Tag: children

“The leading cause of death . . .”

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In 2020 firearms overtook car crashes as the leading cause of death for children.
One line heads down, the other up. They cross. What’s what?

We’ve said before, awareness is a big part of being prepared. I think the information on this chart is something we all need to be aware of. Haven’t figured it out yet? Some hints:

  • The lines reflect facts about children in the U.S..
  • They trace causes of death from two sources.
  • They show the new (since 2020) leading cause of death for children.

Those should be the clues you need! But to make it very clear: The purple line shows deaths of children (ages 1-19) over the past 20 years from automobile accidents. (Measured in deaths per 100,000 children).
The green line shows deaths of children 1-19 over the past 20 years from gun violence. (Again, measured in deaths per 100,000 children.)

In 2020, for the first time, firearms surpassed car accidents as the number one killer of kids in the U.S.

Of course, you may immediately question this data. Why doesn’t it include info for the past two years? What role did parents play in these deaths? How many gun deaths were accidents, homicide, suicide? Etc., etc. Where do other causes, like cancer, fit into this chart? If you’re interested in more detail, see my remarks and links at the bottom of the page.

To start with, let’s just consider the purple line killer.

The number of cars in the U.S. has continued to creep pretty steadily upward to around 276 million in 2020. More and more cars. More accidents, too. But the proportion of children dying in auto accidents has come pretty steadily down.

If I were to give you 60 seconds to come up with why, I am sure you’d say something like:

  • Roadways are safer than ever: striping, passing lanes, barriers, signage, etc.
  • Cars themselves are safer: mirrors, seat belts, warnings, anti-lock braking, etc..
  • Driver behavior has been influenced by: licensing by age and type of vehicle, speed limits, DUI controls, etc.

O.K. I think we get what’s been going on with car safety.

Now let’s look at the green line killer in the chart.

The number of firearms has gone up just like the number of cars. (The rise is more dramatic, actually.) So why haven’t children’s deaths from guns gone down like they have for cars?

The answer is pretty obvious. No consistent improvements to gun safety. No consistent constraints on gun ownership and/or shooter behavior. I couldn’t even find two items to make a bullet list with!

Here at Emergency Plan Guide we’re interested in preparing for and managing or responding to emergencies – all kinds. We try to help people keep emergencies from turning into disasters.

Lately, as the leading cause of death, firearms have become a disaster if not a catastrophe for our children and their families.

What preparedness actions should we be taking against this threat? Which ones ARE you taking?

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

Disclaimer:  I am not an expert on car or gun safety. My Advisory is not meant to be a scientific report. But that doesn’t mean I wrote it off the top of my head.

I did a fair amount of research on everything mentioned here (and a lot on history and statistics I don’t mention). One thing I discovered . . easy data on both car and gun deaths is hard to come by. Below are some of the sources I found to be useful and I trust credible. But as you read them, or any articles on these topics, note the following:

  • Children” are defined differently in nearly every different report, whether produced by law enforcement, the insurance industry, government agencies, educators, etc. Be sure you are clear what’s being measured.
  • Deaths” are often sub-divided as to homicide, suicide, accidental and unknown. People dying may be killed by law enforcement, a family member, an acquaintance, or a stranger – and the statistics may or may not reflect the type of shooter.

Online sources I can suggest for automobile death statistics:

Sources on gun deaths and children:

And finally, a resource that I found truly compelling.

Research may provide you with statistics, but just as in the case of Paradise, another book I reviewed lately, what brings the issue alive are the stories of real people.  Not the people who died, but the people who lived.

children Under Fire, An American Crisis, John Woodrow Cox

I recommend to you this book by John Woodrow Cox. It came out just last year and is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

The New York Times says it is “a deep and painful accounting, built from intimate reporting, of the traumatic impact of gun violence on children who have witnessed it or lost a loved one to it.” 

You can get Children Under Fire in a variety of formats including audio. Here’s the link to the book at Amazon, where we are Associates.

I believe that Ava and Tyshaun and LB and the other children’s desperate stories provide us with preparedness actions to consider. And now, we have to add to their stories the stories of all the Uvalde brothers and sisters. Certainly, that incident has raised even more questions and suggested more actions.


Including Kids In Preparedness Planning

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Over the holiday I met some new family members. We have a VERY extended family with multiple generations so new people become attached to the group  pretty regularly –new boyfriends, new girlfriends, new husbands of ex-wives, including kids of all ages. You get the picture!

All the original husbands and wives seem to stick, too, along with their children, so the assemblage just keeps expanding.

