Walk down any toy store aisle, browse through any catalog or check out any online business and you will see that electronics are common everywhere — along with numerous small pieces to attach (and detach) to all of them. Electronics and small pieces each have hidden dangers  for children of all ages. And while most children seem to be born with some innate understanding of technology, it’s still a good idea to remember the basics:

1. Be sure you are using the proper battery, charger, and plug outlet for the toy.
2. Make sure your child knows how to store the toy properly (e.g., keep it dry and at the right temperature).
3. If the child’s toy links to the internet or has an online play aspect, make sure the site is secure before you let the child access the internet.  (Make sure your computer safety settings have been adapted for these sites.)
4. Be sure video games and site links are age appropriate for the child. (This goes for on-lookers, too!)
5. Set rules so the child understands that her laptop and IPhone are different from yours.
6. Replace all batteries yourself.

Keeping these simple things in mind will allow your techno-savvy youth to enjoy their gift responsibly and safely.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From working in Barnes and Noble I have learned about Code Adam, the process of locating a missing child in a retail establishment or a public place.  We train regularly in executing the procedure, just in case.  We did it every night for a month before the Harry Potter release party back in 2007.  However, I had never actually done one until last weekend.

Last weekend we had a parent come up to us saying that she couldn’t find her two little girls.  I was the one who received the information and had to make the overhead page…”Attention Barnes & Nobles customers, we have a Code Adam, etc…”.  We found the girls very quickly, but still I was shaken for hours afterwards.

I wrote the article explaining what Code Adam is and why it exists for you to share with parents.  I was very impressed by the customers in the store that day because everyone froze and was silent while we looked for the girls.  I think it’s helpful for parents to know that this procedure exists.

Stephanie wrote an article with more information about CODE ADAM that I posted on my firm’s website.  Here is a link to the article she wrote. Thanks, Stephanie, for helping to spread the word.

Here’s a video explaining how to move from one car seat to another as your child “ages up” made by “Dad Labs”.

Other resources:

Car Safety Seats Information for Families

How to Choose and Use A Booster Seat

Forward-facing models should all have a 5-point restraint harness.  Children should stay in this model until at least 40 pounds, but can usually fit until 65 pounds.  These are especially helpful if you have a restless child who might try to get out of the seat belt.

When you think your child might be ready to move to a booster seat, be sure to test it out first.  If they fit, their legs should not stick out straight and they should not slouch or slide forward in the seat.  Once again, keep you child in the forward-facing car seat for as long as possible — it’s safer.
Booster seats are the newest addition to child car safety.  Most likely you didn’t use a booster seat when you were a kid.  Seat belts are designed for adults, not for children, so children need to be boosted into a higher position so that the seat belt can do its job correctly.   

Children need to be in a booster seat until they reach a height of 4’9”.  At this height, the seat belt will fall correctly on the child as to protect them in a crash.  Once again, there are multiple types of booster seats.  There are full backed seats that resemble a forward facing seat and there are half booster seats which only have a bottom portion.  In deciding which one to purchase for your child, you should consider factors such as support while sleeping in the car and the height of the seats in your car.  The booster should position the child so that the seat belt falls on the hips, not the stomach, and the collarbone, not the neck.  Once they reach 4’9”, the belt should fit properly without any additional support.  Even once they no longer need a booster seat, children though should stay in the back seat until they reach 13 years old.

Post a comment to let us know how your child has grown into her various types of car seats.

Children from birth to age one should ride in a rear facing car seat.

The minimum age to turn a child around to a forward facing car seat is one year and 20 pounds.  However, your childshould stay rear facing as long as the seat allows, usually up to around 30 pounds.  Rear facing is the safest position for a child.

There are two main types of rear facing seats.  The first is infant-only seats which allow the seat to be removed without disturbing a sleeping child.  They include a mount that remains firmly secured in the car and a carrier that snaps in an out.  Often, the carrier attaches to a stroller for optimal mobility.

The second kind is a convertible model.  These are able to hold the child from birth to about age four or five by converting from a rear facing infant seat to a front facing toddler seat.

Once again, the child should not be transferred to the front facing position until he/she reaches the maximum weight for the rear facing position.  The plus for these models is that they can be used for a long time, but the down side is that it is difficult to remove a sleeping infant without waking them.

Whether you are using a convertible model or a uniquely front-facing model, a child should move to this model only once he outgrows the rear facing model, usually around 30 pounds and at least one year of age.

I’ll post more later this week. Post a comment to let me know what your experiences have been with these kinds of seats.

Sure, we had seatbelts and car seats in our cars when we were kids, but how many times did you double buckle with your friends or siblings or ride backwards in the back of the station wagon?  Attempts to reduce the number of preventable highway deaths have prompted authorities to pass more stringent guidelines on the safety measures required for children riding in automobiles.

These guidelines are based on the height, weight, and age of the child in order to best secure the child in case of a collision. However, all of these new rules can be confusing.

• When do I use the next sized seat?

• How long does my child have to ride in the back seat?

• What is the difference between the different types of seats and belts?

Although you have to work at finding them, there are fairly clear guidelines about which type of seat you should use for your child based on their age, height and weight.  Here are a few tips to get you started.

•• The first step is a rear-facing, 5-point harness child safety seat for newborns and infants.

•• At about one year of age, your child will “age up” to forward-facing child safety seats.  These maintain the 5-point harness, but allow the child to sit in an upright position.  These are the two safest seats and children should stay in them as long as possible.

••  School age children should use booster seats to position them correctly in the seat belt until they reach a height of 4’9”.

We’ll explore each stage in the process of moving your child from one seat to another in more depth, because each one has slight nuances that can be confusing. I’ll publish several more postings with additional information in the next few days. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from anyone who has experiences, good or bad, with buying, installing and using car seats for their children.