Accidents in the Spanish child population: don't we have something to do with parents?

Accidents can happen to anyone, it is an eventual event. But without being an expert in the field, it seems clear that an unsupervised child, who does not know how to take care of himself, is more exposed to accidents. That is why we are surprised by the data that indicate that many young children are left alone at home.

The European Child Safety Alliance notes that in the European Union more children die from injuries than from illnesses children and many of these injuries occur when children are alone in their home. We asked ourselves yesterday to the thread of these data if you would leave small children alone at home and there is a significant number of parents who do.

The figures have been made public these days thanks to a study prepared by the Mapfre Foundation together with the Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics, entitled “Accidents in the Spanish child population”. It knows the habits of the population in relation to the prevention of childhood accidents and their impact on children's health.

In the end we would analyze the issue of responsibility for child accidents and it is that parents are not very willing to accept it in the case of carelessness or neglect ...

These are some of the data that are extracted from the questionnaires to the families of the different autonomous communities of Spain:

  • About 90% of respondents meet more than three protection-prevention measures: in the park, they leave the children in the appropriate play areas for their age, check the labels of the toys and the parents offer their children the right toys for their age and keep the medicines out of their reach.

  • The protection measures used to a lesser extent by families (50% or less) are related to the furniture of the home: security and protection in doors, furniture corners, windows and stairs.

  • 57.2% of accidents occurred in schools, parks, gardens and public roads, and 42.8% occurred at home.

  • As we indicated yesterday, 9.1% of children under 12 are left home alone at some point, noting that even children who do not arrive a year are left alone. The frequency of domestic accidents increases when they are alone at home.

  • Accidents at home are more frequent the lower the child's age and the percentage of accidents suffered at school and leisure places increases when the child is older.

  • In domestic accidentsThe place where it most frequently occurred was in the living room or living room (23.8%) followed by the children's bedrooms (10.2%), the parents' bedrooms (9.3%) and in the kitchen (10%).

  • Of the accidents produced outside the home, the most frequent occurred in school (44.6%), in the garden or public park (21%) and on public roads (20%).

  • The most frequent types of accidents they are: falls to the ground or unevenness (56.7%); blows against objects, people or animals (26'2%); burn (6%); cut or prick (4'3%).

  • 18.3% of families do not know what phone number to call in case of emergency.

Who is responsible for child accidents?

Following the figures offered by this study, we have to 45% of families whose child suffered an accident consider that this occurred by chance. 21% only for the imprudence of the child, 14% for carelessness of the caregiver, 3% for lack of preventive measures and the rest for the sum of several of these circumstances.

But let's not think that the children were always alone, because in most cases (66.5%), at the time of the accident, the children were accompanied by their father, mother or both.

The combination of these last two paragraphs is striking, since if most children who suffer accidents are accompanied by parents, I think that some major responsibility should be assumed.

If young children do not know how to take care of themselves, parents are responsible for their safety.

We know that we cannot be controlling all the potential dangers at all times (especially with children who are already walking), and that even the more eyes there are, it does not mean that the more watched the children are.

But that 45% of families think they have had nothing to do with the accident surprises me. And is that, Are we not responsible for the safety of young children?

Even when a baby falls off the couch or bed because of those first turns on himself that we didn't know what he could do already, I think that the paternal "relaxation" is responsible (and I felt that when I happened to my daughters, when fortunately everything was in a scare).

He report on accidents in the Spanish child population It is completed with the data on the types of accidents according to age groups and the recommendation to modify the opinion of the families that randomly attribute the majority of accidents: we should all apply the most effective prevention and protection measures.

Photos | Thinkstock
Official Site | Mapfre
In Babies and more | Online game to prevent domestic accidents, Avoid accidents in children under two years, Educational notebook to prevent accidents in the family