Three new kids were added this year.

At this year’s Thanksgiving party we had some new children added to the older teens in the mix — two girls around 6 years old, and a boy about 12.  (The puzzle in the photo is one of my go-to toys for all new kids. It’s surprisingly difficult!)

Naturally I started talking with these children and some of my questions had to do with preparedness and their grasp of good habits for safety and security.

My questions were shaped in part by several sobering articles I’ve read lately.

As you can imagine, the chances are very good of a child being away from parents when an emergency hits. According to the CDC, 69 million children are separated from their parents each work day as they go to school or child care! Moreover, while most parents seem to think they’ll be reunited “within a few hours” after an emergency, the truth is not so benign. In fact, it took 7 MONTHS for the last child to be reunited with family after Katrina!

So I’m concerned about children. When an unprepared child faces an emergency, that child’s response is likely to be fear. Fear deprives the child from being able to make a decision. The prepared child has the chance to respond from a position of strength and confidence. What a gift!

What can we do to help kids be more prepared?

1 – Actively include children in our planning.

There are different levels of preparedness planning.

Level one – be prepared to get out of a dangerous situation.
Level two – know about safe places to go to if you can’t stay at home.
Level three – Have an idea of what to expect if . . .

You can work on all three of these levels using simple questions. The answers would depend on the age and experience of the child. 

For example, here’s a simple question: “If you smelled smoke in the house right now, what would you do?”

It’s easy to follow it up with more questions or more details, depending on whom you’re talking to. I always have lots of one-liners like this at the ready!

(I remember a few years ago writing about how I got my teenaged grandchildren to figure out how to climb out the second floor window onto the roof, then to the pergola where they could drop to the ground.)

2 – Build life skills.

I was lucky in that my parents were true pioneers living in the wilds of Alaska, so they had real, outdoor survival skills that I inherited even though I grew up in a town. I’m talking about how to swing an axe, how to tie a knot in a rope, etc. Now your children may be growing up in suburbia, where cutting down trees isn’t advisable (!), but they can still learn basic skills:

  • How to swim.
  • How to light a fire.
  • How to climb out the second floor window onto an escape ladder.
  • How to assemble a piece of furniture using hand tools.
  • How to repair a bicycle.

In my own experience, and based on everything I’ve read, the more “capable” a child is at figuring out how things work, managing tools, building or taking things apart – the more confidence she’ll have facing any challenging situation.

3 – Repeatedly test kids’ level of awareness.

I think this discussion lends itself to a sport analogy. If you are on a soccer team, you need to know where you are on the field, where the other players are, their general direction and speed, where the ball is, where the goal is, etc. Great players seem to be able to carry all this in their heads and body all the time!

From the point of view of children and being prepared, it’s the same concept. For example, you can check in with your child as you are driving:

  • Where are we? (Name of street? How far from home or school? Where do we turn next?)
  • Name some of the things you see around us. (Street lights. Bicycles. Cars moving. A taxi letting someone off. A dog running loose.)
  • Do you see other people? What are they doing and how fast are they going? What is likely to happen when they reach a certain point?
  • Could something bad happen? (If that bicyclist came across in front of us, we would hit him. That dog could run right into the street and all the cars would swerve to miss him.)
  • What could we do?

The amount of detail that a child would notice will depend on age – and practice! And the conversation doesn’t need to include all these questions – it might be made up of only one.

“Wow, see that dog? What do you think he’s going to do next?”

For sure, your child will be unable to answer a single question if he/she is buried in a digital game or on a cellphone. For that matter, so will your wife.

Let’s create a list of good ideas for kids!

I’d like to capture some more good ideas from readers and share them with others. For example:

  • A mother in my LinkedIn group writes that every night, before they head to bed, her children make sure all toys are picked up so nothing blocks their escape route. And the children close the door to their bedroom, too, for fire safety.
  • The Centers for Disease Control reminds all parents, and particularly those of special ed kids, to have a list of emergency contact information in the child’s backpack. (If you laminate the page, it will last longer.)
  • I’ve written before about my own concern about children who don’t know their first and last names. Of course it varies, but by age 5 they probably should know that important information and be able to respond when asked. Older kids need to know a contact phone number by heart. All these kids should know how to call 911.

So now, to finish this Advisory, I’d like to ask for your help. Surely there are hundreds of kids represented by the readers of Emergency Plan Guide!

What do you do with YOUR kids (or students) to help them be more aware of their surroundings, alert for potential danger, and ready to take action in an emergency?

