Posts for category: Children's Safety
All children need to get a tetanus shot. When we think of tetanus we often think of rusty nails; however, this bacterium isn’t just found on rusty metal items, it also lives in soil and dirt. If bacteria come in contact with a wound or opening in the skin this can lead to a serious infection. If your child, like many, enjoys running around outside barefoot, they must be keeping up with their tetanus shots.While tetanus can cause some serious symptoms including “lockjaw," it is completely preventable with a vaccination. The DTaP vaccine is used to prevent tetanus (along with diphtheria and pertussis) and your child will get their first series of shots at 2, 4, and 6 months. Your child will also need another tetanus shot between the ages of 15 to 18 months old and between 4-6 years old.
Most children will develop symptoms within two weeks of exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms of tetanus include,
- Painful and severe muscle spasms
- Shoulder, jaw, and neck stiffness
- Difficulty breathing and swallowing
- Rapid heart rate
- Fever
Whether you’re simply taking a weekend trip to visit the grandparents, or you and the family are flying internationally, you must know how to keep everyone healthy and safe while on vacation. After all, the last thing you want to worry about is looking up local hospitals near your hotel in the middle of the night. Here are some tips for how to keep your little ones safe while traveling.
You may be surprised to learn that many car seats are not used properly. In fact, around 46 percent of car and booster seats are improperly used, which greatly impacts their efficacy. With car accidents being the leading cause of death in children in the US, parents must know how to keep their children safe while riding in the car. If you have questions about keeping your child safe, your pediatrician is here to answer all of your questions.Types of Car Seats
Before your child can just start buckling up like a big kid, they need to use car seats. Children from birth until 3 years old will use a rear-facing car seat. From 3-7 years old children will upgrade to the forward-facing car seat. Then the booster seat is typically used anywhere from 5-12 years, depending on their height and manufacturer’s guidelines. Children should be at least five years old, weigh at least 40 pounds and be over the height and weight requirements for their forward-facing car seat to be ready to upgrade to a booster seat.
Choosing the Right Car Seat
When it comes to choosing a car seat, we know that it can be difficult to narrow it down. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provides useful information to help you find the right car seat by comparing different ones on the market. You can also talk to your pediatrician, who can provide you with a wellspring of information and advice on choosing the right car seat for your little one.
Installing Your Child’s Car Seat
Before starting, it’s important to read the manufacturer’s installation guide so that you can better understand the car seat and how it should be installed. Along with following the installation guide that comes with the car seat, the NHTSA also provides some helpful safety tips for a successful installation.
Did you know that once you have your car seat in-place that you can have it inspected to make sure that it’s properly installed? This can provide families with the peace of mind that they need to know that their child is safe every time they buckle up.
From booster seats to booster shots, you must be doing everything possible to keep your child healthy and safe. This also means finding quality pediatricians that you trust to provide you with the tips, advice, and care to support your child’s health.
To keep your child healthy and happy this involves making sure that they eat the right foods, exercise regularly and get quality sleep. Of course, visiting your pediatrician for routine checkups and care is also necessary for maintaining optimal health in your child or teen. Along with making sure that your little one is reaching those developmental milestones, our pediatricians can also protect your child from a variety of serious and potentially life threatening illnesses through regular immunizations.
What do immunizations do?
Immunizations or vaccines are used to boost the body’s natural defenses to help it properly fight infection. In order to do this, a vaccine needs to contain either a dead or weakened form of the infection. This is just enough to trigger the immune system to start producing the necessary antibodies to fight the infection without actually causing an infection. Even once the body fights off these germs it will still maintain these defenses to prevent being infected in the future.
Your child won’t build up an immediate immunity once they’ve been vaccinated. It can take up to three weeks for the body to build a complete immune response to the specific germs. Therefore, during this time it is possible that your child could still become infected with any of the viruses for which they haven’t fully been vaccinated. Each vaccine is different and your pediatrician can discuss with you the expected length of time that a vaccine will take to fully work.
Why are immunizations important?
Immunizations are one of the most effective preventive tools we have for protecting children and teens from potentially dangerous or fatal infections and diseases. Since many of these conditions can also cause serious complications including hospitalizations, getting your child vaccinated can prevent the need for extensive and expensive medical treatments.
Certain people, especially those with weakened immune systems, may not be able to get certain vaccinations. This means that they are particularly susceptible to infection. By getting more and more children vaccinated we can also protect other members of our community who can’t be vaccinated so they don’t deal with life-threatening illnesses, themselves.
We know that parents usually have a lot of questions when it comes to getting their child vaccinated and during your child’s next visit we would be happy to discuss these options with you. The CDC also has a handy immunization schedule that every family should follow to make sure that their child is getting the proper immunizations at the right time so they are always fully protected from certain illnesses and diseases.
If you have questions about the immunizations your child is supposed to be getting or if you need to schedule their next checkup call your pediatrician today.