Preventing Child Brain Injuries – A Big Job
Taking safety precautions can go a long way in keeping your child safe from brain injury. Falls are the most frequent cause of brain injuries in child. For toddlers, who are just learning how to handle their bodies, falls happen while doing everyday, ordinary things. Unless there is a tumble down a flight of stairs, toddler falls are usually not a major problem. At an older age, learning safe practices as a way of life is key.
With toddlers, it is important to keep a watchful eye as they learn to make their way on their feet. While most toddler falls are inconsequential, falls around dangerous areas can be detrimental. Always use gates to protect children from stairwells and windows. In recent years, some gates have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Be sure to check that the one you are using is in full compliance with today’s standards. Wheeled baby walkers used to be popular, but now have been mostly taken off the market due to their dangers around stairs.
Helmets save lives. Everyone should wear a helmet while riding a bicycle. Set a good example for your children and do the same yourself. Be sure your helmets are properly fitted with the buckle fitting snug under the chin. Only properly-fitted helmets provide good protection. Even children sitting in a child carrier on the back of your bike or in a trailer pulled by your bike should wear a helmet.
Infants under the age of one should not be carried on bikes. Also, toddlers older than four are usually too large for carrier seats and should have either their own bike or a trailer attached to yours.
Helmets are also important in roller blading, roller skating, and skateboarding.
How to Help Your Child Deal With Bullies
A friend recently sent me a short article on bullying. I don’t know about you, but there were several bullies in my school when I was growing up. We all knew who they were, and we knew what would happen if we didn’t do what they wanted — give them our lunch money, let them “borrow” our favorite lipstick, carry their books to the bus.
More than 25% of children say they are bullied at school! Nearly one-quarter of public schools report that bullying is a daily or weekly problem.
Your child might be a victim of bullying if:
- She is afraid to go to school or do organized activities with classmates
- She has unexplainable cuts or bruises
- Her clothes, books or other belongings are damaged or missing
- She often cries or seems sad
It’s often hard for children who are being bullied to talk to a parent or other adult, but it is very important for them to tell. Create an atmosphere of trust with your child so you can help her. If you think your child is being bullied, you can help:
- Ask your child to tell you about the bully. Listen carefully. Let her know it’s not her fault.
- Teach ways to deal with bullies. Teach her to walk away or find an adult. She should not react to the bully. Hitting back won’t end the problem and may get her in trouble (even if she didn’t start it).
- Encourage her to make friends at school.
- Talk with the teacher or principal if the bullying doesn’t stop. They have a responsibility to stop bullying. Find out if the school has a program to prevent bullying. If not, suggest they take immediate steps to develop one.
Yesterday, I posted a blog about bullying that features a bullying prevention program being used in Frederick County, Maryland.
If your child is being bullied at school and you need more information about her rights and the responsibility of the school, I will be glad to provide you with information that is helpful to you. You can contact me at srohrstaff@wrsattorneys.com, or give me a call at 703-273-9500.
Bullying – A Problem At Your Child’s School?
NPR recently did a story on bullying and how Frederick County, Maryland school system has addressed the problem. It has adopted the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, developed by the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University, and made it part of the school culture, rather than just a topic at an occasional assembly. The school’s curriculum teaches students that bullies don’t act alone and that the community can take the bully’s power away. Included in the story is a chart of the Circle of Bullying that shows how the social phenomenon works and the roles of those involved: bully, victim, supporters, followers, defenders.
Childhood bullies often grow up to be adult bullies. Maybe you’ve even run across one. If bullying is a problem at your child’s school, go to the principal. Your child has a right to be safe at school.
How Are Child Brain Injuries Treated?
Help! Your child has just taken a big fall in the playground and hit her head. What do you do now? Always a difficult question. Do you rush to the emergency room or put an ice pack on and assume she’ll be fine?
The safest option is to call your child’s doctor if you think the injury was moderate to severe. If you are concerned about a mild injury, there is no shame in contacting a medical professional just to be sure. Click on this link for a good checklist of what to do when a child falls and injures her head.
If your child’s head injury is bleeding, the most important step is to stop the bleeding. Apply pressure and the bleeding should stop within 10 minutes. If it doesn’t, contact a physician about getting stitches. Most likely, the injury will result in a bump on the head. To reduce this, apply an ice pack for 20 minute periods. While most swelling reduces quickly, it may take up to a week to disappear completely. If your child complains of a headache, the best medicine is Tylenol® and lying down.
Sleeping or lying down after a head injury is okay. Be sure to monitor your child while she sleeps. Look for discoloration, breathing difficulties, seizure symptoms, or an inability to wake up. Keep an extra attentive eye on your child for the first 24 hours after the injury.
Be aware of any abnormal complaints by your child, especially of a stiff neck, forgetfulness, or inability to walk normally. If she cries uncontrollably or refuses to be consoled for an extended period of time, this may indicate a more serious injury. Here is more information on what to look for in monitoring your child after a head injury.
Seek medical care in certain situations such as unconsciousness, worsening pain, seizures, or trouble with vision. Here is a link to an extensive list of symptoms for which a doctor should be consulted.
What Are the Symptoms of a Child Brain Injury?
How is your child going to react to a severe hit to the head? It’s hard to tell, so it’s best to be aware of the many ways that brain injuries can present themselves.
The most common physical symptom is a bump on the head. The best way to treat this is just the way you probably think: an ice pack or a bag of frozen peas or corn.
