COVID-19 safety for kids

CHILDREN are accident-prone — every year home accidents involving children account for the majority of the cases that are seen in emergency rooms across the world. And now with strict recommendations to stay at home, it means that children are home 24 hours in the day, and being their usual selves they will want to explore. This automatically means that parents, even as they work from home, will have to be more vigilant, and one way of doing this is by making sure that all precautionary safety measures are observed.

Paediatrician at We ‘R’ Kids Paediatric Centre, Dr Anona Griffith, having managed most of the common and no-so-common accidents and medical concerns to which kids are prone, has explored some safety measures from water to Internet safety that parents should consider using as a guideline, as they continue to keep their families safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Water safety

With the ongoing water crisis affecting many communities across Jamaica, storage of potable water is commonplace. It is important to ensure that whatever water is available is suitable for consumption. There are many methods of purifying water for consumption including adding bleach and boiling.

You also want to make sure that when you store water that it is properly covered, not only to make it safe for use, but to protect your curious little ones as well.

Once treated, the water must be stored appropriately in clean, tightly covered containers that have no traces of any toxic chemicals.

If you are using large drums to store your water, attach faucets to these as this will assist in providing easier access and limiting contamination.

Practising decontamination safely

This refers to the removal of germs, in this case viral particles from surfaces by the use of decontaminants such as soap and water. It also applies to the washing of hands, bathing, and washing of clothes.

Note that:

•Bleach is an excellent cleaning agent used to disinfect surfaces.

•At this time we are buying sanitisation products that are packaged in compressed canisters. These are possibly harmful missiles if stored incorrectly such as in locked motor vehicles. They are also potential fire and poison hazards.

•For people with respiratory tract illnesses such as asthma and rhinitis, these chemicals can act as a trigger. They should be sprayed on surfaces and wiped off after. They should be used in areas that are well ventilated.

•Culturally, drink bottles are often used to store retail cleaning agents. Children and even adults can err in ingesting these substances because of the familiar containers in which they have been stored. This MUST not be done.

Using sanitiser safely

• Utilise chemicals to clean surfaces, not your body parts. These may come in varying presentations such as liquids, gels, and sprays.

•Hand sanitiser is a gel formulation of a sanitiser and is made for hands. The use of hand sanitiser has been strongly encouraged, but not everyone has access to this. In the absence of hand sanitiser, do not try to make your own — soap and water will do the job.

• Make sure that when you are buying sanitisers that you check the alcohol content. Some substances being marketed as hand sanitiser do not meet the specification of sanitiser based on the alcohol content. These should be avoided.

• Alcohol is a liquid form of sanitiser and by itself can also be used instead of sanitiser to decontaminate your hands.

Skin safety

•Alcohol is by nature a drying ingredient which, if used frequently, can cause drying, stripping, and even cracking skin which can become secondarily infected. Soap and water decontamination should be alternated with the use of sanitiser.

•Moisturisers and lotions can help to mitigate the dryness and are especially important for children with skin conditions such as eczema.

Online safety

Schools are closed and this means that children of all ages will be using their computers and other electronics more at this time. Whether it is for school or for leisure, you want to monitor online activities so that you can keep them safe.

Sit with your child or children and have a conversation about your expectations about their screen use. The conversation should include crucial topics such as the rules of engagement with their devices, including downloading and accessing sites of interest which may lead to hacking of your vital information.

Try to remotely monitor your child’s Internet activities and utilise the parental control features on your child’s electronics to block websites that you don’t want your children to visit.

Also, limit and monitor closely the use of your financial tools such as credit cards that your children have access to, because hackers are more active at this time and identity theft is rampant.