Injury Prevention
Pediatric Trauma Injury Prevention Programs
The Pediatric Trauma and Injury Prevention Program at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital believes that most unintentional injuries are preventable. We can help connect you with information, products and resources to make your kids as safe as possible at home, at play, and while traveling.
Why Does It Matter?
Despite a 50% reduction in the rate of preventable injury in the last 3 decades, unintentional injuries remain the greatest risk for children (and many adults). We understand bumps and scrapes are a part of learning and growing. Our goal is to reduce preventable injuries by improving knowledge, engineering, and legislation to reflect what we’ve learned in the last few decades. This doesn’t mean kids can’t play outside, it just means we can make outside environments safer by being mindful of developmental stages, physical abilities, and surfaces.
Make sure you are setting a good example for your kids to follow, from helmets to seatbelts.
Explore Our Injury Prevention Resources:
Child safety seats provide the best protection for children when used the right way. In fact, in a crash, they can reduce the risk of death for children by as much as 71%. Installing a child safety seat can be challenging and 3 out of 4 car seats are installed incorrectly. Our team is here to help you choose the right type of car seat for your child, learn how to properly install it into your vehicle, get the right fit for your child and know when it’s time to move to the next stage. Children spend a lot of time in the car, so let’s keep them safe.
Car crashes are among the leading cause of death for kids and teens in the US. Children begin observing driving behaviors as soon as their car seats turn forward facing and they can see what you’re doing in the front seat. We are committed to helping Michigan parents and teen drivers through the Drive Smart initiative. Drive Smart was designed to increase awareness of the dangers of distracted driving and direct parents, providers and educators to resources and tools to assist with communicating expectations about driving.
Medications are the leading cause of childhood poisonings. Many medications are colorful and shaped like common candies that are very inviting to children. They can be harmful to children if taken in the wrong way, this includes vitamins and over-the-counter medicine. It is important to be aware of the locations where medication is stored and keep them up and away from curious children. Our program helps families learn about safe storage, proper dosing, and safe disposal options for unused medications.
More than 10,000 children are seen in emergency departments every day in the US for injuries that usually happen at home. Our goal is to help parents and caregivers create environments where children can explore and take chances while minimizing preventable injuries and deaths. We help families develop personalized plans that include but are not limited to: safe storage of household cleaners and medications, securing furniture and televisions, preventing falls, and safe sleep.
Whether they are playing with their neighborhood friends or on an organized sports team, kids love to be kids and have fun and play! We know that the more active kids are, the more chances they have for getting injured. We are here to help teach ways to keep children safe from preventable injuries, allowing them to still be kids and continue to play the way they love. Our areas of focus include sports safety, bicycle, and wheeled sports safety, playground safety, water safety, and other seasonal sports and activity topics.
Injuries never take a holiday or go on vacation. With each new season, different trends in preventable injuries become evident. Whether children are jumping on a trampoline in the spring, swimming in the summer, sitting around bonfires in the fall or sledding in the winter, adults and children need to be aware of ways they can stay safe while enjoying their favorite activities. We are here to help highlight some of the most common seasonal injuries and give tips on how to keep children safe as the seasons change.
The Injury Prevention Program has created a variety of resources to address topics surrounding pain. Our resources include an augmented reality book for pre-school aged children, a series of videos for school-aged children, and an opioid awareness curriculum for middle and high school-aged children. Each resource has been designed to educate children and teens on pain and medication in an engaging and developmentally appropriate way.
Questions?
Contact Mott-Pediatric-Trauma@med.umich.edu.