Dr. Sadiqa Kendi of Safe Kids Worldwide joins the AccuWeather Network on the importance of protecting your kids from the summer heat, especially with the dangers of hot cars.
00:02It has, and some of us getting a little bit of a break soon, but man, it has been brutal the last couple of weeks.
00:07And summer fun can quickly turn dangerous for kids from extreme heat to water, accidents, and other injuries.
00:15Joining us is Dr. Sadiqa Kendi, a pediatric emergency physician and chief medical officer for Safe Kids Worldwide.
00:23Thanks so much for joining us, and first of all, I want to ask, because summer brings extra risks for young children,
00:28what are some of the most common injuries you see this time of year?
00:33Yeah, well, I agree. Summer is literally my favorite time of year, and my family always enjoys it.
00:38But we always have to think about serious injuries during summer, and we're not talking about skinned knees or bruised shins.
00:44You know, those are fine, and those just happen.
00:46What we worry about are things like drowning, motor vehicle crashes, deaths in hot cars, pedestrian injuries,
00:53and things like that as people are out enjoying the summer.
00:56Of course, water safety is a big concern, even for kids who can't swim or even are afraid of the water.
01:03We just had an incident here at Hershey Park, Pennsylvania, where there was a nine-year-old that drowned at a water park.
01:10So what should parents know to prevent tragedy around pools, ponds, and water parks?
01:16It's really important for people to know how drowning occurs.
01:23I think we all see in the media that, you know, we see drowning portrayed as very loud, and there's thrashing and splashing, and that's not actually the case.
01:32I think it's really important to know that drowning can be both fast and silent, and is both most of the time.
01:38It can occur in as quickly as 20 seconds, and usually there is nothing at all that is heard that seems out of the ordinary.
01:46So it's really important to have a designated water watcher.
01:49So that's one person whose only job is to watch the children in the water, and they shouldn't be on their phone.
01:56They shouldn't be talking to anyone.
01:57They should literally just be watching children in the water.
02:00And if they're young children or non-swimmers in the water, it's actually really important for them to be arm's length from the child at all times.
02:08Now, we know it is vacation season, so what about road trips to visit family or friends or even just to head to the beach?
02:14What tips do you have for parents to make sure their kids are staying safe on the road?
02:18Well, road trips are the most fun, and the way to keep them fun and keep the danger out of them is making sure that you use an appropriate car seat for children.
02:30And that's every time, every ride it should be used.
02:34We know that children who are booster seat age, those children around, you know, over two, all the way up to even 12 or 13, are the children that often aren't appropriately restrained.
02:44We did a study that found that four out of five children who should be in booster seats are not actually riding in booster seats.
02:51So you can go to our website, safekids.org, and find information on all different kinds of car seats and also find information on the five-seat test for, I'm sorry, the five-step test for identifying whether or not a seat belt fits appropriately and whether your child should still be in a booster seat.
03:07So being in that proper seat every time is really important.
03:10We hear about so many tragic hot car deaths.
03:13How quickly can a situation turn deadly, and what steps can prevent heat stroke in cars?
03:23Yeah, I mean, sadly, I think almost 17 children have died from hot car deaths this year.
03:29And with this heat wave that we've experienced, we are seeing it even more than we have in previous years.
03:35And so there are a few things that you can do for this.
03:38One is to remember that the car can actually heat up to almost 20 degrees in 10 minutes, and that's even with the windows cracked.
03:47And so leaving a child in the car is never a good option, especially with this current heat wave we're experiencing.
03:53The other thing that can happen is sometimes parents are distracted if they're off their routine, especially in summer routines are different.
04:01It's easy to forget that a small child might be in the back and may have fallen asleep in their car seat.
04:06So using something to just remind you to look in the back seat prior to getting out of the car, whether that's putting, you know, I have a colleague who put one shoe in the back seat.
04:16So there was no way for her to get out of the car without getting that shoe, therefore checking the back seat.
04:21So finding a way to just make sure you're always checking to ensure a child isn't left in that back seat when getting out of the car.
