One of Intermountain Health’s sustaining health needs is to improve chronic and avoidable health outcomes for the children in our communities. To do this we focus on avoidable injuries because more children die from injuries than all other health risks combined.

“Most injuries are preventable, parents and caregivers can learn the safety steps to help mitigate that risk,” said Michelle Jamison, children’s health program manager with Intermountain Children’s Health. “While we want to prevent child fatalities, preventing life-long debilitating injury for a child is equally important.”

As a result, Intermountain provides parents with important information to keep children safe. Here we’re highlighting four of the several programs we have. Before we share more about these programs, here’s an informative pop quiz, with answers you’ll get as you read further.

Pop Quiz

1. What’s one way to prevent a driver from backing up and hitting a child?
2. How many car seat appointments happen annually in the Peaks Region in metropolitan Denver, Colorado?
3. What’s the most common reason for preventable childhood death?
4. How many car seats are installed correctly worldwide?
5. Does a child’s body temperature increase faster than an adult’s?

Spot the Tot

Each year thousands of children are killed or seriously injured because a driver backs up, hitting a child they didn’t see.

Intermountain advises all drivers use these easy steps toward prevention:

1. Walk around the vehicle before starting it.
2. Listen and be aware. Roll down your window so you can hear what’s going on around you.
3. Eliminate distractions. Turn off your podcast, stop conversations with those in the car.

Spot the Tot window clings are available from Intermountain Community Health Children’s Health by request, while supplies last, by emailing PCHHOTDL@imail.org with your name, mailing address, and desired quantity (maximum 10 per person).

Forget Me Not

Every year, nearly 40 children across the country die after being left in a hot vehicle. Hot car tragedies can happen to anyone, anywhere. Temperatures can rise quickly, even on overcast days. And those in hotter and sunnier climates, where temperatures can soar, we need to be extra vigilant.

“The inside of your vehicle can heat up very quickly. In just 10 minutes, a car can heat up by 20 degrees and become deadly,” Michelle said. “Drivers must be vigilant and use visual aids and tools this summer to prevent tragedy. Put your cell phone or even your left shoe in the backseat with your baby so it will trigger your memory that you have precious cargo.”

Michelle reminds parents to do three things:

1. Stop. Take a breath when you get to your destination.
2. Look. Always look in your back seat.
3. Lock. Once you’re out of the car and sure no child is in the back, then you’ll lock the car and walk away.

“The first step to preventing hot car deaths is believing it can happen to you,” Michelle said. “It happens to good parents every day. Parents are tired, distracted, maybe they had a miscommunication with their partner. It’s why every time you drive, you’re going to follow the three steps and check that back seat. One in 4 of these deaths happen when children gain access to an unlocked vehicle. Keep those car keys out of reach and your car locked.”

A child’s body temperature can increase three to five times faster than an adult’s body temperature. Cracking a window has very little effect on the temperature inside the car. Intermountain Children’s Health is offering free Forget Me Not window clings to help drivers remember a child is in the car. Request them by emailing PCHHOTDL@imail.org with your name, mailing address, and desired quantity (maximum 10 per person), while supplies last.

Car Seats

Parents want to keep their children safe when traveling in a car, and yet only one in five car seats are installed correctly worldwide. At Intermountain Health, car seat technicians are on-call, meeting with new parents daily to educate and prepare them.

“The law requires parents leave the hospital with a car seat, but they don't require you to know how to use it,” said Fernando San Miguel, who has been a car seat technician at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, Colorado, for 13 years.

Fernando, who handles 7,000 appointments annually, has four tips for parents:

1. Make sure the harness straps are at the correct height. Either at or below shoulder level for rear facing, and at or above for forward facing car seats.
2. Install the car seat with a tight connection, so it moves less than an inch side to side when you tug at the belt path.
3. Make the child hardness snug. You shouldn’t be able to pinch any extra slack by the child’s shoulders.
4. If the child is rear facing, use the Level on the car seat so the child’s head is reclined; we want to ensure an infant’s head doesn’t drop forward and cut off their airway.

“We offer a free service for everybody,” Fernando said. “Anyone can come, they don’t have to be patients at the hospital.”

Fernando often gives his cell phone number to families, and they call him years later when the children are moving up to booster seats. He even offers virtual appointments when parents travel and need help in rental cars.

“I tell them to keep my cell phone number handy, they can always text or call me,” he said.

Over the years, some of those phone calls have come just after patients have left the hospital.

“I’ve gotten calls where the family was in an accident just after leaving the hospital, they were on the highway and the car rolled. The baby was in the car seat, just fine, not even a scratch,” he said.

Fernando had another mom reach out to say she was stopped at a light and was hit by a semi going 30 miles an hour. The kids were in the back. She called to tell him her children are alive because he installed their car seats.

“I treat everybody like family,” Fernando said. “We’re flexible. They can schedule an appointment the same day, do Facetime, whatever they need.”

Car seat help is offered throughout Intermountain. To schedule an appointment either virtually or in person, call 801-662-CARS (6677).

Window Safety

Most of Intermountain’s geographic footprint allows us to enjoy good weather in the spring and fall, incentivizing us to keep our windows open. Yet if you have children in your home, windows can be a hazard; they’re a common cause of serious injury or death in small children ages 2-5.

“Windows are a hidden hazard that we often overlook,” Michelle said. “Screens are meant to pop out without a lot of pressure. Screens keep bugs out, not kids in. Rearrange furniture so kids can’t climb and gain access to windows. Don’t open your windows more than four inches and remember, there’s never a substitution for parental supervision.”

A few tips:

1. Open windows four inches or less.
2. Don’t have furniture near the windows where children can climb to the window.
3. Don’t rely on window screens; they prevent bugs from coming in but do not prevent children from going out.

Resources

For more information about child well-being, safety and injury prevention tips, visit primarychildrens.org/safety. Submit a request for event help or materials on our website. Reach out to Doug Thomas if you’d like to collaborate with us in your community.

Quiz Answers

1. Walk around the vehicle. Listen and be aware. Eliminate distractions.
2. 7,000 a year
3. Injuries
4. One out of five are installed correctly.
5. A child’s body temperature can increase three to five times faster than an adult’s body temperature.