Programs Giving Parents a Closer Look at Child Safety

Dana Carr Balchunas sat on the floor in a Washington row house, a stuffed suitcase within easy reach and two babies crawling nearby. Two couples and their child-care providers, seated around the family room, listened intently as she talked.

When one of the infants grabbed a small toy with beads, Balchunas seized the opportunity to drive home a point. That toy, she stressed, is an accident waiting to happen.

In a worse-case scenario, an unsupervised child could choke to death on a small broken piece. Choking, Balchunas said as she pulled several sheets of paper on the subject out of her suitcase to pass around, is the fourth leading cause of death in young children, the second for children under age 4.

“If it fits through a toilet tissue roll, it’s too small for an unsupervised child,” Balchunas declared, telling the adults she wanted them to “develop a critical eye” about their children’s safety.

Balchunas, who runs In Safe Hands, is in the business of telling parents what they can do to prevent accidents and how they can help their children if something happens. “I feel strongly that the safety and health of children should not be left to chance or common-sense approaches.”

A registered nurse with 13 years of acute-care and community-health experience, Balchunas and her associates offer home first-aid and child-proofing courses in English and Spanish to parents and their care-givers in homes, schools or corporate settings.

Like the growing number of others who share her line of work, Balchunas has made it her job to give parents the sometimes grim national statistics that accompany the joys of rearing children:

* Accidental injuries, the No. 1 killer of children, claim nearly 10,000 lives each year.

* Another 50,000 children are permanently maimed, although 95% of those accidents are preventable.

* Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death or injury to children of all ages.

* Each year, at least 12,800 babies fall out of cribs, and those are just the figures for emergency-room visits.

* One child a day dies from bicycle falls.

Parents today, Balchunas said, “are more concerned, less confident in their abilities.”

“I think it’s just a general anxiety that people have that something will happen to their child,” she added. “I think people just want to learn how to prevent accidents.”

The folks at the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, which began its nationwide childhood injury-prevention program in 1988, agree.

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Through its 143 coalitions in 43 states, it is using legislative muscle and parental involvement to increase awareness and use of bicycle helmets, smoke detectors and child-safety seats and to reduce incidents of scald burns.

SAFE KIDS executive director Herta Feely said it is important for parents to understand and appreciate the stages of their child’s development and to change their environments accordingly. Too many parents, she noted, even well-educated ones, “think, ‘It can’t happen to my child.’ People do not think that injuries are the leading killers of kids.”

A budding industry of companies offering to child-proof homes have sprung up in the last few years, and a number of books on the subject can be found in most bookstores. The American Red Cross, the American Heart Assn. and hospitals also offer first-aid and child-safety classes for parents.

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Nany Hayes, an attorney in private practice, took a CPR course after she had her triplet boys two years ago. Her child-care giver received training from Balchunas.

Hayes said she took the course because she “was trying to do everything right.” And she and her husband, Kevin, also an attorney, are grateful they did.

When the triplets, born 5 1/2 weeks prematurely, were 3 weeks old, one of them “just shut down” when Kevin Hayes was giving him some medicine.

“I remember hearing (Kevin) saying ‘Jack, Jack.’ He had him on the dining table. He was as white as a ghost. I got on the phone,” Nancy Hayes recalled.

“Just to see this little baby not moving. I watched (Kevin) breathing into this little baby. . . . He just did it . . . then broke down.

“If he had not been taught, who knows what we would have done. It’s literally life or death. It was so horrible,” Hayes said, her voice cracking with emotion. “You’re just glad you have had some training.”

In their book, “The Child-proofing Checklist: A Parent’s Guide to Accident Prevention,” Mary Metzger and Cinthya P. Whittaker, tell parents: “You stand between your child and the number-one threat to his health: accidents.”

Metzger and Whittaker, both of Arlington, Va., run a home-based company CPR-US, which provides child-safety workshops and CPR instruction. They advise parents to be the ultimate safety device. “Basically . . . by preparing yourself, your home and your family; by arming yourself with knowledge and putting into practice what you know about child development and devices; and by teaching safety to your children and changing certain habits that may be detrimental to your child’s safety, you will be the best defense against potential home accidents.”

Lauri Davis and Joseph Sellers came to the Washington row house to learn from Dana Balchunas the things they did not know about how to protect their son, then 10 months old, from accidents.

They said they were aware of most of what was necessary to make their home baby-safe, but wanted to complete their knowledge by learning first aid and CPR. They brought along their child-care giver.

During the class, they practiced the Heimlich maneuver and CPR on two rubbery, life-size dolls. The couple listened as Balchunas urged them: “Don’t question your abilities; just turn your fears into positive actions.”

Davis said she feels a little more prepared to deal with the eventuality of an accident.

“There’s is no question in my mind, I don’t feel fully equipped to do this. But now I feel I have a fighting chance.

“As he is growing, I’m more and more aware of all the health risks. It’s reassuring to know I have some training.”