Preventing falls: Top priority for parents of infants

Parents looking to avoid an emergency room visit with an injured infant need to pay close attention to their child’s latest development strides during that amazing first year of life to prevent a fall.

According to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, half of the estimated 328,500 infants age 1 or younger who were treated for injuries in hospital emergency departments each year from 2001 to 2004 were hurt because of falling.

Falls were the main reason infants were injured for every month during the first year of life, with each month posing a different injury risk as baby learned roll over, sit, stand, crawl, walk and run.

I once found myself in a hospital emergency room with my 1-year-old for this very reason. An early walker, he seemed to pride himself on being an escape artist. One day, for no apparent reason, he took off running up the marble stairs of our local mall. I was swiftly behind him as he put his foot on the first step, but not fast enough to catch him as he fell. The crack of his skull on the steps resounded so loudly that people around me exclaimed, “Ouch!”

I frantically raced over to the ER as a golf ball-sized bump grew on his forehead. After waiting anxiously, I was told that he seemed OK, but that I needed to wake him every few hours that night to see if he seemed normal. (He has never seemed normal to me!) Later, I realized that when I took him to crowded places, it was safer to secure him with a children’s safety harness.

No one can ensure a risk-free first year of life when a child’s curiosity prods him or her to explore his or her world. As parents, we should encourage that sense of discovery, even as we remain ever-vigilant of each wonderful milestone.