When my son was four years old, he broke his leg jumping off of an ottoman in our living room. That ottoman is only 24 inches high. Because the low height of his fall, I did not suspect his injury to be that severe. In fact, I kept his appointment to with the optometrist for his eye exam before I considered taking his to a walk in clinic (something that remains a bit of a joke in our family to this day)! After this experience, I know that every fall has the potential to lead to injuries beyond a bump or bruise.
The World Health Organization identifies fall as one of the leading causes of injury burden in the world for children ages 0-4. Recommendations and safety advice is abundant, but implementing safety measures is surprisingly still difficult for many families to achieve. The statistics in the linked article are, unfortunately, shocking.
Safety equipment can be useful tools in preventing injury to children, but can be costly. This may explain why the fall mortality rate in low to middle class income countries is consistently higher than that of it’s high income country counterpart.
Information related to safety measures for the home is easily accessible and there is no shortage of equipment to safeguard the household against injury. Despite this, falls continue to be the most common source of non fatal injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms for children under the age of 9.
Reference
Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. (2019) McDonald EM, Gielen AC. Retrieved from:
http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/injury-prevention/according-experts/injury-prevention-falls
What a good reminder to us all as “future” educators that falls have the potential to be serious wether they are incurred in the home casually climbing on the furniture or wether at the playground jumping off the slide!
As parents, caregivers and/or educators we must always assess the risks associated with the form of play the child is engaged in and take into consideration the developmental abilities of the child before we yell, “Be careful!”
In educating ourselves, parents and children in the assessment/prevention of falls in order to keeps us safe, we must also encourage them to learn about the world and how it works with a few bumps, scrapes and bruises along the way! 🙂
What a great topic to share!
I find myself constantly saying “Be Careful” or “Hold on tight”. Falls are never something that can be expected but for me are a huge worry. Sometimes it doesn’t need to be a huge fall from a high height to hurt. I did an article on Rough play and falling hazards falls right into the same category for me!