• Pre-Participation Physical Exam:   Every child should receive an annual pre-participation physical evaluation (PPE) from his/her doctor. This exam helps identify underlying conditions a young athlete may have and may prevent a medical emergency during a practice or game.

• Conditioning: A good warm up before practices and games can reduce risk of injury. Start with a light run, jogging in place, jumping jacks or anything that brings the athlete’s heart rate up gradually. Then stretch all the major muscle groups, holding each stretch for 20 to 30 seconds.

• Gear: Children playing sports should have access to and properly wear well-maintained safety equipment during both practices and games.

• Hydration: Athletes need to drink fluids 30 minutes before the activity begins and every 15-20 minutes during activity. Don’t wait for kids to say they are thirsty. Making regular water breaks a habit will help avoid dehydration.

• Concussion: Teach parents and athletes about concussions so they can also be watching for the signs and symptoms. A player with a suspected concussion must be sidelined until evaluated and released by a medical professional. The important thing is to protect players who have had a concussion from getting harmed again. A good rule of thumb: “When it doubt, sit them out.”

• Rest: To help avoid overuse injury, make sure kids get a rest break during practices and games. It is recommended they get 1-2 days off from sports activities every week and at least 10 weeks of rest from any one sport each year. Playing different sports throughout the year is okay.

• Emergency Response: Keep parents’ contact information stored in the coach’s phone or readily at hand in case of an emergency. It’s also a good idea for coaches to be trained in first aid and CPR.

• Attend a sports safety course: Safe Kids New Jersey offers free Youth Sports Safety Clinic, providing information and best practices to keep young athletes healthy and injury-free. Check out our Safe Kids NJ events page to find sports safety events near you.

New research from Safe Kids, supported by founding sponsor Johnson & Johnson, reveals one third of young athletes are sidelined due to preventable injuries.

Keep reading our blog as we continue to share sports safety tips and stories and promote safety as the key ingredient to the sporting experience.

Because young children may not perceive danger as readily or may lack the ability to escape a life-threatening fire, make sure they are not exposed to open flames or other fire risks, and take precautions to avoid fire in the home.

Here is a comprehensive list of fire safety tips:

• Install smoke alarms in your home on every level and near each sleeping area or bedroom. Test them once a month, replace the batteries at least once a year and install new alarms every ten years. (Ten-year lithium alarms do not require battery changes each year.)
• For the best protection against different types of fires, consider installing both ionization alarms (better at sensing flaming fires) and photoelectric alarms (better at sensing slow, smoky fires) or dual sensor alarms.
• Keep children away from cooking and heating appliances. Make area around the stove a “Kid-Free Zone” (3 feet is a good distance). Never leave the kitchen while you are frying, grilling or broiling. If baking or simmering, check on the food frequently. Never leave a child alone in the kitchen.
• Keep matches, candles, gasoline, lighters and all other flammable materials locked away and out of children’s reach.
• Never leave a burning candle unattended. Place candles in a safe location away from combustible materials and where children or pets cannot tip them over.
• Place space heaters at least 3 feet from curtains, papers, furniture and other flammable materials. Always turn space heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.
• Avoid plugging several appliance cords into the same electrical socket. Replace old or frayed electrical wires and appliance cords, and keep all cords on top of rugs. Cover unused electrical outlets with safety devices.
• Never smoke in bed. Extinguish all cigarettes before leaving home or going to bed.
• Plan and practice several fire escape routes from each room of the home and identify a safe outside meeting place. Practicing an escape plan may help children, who can become frightened and confused, to escape to safety in a fire.
• Sleep with bedroom doors closed to prevent smoke, gas or heat from entering the rooms.
• Keep furniture and heavy objects away from doors and windows, so they won’t block escape.
• Teach children never to hide in the event of a fire. Teach them the proper way to get out of the house: Leave immediately if you hear the smoke alarm, smell smoke or see flames. If there is smoke, to stay low and crawl.
• Always feel doors with the back of your hand before opening them. If one is hot, do not open it; find another way out.
• Also teach children never to go back into a burning building. Call 911 or the fire department only from a neighbor’s home or a cell phone outside the home. When firefighters arrive, immediately tell them if someone is inside or missing.

Concussion Prevention, Treatment and Return to Life 

“Keep Your Head in the Game 2012” was created for parents, teen athletes, coaches, educators, athletic trainers, and recreation staff, as well as school nurses,  health care providers and EMS personnel, to heighten awareness of the importance of proper assessment, monitoring and management of concussions. You will hear first-hand accounts from athletes, including Rian Wallace, former Superbowl XL Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker. 

