(July 22, 2010) Little Jack ran down the beach. “Mommy, mommy, seagulls, seagulls!” he cried, with both hands in the air. It was a beautiful clear morning by the sea. Heather hurried after her son as quickly as she could, but it was hard to keep up with him. Suddenly there was a moaning howl and Jack was down on the sand. She raced over to him and sunk to her knees.
“Honey, what is it, what happened?”
“Ow, ow, my feet, ooow!” he cried.
Heather looked down and grabbed Jack’s feet. They were red, and two angry blisters were already starting to form. Jack twisted and cried. He had stepped onto a smoldering beach fire from the night before.
Every summer children and adults are burned in this way. East Hampton Town strengthened regulations for beach fires back in 1991. With improving enforcement and Parks Department maintenance, the number of these burn injuries has dropped steadily since the laws were changed. Still, some people do not completely douse their beach fires with water.
“This is one of the hidden dangers of the summer,” said Dr. Gail Schonfeld, a respected pediatrician in East Hampton. “I see several of these beach fire burns in the office each year. It’s a shame because these injuries are completely preventable.”
The beach can also be a place to cut your feet on broken glass or cans left by careless people.
When you were a kid, you were told not to run next to the pool. There was a good reason for that. Several times a week, kids are seen by area emergency physicians for a slip-and-fall injury next to the pool. They often have to get stitches. Sometimes these children break bones or have significant head injuries.
Dr. John Scranton is an attending physician at East Hampton Urgent Care on Pantigo Road and is certified in both family medicine and emergency medicine. “Sometimes kids are horsing around by the pool, he said, “and they’ll fall and hit their heads, or they’ll fall on an outstretched arm and end up with a fracture of the wrist, ankle, or elbow.” Being in a cast for a broken bone is not a fun way to spend the rest of the summer.
The growing popularity of horseback riding and pony camp can pose dangers for kids. It’s great for them to learn to ride, but they must always wear a helmet. Children are particularly susceptible to brain injuries, especially a second blow to the head soon after the first. Head protection for all sports should not be optional.
Horseback riding can also produce the popular collarbone fracture from falling onto a shoulder. I broke my first collarbone riding bareback without a helmet as a teenager. But I was a perfect idiot as a child. Some might say I still. . . .
According to current research, falls are the most common cause of significant injury in the infant and toddler age group. Bicycle, skateboard, and rollerblade accidents top the list for older kids. Boys make up 63 percent of injured kids. Falls account for 44 percent of the injuries, blunt trauma (think baseball bat) makes up 12 percent, sharp objects 11 percent, and 7 percent of injuries are in motor vehicle accidents.
Dr. Scranton sews up a lot of head and face lacerations at the Urgent Care Center. He said that it’s hard to keep kids from getting cuts when they’re out having fun. Just be sure to control the bleeding with pressure, wash the wound out with soap and water, and then wrap it up before you head down to the doctor. Don’t worry too much about disinfecting it. The doctor will scrub the wound out with medical disinfectant before he sews it up.
Here’s another important tip. “If you have a new house here that you are renting or staying in, make sure that it’s poison proof,” Dr. Scranton told me. “Make believe you’re a child yourself, and go through the house on your hands and knees. Old cleaning products and bug killer have to be cleared out.” Thinking like a kid is a great way to protect a kid.
One of the most horrifying and preventable tragedies is the pool drowning of a child. These are often toddlers, and a caretaker has looked away for just long enough for the child to go into the pool. Several children drown each year in our area despite increasingly stringent pool fencing laws. By September 2009, there were over 600 pool drownings in the United States for the year, sharply up from the previous year. Most of these children were under 4 years old. Of all preschoolers who drown, 70 percent are in the care of one or both parents at the time. These tragic events must be better controlled.
Nobody wants to see children hurt, but there has to be a balance. We have to let kids be kids, and let them play, swim, run on the beach, and ride a bike. Injuries heal, and being a nervous “hovercraft parent” is not good for your child.
Jack and Heather were seen at East Hampton Urgent Care, and Jack’s feet are on the mend. Many childhood injuries are easily preventable; so let’s stay on the ball to protect all of our little Jacks and Jills. No one has to break his crown, or come tumbling after.
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Questions can be directed to Dr. James Dillard at jdillard@ehstar.com.