Many cases result in headaches, while only a few leave the child unconscious. A fall can still be severe even if the child remains conscious. While infants cannot tell a parent that they have a headache, they are usually more irritable than normal or act as if they are uncomfortable.
Vomiting is probably more common that you’d think, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the injury was severe. A seizure, however, is a serious symptom and if your child has a seizure after a head injury they should have a CT scan as soon as possible to see what’s really happening. Here’s a link to a full list of symptoms that should be followed up with medical attention.
You may remember the recently death of a celebrity from a skiing accident who seemed fine immediately after the accident but who had actually received a severe brain injury. This happens when blood rushes to the brain after an injury. It can cause the child to lose consciousness hours after the injury because of the rise in pressure in the brain. Immediate medical attention and persistent parental monitoring are essential in these cases.
Some symptoms can’t be seen for some time, especially if they are in young children. Injury to the reading and writing area of the brain in an infant or toddler may not be seen until she reaches an age where she should be able to read and write. Personality changes can also be a result of brain injury. These symptoms do not occur in every case, but should be watched for in any child who has experienced a brain injury.
Is Every Bump on Your Child’s Head a Brain Injury?
Is every bump on your child’s head a cause for concern? Yes.
Is every one a brain injury? No.
The harder question is, “How do I tell the difference?” The answer is a little harder, too.
Brain injuries are often divided into two categories: low force and high force injuries, depending on the severityof the blow to the head. Each case is unique, and some injuries appear minor when they actually are quite severe.
Low force injuries are usually minor and don’t leave lasting brain injury. High force injures happen from a child’s head being struck by objects of great speed and/or weight. High force brain injuries occur from a high speed vehicle crash, a fall from a high height, severe shaking, or being struck with a powerful object. These incidents almost always lead to some form of brain injury in the child.
Of course, you should have your child seen by a health care provider immediately if she has hit her head. Often, if a child hits her head, she may cry immediately but stop crying after a short period of time. You should still take her to a doctor, especially if the force of impact was great. The fact that she stopped crying does not necessarily mean she was uninjured. You will want a doctor to take a look at her.
Immediate and appropriate care can help a child’s possibility of a more significant recovery. For more in depth information on child brain injuries, click here
Brain Injuries in Children – How Do They Happen?
Everyone knows the joke: “I’m strange because I was dropped on my head as a baby.” But it’s no joke when a baby or a child hits her head hard.
How do brain injuries in children happen? Here are the five most common causes.
1. Falls. Kids are super active, so falls happen often. Not surprisingly, they are the number one cause of brain injury in children, second only to vehicle collisions.
2. Motor vehicle collisions. Keeping your child properly restrained by a seatbelt or a child safety seat helps, certainly, but she can still suffer a brain injury if her head is hit on a part of the car or by an object sent flying by impact.
3. Pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Teaching your child when she is young to look both ways before crossing the street and to always wearing a helmet when riding a bike is key. But, as we all know, children have not yet mastered decision- making skills and can be unpredictable in their actions.
4. Sports accidents. We want our children to learn the lessons they get from playing sports; however, they can suffer brain injuries from an unprotected fall or a tackle gone wrong.
5. Child abuse. It is unsettling that this is in the top five causes of such a serious child injury. There is evidence (although it is disputed) that shaking a child, especially a very young one, can cause serious damage to the brain.
Immediate and appropriate care can help a child’s possibility of a more significant recovery. For more in depth information on child brain injuries, click here.
Our children are safer in cars today.
Did you know that one reason our children are safer in cars today is because for many years lawyers have filed lawsuits against automobile manufacturers that forced them to make safer cars? We now have seatbelts, airbags (front and side), safety glass, and cars that don’t unexpectedly jump into reverse, to name a few, because of products liability lawyers who proved that manufacturers knew about defects in their cars and forced them to make the changes they knew would be safer but which would cost a few pennies per car.
Here is a link to a short video from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety about a collision between a 50 year old car and a new car. Riding in a car now is safer than it was 50 — or even 20 — years ago. Our children are luckier, and so are we.
Buckle Up – Prevent Brain Injuries
Let’s talk seatbelts.
We make a commitment to keep our children safe in our cars. When they are small, we go to great expense to buy the best car seats we can and spend a lot of time buckling/unbuckling them in and out. But what about when they are older? And, what about buckling ourselves in?
March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. Brain injuries don’t just affect those who are injured; they affect everyone around them. If you are a parent and suffer a traumatic brain injury, your children’s lives will be forever altered along with yours. If you are a parent of a teenager who drives, your life will never be the same if she suffers a traumatic brain injury. One way to take care of your family is to be sure seatbelts are used every time anyone gets into a car.
My friend Larry Buckfire, a car accident lawyer in Michigan, posted a short video, Embrace Life, on his website. It is less than two minutes long. There are no words. I suggest you watch it. It is powerful.
If you have a teen driver in your home, show it to her. Watch it with her. It could speak more loudly than your words ever could.
Do You Understand How Brain Injury Affects A Child?
So many things change in a child’s life when she acquires a brain injury. Regardless of the child’s age, traumatic brain injury affects every area of her life — and the lives of those who live with her. How will she make new friends? How will she cope with school? Will she ever be the same?
Here is a link to resources and education information from the Mayo Clinic on traumatic brain injury in children to help parents and teachers help the child.
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