According to Ken, the law creates a “systemic problem” and “invites abuse.” Because the daycare provider wanted to have more children than licensing allowed, “there is an incentive not to be licensed, [so the State will not] know you exist.”

Licensing of daycare facilities doesn’t guarantee your child will be safe, but at least with licensing you know that the State knows about the provider and there is an expectation that the daycare provider’s home is being inspected and the provider knows the rules and follows them. However, when the daycare is operating illegally, it is under the radar, and the State may not even know it exists.

This tragedy could easily have happened to Virginia parents.  Licensing and regulation of home daycare providers doesn’t even come into play in Virginia until the home daycare center has six children. The home where Landon Schultz died in February in Wisconsin had four children for one adult. That ratio is acceptable in Virginia.

P.S. Parents of young children want to stay on top of safety issues, especially the unsafe products that have been recalled. Ken writes a very helpful blog, The Safest Line, that is devoted to keeping children safe. I suggest you subscribe to his blog to keep up to date on safety recalls and other great information for parents.

Summer 2011 has not even yet arrived, but a child has already died from hyperthermia. (Hyperthermia is the term for what happens when a body overheats and cannot regulate its temperature after being exposed to extreme heat.)

In August 2009, I posted a story about a child who died in a daycare van in Richmond, Virginia, when the driver forgot he was in the back and left him in the van all day. According to Safe Kids USA, 40 children died of hyperthermia in 2010, the largest number since records have been kept.

These may seem silly, but they are not. Here are some tips from Safe Kids USA for preventing hyperthermia:

1. Dial 911 immediately if you see an unattended child in a car. EMS professionals are trained to determine if a child is in trouble.
2. Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle, even with the window slightly open.
3. Place a cell phone, smartphone, purse, briefcase, gym bag or whatever is to be carried from the car, on the floor in front of a child in a backseat. This triggers adults to see children when they open the rear door and reach for their belongings.
4. Set your cell phone or Blackberry reminder to be sure you dropped your child off at day care.
5. Set your computer calendar program, such as Outlook, to ask, “Did you drop off at daycare today?”
6. Have a plan that if your child is late for daycare that you will be called within a few minutes. Be especially careful if you change your routine for dropping off little kids at day care.
7. Teach children not to play in any vehicle.
8. Lock all vehicle doors and trunk after everyone has exited the vehicle – especially at home. Keep keys out of children’s reach. Cars are not playgrounds or babysitters.
9. Check vehicles and trunks FIRST if a child goes missing.

You think you don’t need these tips and such a thing would NEVER happen to you? Sadly, a child was found dead in a car in March in Texas when her mother forgot she was in the back seat and left her in the car all day.

If your child’s daycare provider does have a handbook, ask to see it.  If you’re told it’s just for the staff, be very careful. Sure, it’s important for the staff to know the rules and schedule, but it’s also important for YOU to know them. I’d walk away as fast as I could from a daycare provider who said, “Sure, we have a handbook, but you can’t see it.” I wouldn’t even ask another question. I’d just leave. That provider is hiding something. It may be that all they’re hiding is lack of preparation, but that’s a big deal.

Unfortunately, I hear about injuries and deaths at daycare centers nearly every day. Children ought not be injured or die while in daycare. A handbook won’t guarantee that a child won’t be hurt while in daycare, but it will go a long way in giving every child a safe environment — and assurance to the parents that their child is in good hands.

I’ve prepared a great example of a daycare handbook. It’s sort of a skeleton, really, for a handbook. Every daycare provider should have a handbook that fits that  provider’s circumstances — number and ages of children, location, philosophy (religious training or not, structured curriculum or not) — so my example is really a general kind of guide. But I believe its value is that it is a minimum of what to look for in a daycare provider handbook.

If you’d like a copy — it’s free if you mention you read about it on Virginia Child Injury Lawyer — just send me an email at Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com, call 703-260-6070 or contact me through our website, www.RohrstaffLaw.com.  Let me know where to send it and it’ll be on its way to you.

FOOD? Food can be a choking hazard? Yes, and a major one, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC is part of the Federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services whose responsibility is to protect public health through public education and prevention of disease and injury. The CDC reported that in 2001 more than 10,000 children were treated in emergency departments for choking on foods. A significant percentage of those children died.

Be sure your child’s caregiver knows what NOT to offer your child to eat and how to prepare food safely for your child to eat. Be sure your child’s caregiver knows to be attentive when your young child is eating.

Young children (under five years old) have smaller air passages, so it is harder for them to cough out obstructions than it is for older children. Hard food and soft both pose dangers. Any small, round, cylindrical or compressible food (including peanut butter!) is hazardous for a young child.

For free information about foods that require extra care when offered to young children – and those to avoid all together — send an email to Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com with your name, address and email address. Just put “Choking” in the subject line. You can also call 703-260-6070 or contact us through our website, www.RohrstaffLaw.com, and ask for your free copy. I’ll send it right out to you.