Date:                 Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Time:                 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm 

Where:              Middlesex County Fire Academy, Sayreville, NJ

Registration and Information:  Call 1.888.MDRWJUH (1-888-637-9584) or visit us online at www.rwjtrauma.org/injuryprevention.

Applications for 4-4.5 contact hours and CEUs have been submitted for nurses, educators, athletic trainers, and EMTs. 

Registration Fee is $20.00.      Dinner will be provided for all attendees.

For the ninth consecutive year, Safe Kids NJ and FedEx will team up to teach school children how to be safe pedestrians as they walk to and from school.

Together with Safe Kids USA, more than 600 International Walk to School Day activities, raising awareness around specific pedestrian dangers or issues in local communities will be held on Wednesday, October 5^th.   Safe Kids NJ will host events in Bergen, Burlington, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex and Morris Counties.

A very special thank you to our FedEx team for your support!  Keep posted to view pictures of our events!

Summer is over and the school year has officially started!   Safe Kids New Jersey reminds parents and drivers to do their part to keep kids safe as they walk to school.  

Parents should be proactive and take the time to talk about safety with their kids before they head back to school.

Safe Kids New Jersey recommends that parents walk the route to school with students before the start of the year to assess hazards and select a course with the least number of traffic crossings.

Adults can teach and model the following safety behaviors that all children should follow, even if they don’t walk to school every day:

Representatives from participating police departments – Cranbury, Highland Park, Metuchen, Middlesex, Monroe, Plainsboro, South Brunswick (not pictured: Dunellen & Edison), H. James Polos, Middlesex County Freeholder, David Gregor, Middlesex County Comprehensive Traffic Safety Program Coordinator, Wendy Berk, Coordinator of Injury Prevention Services, BIANJ, Diana Starace, Coordinator of Safe Kids Middlesex County, Level One Trauma Center, RWJUH, and student bicyclists from Edgar Middle School, Metuchen.

Did you know that bikes are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except automobiles?  Sadly, child bicycling deaths increase 45% above the month average in the summer. With 27.7 million children riding bikes, we know there are too many of those kids riding without a helmet.

Bike helmets are a necessity, not an accessory!  Learning how to ride a bike is a rite of passage in childhood, and it’s an activity that families can certainly do together. However, there are some important things for you to consider before jumping on that bike.

Top Bike Safety Tips

• Make it a rule: every time you and your child ride a bike, wear a bicycle helmet that meets the safety standards developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Helmet fit is important.

• Make sure the helmet fits and your child knows how to put it on correctly. A helmet should sit on top of the head in a level position, and should not rock forward, backward or side to side. The helmet straps must always be buckled but not too tightly.

Try the Eyes, Ears and Mouth Test:

• EYES check: Position the helmet on your head. Look up and you should see the bottom rim of the helmet. The rim should be one to two finger-widths above the eyebrows.
• EARS check: Make sure the straps of the helmet form a “V” under your ears when buckled.  The strap should be snug but comfortable.
• MOUTH check: Open your mouth as wide as you can.  Do you feel the helmet hug your head? 

(Want to see a video demonstrating the eyes, ears and mouth test?  Go to:  http://www.safekids.org/safety-basics/safety-spotlight/bike-safety-month/ )

Proper equipment fit and maintenance are also important for safety.

• Ensure proper bike fit by bringing the child along when shopping for a bike. Buy a bicycle that is the right size for the child, not one he will grow into. When sitting on the seat, the child’s feet should be able to touch the ground.

• Make sure the reflectors are secure, brakes work properly, gears shift smoothly and tires are tightly secured and properly inflated.

A majority of parents of young athletes recognize the importance of sports safety, but lack confidence in their own ability and the ability of coaches to prevent and recognize symptoms of key sports injuries according to a survey released today to kick off Safe Kids USA Sports Safety Week.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 3.5 million children age 14 and under are treated for sports-related injuries each year, and as many as half of these injuries are preventable.

Commissioned by Safe Kids USA and Johnson & Johnson, the “National Survey of Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Self-Reported Behaviors Concerning Sports Safety” finds that just 29 percent of parents surveyed feel coaches have the necessary skills to identify and prevent injuries and just 40 percent feel confident in their own abilities.

On the positive side, parents are clearly focused on the topic of youth sports safety and have a strong desire for forums that will provide them with information. In addition, overwhelming majorities of parents report that their young athletes wear properly fitted equipment (88%), drink fluids regularly (85%), warm up before playing (76%), and take the same precautions when practicing as when playing in a game (73%) – significant increases from findings in a similar survey conducted a decade ago.