Can you send me at least 3 good ideas for including kids in preparedness planning? I want to share all of them!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. Just scroll down the page to below the Advisory sign-up box to the Comment section. Or send me an email. In any case, I won’t use any names unless I get your approval first!

How prepared is your child?

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How prepared is your child?

Ever been accused of being overly protective of your children?

Maybe it’s true. And it’s doing them a disservice, because . . .

When it comes to an emergency situation – you MAY NOT BE THERE to protect your child!

The good news?

Children are trainable! They are resilient! Give them tools to work with, and they can surprise you.

(Heck, this goes on throughout your life as a parent!)

Start where you are.

Here are some questions you can ask your kids to see just how well they would manage BY THEMSELVES in an emergency.

Of course, the first reaction for most small children would be to run crying for you. But what if you are not there? These questions are designed to help your child think past that initial reaction and move through to the next step.

How well the question-answer conversation goes will depend for the most part on your own ability to guide it in a meaningful way – i.e., with the right amount of information for each child. (It’s easy to go overboard . . .!)

But if you can help your child realize that there is a course of action he or she can take that will be smart and that will help . . . then you’ve made a huge difference in how well things will turn out.

So, some sample questions. Pick one to start with.

  1. If there’s a fire in the house, what would you do first?
  2. If you are at the park playing, and you feel an earthquake, what would you do?
  3. If you’re home alone, and you hear our smoke alarm go off, what would you do?
  4. If a policeman is knocking at the door, what would you do?
  5. What if you try to call 911 and no one answers?

These are pretty tough questions. Your child probably won’t be happy even thinking about something happening when he’s alone.

Still, given a bit of encouragement, your children can probably come up with some good ideas.

The purpose of the conversation is to remind your child that emergencies DO happen, to figure out what your child knows already about dealing with them, and then identify more good ideas and turn them into action steps.

Build simple action steps with your child.

What follows are some examples of action steps that might be appropriate. You will build your own list, depending on where you live, the makeup of your household and the skill level of your child.

  • Be sure you can tell a Firefighter or a Police Officer your whole name (first Name, last name) and where you live (your street address). (I’ve met 6 year old children who are unable to talk to adults.)
  • Memorize your home telephone number or a parent’s cell phone number. (This applies to older children, too!)
  • Know at least two ways you can get out of the house. How can you get out of the second floor of the house if you can’t go down the stairs? (Only kids who like the idea of “escaping” have really considered this!)
  • If the lights go out, find a flashlight. (Where?)
  • Fix a meal while you’re waiting for things to get back to normal.
  • When you feel an earthquake, the first thing to do is: ____, ____ and ____. (Children in California schools know this one.) What if the earthquake happens at night when you’re in bed? (Cover your head with the pillow. Don’t jump up and run barefoot through the dark house! Flashlight? Shoes?)
  • Call 911 in an emergency.  (Having a landline will allow even small children to call for help. If teens and adults all just have cell phones, a small child may have no options.)
  • If there’s no answer at 911, what does that mean?
  • Don’t automatically open the door because someone says so. (What else could you do?)
  • When you can’t stay in the house, or can’t reach it, go to our “safe place.”
  • If you have to leave in an emergency, grab your go-bag.
  • In an emergency, wear shoes.
  • And more . . .

Now, it’s on to the most important, third piece of this plan.

Practice the action steps.

When a disaster disrupts your child’s regular routine, a back-up plan THAT’S BEEN PRACTICED will fall into place. Without that practice, the child will likely be unable to make any good decisions.

Every one of the steps you’ve come up with in your conversations can be practiced.

Here are examples that you can use as starters.

  • Go room-by-room through your house and identify 2 exits from each room. (Windows work if they’re not blocked by bushes or bars.) You may want to draw a floorplan of the house and show those exits.
  • Climb to the second floor to see how to get out without going down the stairs. If you have a fire escape or an emergency escape ladder, assemble it and climb down. If you or your child can’t make it down, you can’t count on the ladder to save anyone!
  • Practice reciting address and telephone numbers. The number of your out-of-state contact should be on your list of memorized numbers, too. IF YOUR PHONE IS OUT OR GONE YOU WON”T BE ABLE TO PULL UP NUMBERS FOR AUTOMATIC DIALING.
  • Pick a place for flashlights or emergency lights and make it a game to find every one. Try to keep the lights in their assigned places so you could find them in the dark.
  • Make sure your child can prepare a simple (uncooked) meal while she’s waiting, or get to an emergency snack. This simple job will be reassuringly normal.
  • Practice making phone calls using a variety of phones.
  • Build family go-bags together. Right on top: SHOES (and then a flashlight). Stash the bags in an appropriate place.
  • Grab your go-bag and take a walk to your “safe place” (assembly point) outside the house or further away in the neighborhood. Have the child lead the way. Take the walk again, in the dark.
  • Practice communicating using walkie talkies.

