Before your child goes to a friend’s home for a playdate or sleepover, parents often ask each other several questions. “Do you have any pets?” “Who will watch the kids?” “Is there a pool in your backyard?” “Does your child have any allergies?” These and many other questions are widely accepted – and even expected – between parents to keep the kids safe. However, one important question is often missing: do you have a firearm in the home? In the U.S., children are at greater risk for unintentional gun deaths than other high-income countries. Research from 2015 estimated that each year from 2005 ..read more

In March, we celebrate Poison Prevention Month in Illinois. In this month’s blog we are going to sing the praises of the Illinois Poison Center (IPC). The IPC provides free poison help and resources for all Illinois resources.  Did your child eat too many gummy vitamins? Bite into a glow stick? Drink a household cleaner because it was the same color as juice or sports drink? Or did you mix cleaning chemicals without realizing it? Take someone else’s medicine by mistake? The possibilities are endless.  If your child or you are conscious and breathing, call the Illinois Poison Center ..read more

It’s Super Bowl Week! Lots of American buy TVs to watch the big game. Sometimes the old television ends up in a bedroom. There is one step in these purchases and moves that many families miss – anchoring the television. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, 11,300 are treated in a hospital emergency room each year due to TV, furniture and appliance tip-overs. Some children don’t survive these tip-over incidents and 77% of fatalities involved children under 6 years old.  Of these fatalities, 75% involve a TV alone or furniture and TV together.  A TV falling from a d ..read more

I try to keep things out of the landfill as much as possible so I love to give thoughtful and practical gifts. I tend to fill my family's stocking with a few surprises but mostly extremely practical things like toothbrushes,lotion, socks, etc. Your family's safety is important so I thought I would share a few simple ideas for safety-related stocking stuffers and gifts. Stocking stuffers Smoke detector with 10-year battery (new law in IL requires all homes to have them) Carbon monoxide detector with 10-year battery Tire guage to make sure car tires are properly inflated Small flashlight for g ..read more

Questions About Car Seats? This week is a great week to get them answered. We get it. Car seats are confusing. It’s confusing to know which one to choose for your child. It’s confusing to install them into your vehicle. It’s also confusing to know the proper way to fit your child into their seat once it’s installed in your vehicle. Despite efforts to make car seats easier to install into vehicles, parents and caregivers are still finding it confusing. One of the best ways to make sure you get all the proper information is to attend a Car Seat Check-Up event. Saturday, September 23rd is Seat C ..read more

Parents ask us more questions about car seats than all other safety topics combined. Here are some of our most frequently asked questions with answers. 1) Do I really have to wait until my child is 2 to turn their convertible car seat around? Yes. And you don’t have to be in a hurry to turn them around at 2 years old. Wait until they reach the height and/or weight limit for rear-facing for the seat. 2) My child is tall, and their legs touch the back of the seat when they’re rear-facing. Is that okay? Yep. The reason to keep their seats rear-facing is to protect their necks and spines. Don’t w ..read more

Chicago was once known as the “railroad hub of the nation”. Our city was able to grow and prosper as railroads sent people and goods all over the nation. These passenger and freight lines continue to run even today. In the Chicago area, residents have a lot of exposure to trains and train tracks. I live in a suburb with three active freight lines and a commuter rail stop. Sometimes the behavior of the young people in our community stops me in my tracks – ignoring gates that are down and going around them, walking along the busy railroad tracks and trying to beat the gates as they go down. Som ..read more

Did you know that in 2020, the biggest cause of death for children and teens (ages 1-18) was firearm accidents? It caused 3,219 young lives lost, even more than car crashes or cancer (1). Some of these deaths happened because of accidents, while others were from people hurting themselves on purpose. Let's focus on how to keep kids safe if there's a gun at home. But remember, the safest option is not to have a gun in the house. Suicides: Out of the 3,219 youths who died because of guns, 34% took their own lives. That number has been going up over the years. While this is an uncomfortable and d ..read more

I am currently an MPH student at Northwestern University studying Community Health Research, and I hope to become a physician who works with young athletes in the future. At 14 years old, I was a level nine gymnast with a broken back. Well, I had stress fractures on the lumbar vertebrae of my low back. Like many other young athletes, I was later diagnosed with "repetitive trauma.” In fact, amongst the many athletes I met during my time as a Big Ten student-athlete, almost all who had been high level gymnasts at a young age but switched sports cited that a fractured back was the reason for the ..read more

You may have seen the major recall for the MamaRoo Baby Swing and RockaRoo Baby Rockers sold by 4moms. About two million units were recalled after a death of a toddler that got entangled in a strap that formed a closed loop below the seat. We’ve seen a lot of questions on social media, so here are a few answers. What’s being recalled? About two million MamaRoo swings and 220,000 RockaRoo rockers sold in the U.S. are being recalled. The recall includes the MamaRoo models that use the 3-point harness and all the RockaRoo units; the affected models are listed in the recall notice so check the mod ..read more