Snowmobiling can be an exciting and invigorating activity. It also is a sport with potential for serious injury. In May 2003, the Journal of Pediatric Surgery reported on its study of data from 1991 to 2000 that found that the mean age of children who were admitted to hospital with snowmobile-related injuries was 12 years and that most of them were boys who had been driving the vehicle. Most of the accidents had been collisions with fixed objects, and the most common injury site was the head (even though most of the children had been wearing helmets). The most common cause of death was head injury.

As with all sports, there are some safety rules that need to be followed:

*Take a safety course – always.

* Use the right helmet – always.

*Never go alone – always have a “buddy” with you.

*Stay on established trails.

*Stay off unknown water. You don’t know how thick the ice is.

*Take a GPS with you.

But, what if your child did all the right things and was still injured in a snowmobile accident?  Look further. The accident could have been caused by a mechanical or design defect in the snowmobile that you did not know about.

For instance, if your son reports that he lost control of the vehicle, have it checked out — there may be a defect in the steering mechanism caused by a manufacturer that chose not to do a safety inspection before putting the snowmobile on the market. Did the brakes fail? Was the suspension correctly assembled? Did wiring or fuel leaks cause the snowmobile to catch on fire and explode?

If your child is injured, it’s a good idea to consult with a lawyer to get as much information as you can about what may have caused the accident and who, if anyone, should be held accountable for the injury. Call me at 703-260-6070 or send me an email at Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com.  I will be happy to answer your questions.

Because she’s read so much about the dangers of strangulation injury and death from the cords on Roman shades and roll up blinds, she’s already thinking about arranging the furniture so the cribs are nowhere near the window.

Most of the shades and blinds have recently been recalled for repair. Here’s the link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission recall article. Check out your child’s caregiver’s house, too. The Window Covering Safety Council is offering a free repair kit to retrofit shades or blinds with clips.You can either go to the website or call 800-506-4636 to get the kit.

The recall does not involve cribs that do not have a drop-side.

The recall does not include cribs with metal rod drop-side hardware. It only involves cribs with plastic trigger and one-hand-system drop-side hardware.

Some of the drop-side cribs were sold with the Fisher-Price logo.

The cribs come in various finishes and styles, so check the assembly instructions attached to the mattress support board.

The cribs were sold in stores at BJ’s Wholesale Club, J.C. Penney, Sears, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, USA Baby and online at Amazon.com, Babiesrus.com, Costco.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com.

If you have one of these cribs at home, STOP USING IT. If your child is cared for outside your home, insist on CHECKING THE CRIB YOUR CAREGIVER USES and have it removed if it is one of these cribs.

What’s wrong with these cribs?

Stork Cribs recalled

The drop-side can separate from the crib at one or more corners because the plastic hardware can break or come loose, and because it is easy for parents to put the drop-side onto the crib upside down (as in the picture) when they are assembling the crib.Four infants have died from suffocation and many others were trapped. Other infants fell from their cribs and were injured, including brain injuries.

Read the CPSC recall notice – it has important information. Your baby’s life could depend on it.

If your baby is sleeping in one of the cribs, find an alternative safe place for the baby. The manufacturer has a free repair kit eliminates the drop-side. Fix the crib before using it again. Contact the manufacturer for the free repair kit. For additional information, contact Stork Craft toll free at (877)274-0277 anytime to order a free repair kit, or log on to www.storkcraft.com.

Now, of course, I know better. A study conducted by the Center for Research and Policy at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and published in Injury Prevention in 2007 estimated that bicycle-related injuries among children and adolescents result in nearly $200 million in hospital inpatient charges annually.

One third of the children hospitalized were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. Importantly, about 30% of the hospitalizations from bicycle-related injuries involved motor vehicles.

My firm gives away free bicycle helmets to any child who needs one. We would rather help a child be safe than to have to represent her because she sustained a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident.

If you need to speak to a lawyer because a child has been injured in a bicycle accident, you can call me at 703-260-6070, send me an email at Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com, or contact me through the firm’s website, www.RohrstaffLaw.com.  I’ll be happy to answer your questions – for free.

Although this toy was recalled in 2006, it can still be found in neighborhood yard sales — like the one I saw just recently.

Two children aged 19 months and two years suffocated before the toy was recalled.  The nails do not qualify as small parts that could normally be swallowed by an infant.  However, in the reported cases, the nails became “forcefully lodged in [the children’s’] throats” according to a company statement.  An article about these incidents and the general safety of toys appeared at the time in the Washington Post.

This toy was sold at popular children’s toy stores until September 2006.  At the time it was recalled, Playskool offered a $50 gift card to use on Playskool products. Parents who own this toy now should send the nails to Playskool to see if it still offers the gift card.  For more information you can visit the Playskool website.