as not keeping the floors wet, not being slippery, non-slippery carpets and rugs, making sure that windows and balcony doors are closed and locked, not placing furniture near the windows, and removing toys after playing.For children to fall from a place, they need a place for their heads to pass through.It should definitely be 6 centimeters with railings and railings so that the child's head cannot pass through there,” he said.
“It is very important that the child does not walk around when the oven and stove are hot”
Stating that burning, which is one of the domestic accidents, causes permanent damage in children, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Osman Kılıç said, “Another form of injury is burns. Burns in the home in childhood are caused by contact with materials such as hot water, but there may also be burns due to chemical substances. The most important factor here is that heaters should not be in the room where children are, children should not sleep with heaters, such items should definitely be kept with railings, it is very important that we do not take children in our arms when we have hot water or any hot substance in our hands, and it is very important that the child does not walk around when the oven and stove are hot.”
“It is very, very important that the child is not entrusted to another child”
Stating that drowning cases are also very common, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kılıç said, “One of the domestic accidents is drowning. Children can drown in water or with solid objects in the house. Especially in young children, since the weight of the head area is higher than the weight of the other parts of the body, children can fall head first into containers full of water and drown. This is a very serious risk. When our children who are fed with supplementary food are fed with supplementary food, this food can get into the trachea. Sometimes it can cause partial and sometimes complete blockages or non-organic substances can get into the trachea of children. All of these can cause suffocation. Another factor is that it is very important not to entrust a child to another child because the other child may not understand the danger and may not be able to save the other child. We should not take these risks,” he said.
“It is important to keep cleaning agents in a locked cabinet inside the house”
Stating that poisonings occur due to medicines, flowers and cleaning agents, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kılıç said, “We need to consider poisonings for other domestic injuries. Poisoning can also be caused by medicines, flower varieties, cleaning agents, pesticides. Children's sense of curiosity and sense of exploring the environment are very important here. There is no place that is inaccessible to children. If a child sets his/her mind to something, he/she will definitely realize it and always has this potential. This potential should never be forgotten. Therefore, it is important to keep pesticides, medicines or potentially poisonous plants and especially cleaning agents in a locked cabinet inside the house.”
“We need to keep our child under surveillance”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kılıç said, “In domestic accidents, we should not go for protection by restricting children and applying precautions at a very high level. We need to keep our child under supervision. In other words, keeping them at a distance where we can intervene immediately when there is a dangerous situation that our hands can reach and our eyes can see will ensure that the child does not lose his sense of curiosity, will enable him to explore the environment and will ensure the protection of our children.”
Families stated that they keep an eye on their children and take precautions for possible accidents.
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