In response to the findings, Safe Kids USA and Johnson & Johnson are sponsoring a national education campaign on Youth Sports Safety, which builds on a national awareness program initiated in 2010. The goal of this campaign is to provide parents, coaches and league organizers the knowledge and skills essential to help keep children safe in sports.

With funding from Johnson & Johnson, Safe Kids USA’s coalitions will host more than 100 free Sports Safety clinics nationwide for parents, coaches and young athletes from April through this summer. In addition, Safe Kids USA and Johnson & Johnson have partnered to conduct a free Youth Sports Safety Webcast on Monday, May 2, at 12 PM EDT to teach more about how to keep children safe in sports.

Featured participants in the Webcast include:

• Dr. Angela Mickalide, MCHES, Director of Research and Programs, Safe Kids Worldwide;
• Former NFL star and Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young;
• Dr. Gerard Gioia, director of the Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery & Education (SCORE) Program at Children’s National Medical Center; 
• Dr. Douglas Casa, ATC FACSM, FNATA, and chief operating officer with the Korey Stringer Institute, Neag School of Education, for the University of Connecticut.

“Parents and coaches have a very important role to play in keeping children safe and injury free,” said Dr. Angela Mickalide, MCHES, director of research and programs, Safe Kids Worldwide. “It begins with having the right attitude and realistic expectations for children about sports and then knowing how to help them prepare properly, prevent injuries and play safely.”

Conducted by Hart Research Associates as a follow-up to a similar survey conducted in 2000, the national telephone survey of 751 parents of youth athletes ages 5 to 14, updates important trends and benchmark findings related to sports participation and sports safety. It also explores emerging topics of concern such as overuse or “stress” injuries, as well as concussions and dehydration.

Notable results from the survey:

• Kids today often are involved in more than one sport with an increased focus on team play, but spending less time actually participating in each sport.

• The number of these young athletes who have sustained multiple injuries while playing team sports has increased significantly, jumping from 15 percent in 2000 to 21 percent today.

. The most prevalent types of sport-related injuries continue to be sprains, muscle strains, bone or growth plate injuries and heat-related illness.

• 67% of parents believe that football poses the greatest risk of injury to their children, far outpacing hockey (10%), soccer (6%) and baseball/softball (5%).

• Parents view their child’s involvement in team sports as positive with a number of benefits including learning the value of teamwork, creating healthy habits, promoting fun and fostering friendships.

• 57% of parents said that their children’s coaches are certified in CPR, keeps a first-aid kit on hand during play and have an up-to-date copy of their kid’s medical history.

The Safe Kids Sports Safety clinics and Webcast will focus on four key areas: the importance of a pre-participation evaluation for a child with his/her physician prior to play; overuse injuries; dehydration and heat-related illness; and concussions. Visit www.safekids.org/sports  for more information about these upcoming programs.

As part of its educational campaign, Safe Kids USA and Johnson & Johnson have partnered with media companies to develop and run public service announcements (PSAs) about the prevention of youth sports injury:

• Nickelodeon will air the PSA “Benched”—which illustrates the importance of parents and kids taking the proper steps to prevent sports injuries—throughout the spring on TeenNick, Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite.
• AOL will also feature web banner PSAs from now through June 15. 

For further information on sport safety initiatives in New Jersey contact Carol Ann Giardelli, Director, Safe Kids NJ at cgiardel@its.jnj.com.

Are you big enough to sit in a booster seat? These are a few of the questions that are asked when the Buckle Up Team from Northern NJ Safe Kids enters kindergarten classes.

Northern NJ Safe Kids began working with the Angelina Regianni  a Kindergarten Teacher  and Paula Grather RN from the Mt. Tabor School 5 years ago. They noticed that many of their students were not in car seats or booster seats.

Together Northern NJ Safe Kids/Safe Communities and the Mt. Tabor School coordinated the program using the  I’m Safe Buckle Up tools.

An assessment tool borrowed from Atlantic/Cape May Safe Kids enabled Northern NJ Safe Kids/Safe Communities to communicate with the parents. We notified the parents as to what type a child seat would be best for their child.  “If their child was in need of a booster seat, Northern NJ Safe Kids/Safe Communities provides one for them”, says KJ Feury RN APN NNJ Safe Kids/Safe Communities coordinator (pictured here with students).

This program has been well received by all. More than half of the elementary schools in the Parsippany District have been visited.