Add more skills as your child gets older.

Schools train children on some of the basics. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have emergency preparedness and first aid training, too. FEMA and CERT offer programs especially for high-school-aged children.

If you take your kids camping, that’s a perfect time to practice a whole other group of survival skills: building a fire, understanding how to build a shelter, knowing when it’s safe to drink water, “capturing” water using a plastic bag over a branch, tying knots, using tools, administering basic first aid, reading a compass, etc.

If you are looking for more info on preparing children, consider these resources:

www.fema.gov/children-and-disasters

This page lists a whole collection of resources aimed at different age levels and different audiences (for example, educators, social services, etc.). Some of the programs are co-sponsored by Ready.gov, the Red Cross, Dept. of Education, etc.

https://www.ready.gov

This easily accessible site has good descriptions of what to expect in a particular type of emergency (hurricane, tornado, etc.) and helpful suggestions for building a go-bag. (Don’t forget our Emergency Plan Guide booklet on how to build customized bags.)

The KIDS section at Ready.gov offers a series of simple comic books with accompanying tips for parents and educators.

http://www.savethechildren.org  Resources at this site include some downloadable checklists for parents and for child care professionals. The checklists might be appropriate for members of your emergency response group, too.

In summary . . .

Grab some of the resources listed here, and build disaster preparedness and response reminders and actions into your daily family routines. Add new “content” as your children get older.

Disasters will happen.

Unless you have prepared your children to take action without you being there to tell them what to do . . . they are more likely to be hurt, trapped or at the very least, traumatized.

Protecting your children from disasters isn’t as good as preparing them to get through successfully.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Neighborhood Preparedness Faire — Lessons Learned

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As part of National Preparedness Month, Joe and I staffed a booth at a local neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Faire on Sunday. It was held in a street that ends in a cul de sac, and we were one of about 20 different organizations trying to raise awareness among folks in this neighborhood.

How effective was it?

How effective was it?

Generous Support from Local Agencies

The police department was there with two cars and a child fingerprinting set-up; the fire department brought one of its engines and let kids crawl into the cab. The gas company was demonstrating utility shut-offs, and the electric company had a truly terrifying display (aimed at children!) that zapped when its puppet people approached a live overhead wire.

Other booths sold emergency supplies, first aid supplies, and ice cream. There was even a display of how to splint a broken arm using newspapers.

Reactions from Neighborhood Residents

We were there helping sign people up for the next Community Emergency Response Training class, and to talk with passers-by about emergency supplies. Here’s what we discovered:

  • The word “emergency” evoked no response other than glazing of the eyes – even though these people had come knowing this event was supposed to be about emergency preparedness.
  • The word “survival” worked much better. Particularly when we asked, “Do you have a survival kit? In the car?” (This is southern California, where everybody commutes.)
  • The best response came from the children. When we asked, “What do you do in an earthquake?” the kids all responded automatically, “Drop, cover and hold on.” Their parents looked on in wonder.

Some percentage of the people absolutely would not approach our tent; they just smiled and kept walking. (You gotta ask yourself, why did they even show up? Well, it was a beautiful day, and there was music and balloons . . .)

Recommendations from the Field

1. Children —  Many of the families had children, and those booths that had something for children fared the best.

2. Mystery — In our booth, where we talked about the need for a survival kit, I pulled items one by one out of a backpack to show them. Again, children were eager to see what would come out next.  They were most interested in the space blanket, the solar-powered/crank radio, the whistles and the LifeStraw. They actually asked questions while the parent/s looked on.

3. Give-aways — A number of people didn’t seem to have time to actually talk about their preparedness, or our display, but they happily took one of our postcards that listed our website for more info.

At the end of the day, we had accomplished a number of things, including making an excellent connection with the local newspaper reporter and his photographer. We were again reminded about how difficult the “preparedness message” is to deliver.

But if we got just a half-dozen families to take action, that’s more people who will stay alive and survive when the big one hits. So, was it worth it? You bet.

Virginia Nicols
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

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Mothers, Are You Leaving Your Children Unprepared?

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Children Deserve Survival Training

When there’s an emergency, whether storm, earthquake, flooding, or power outage – children go though it just like you do. How prepared are your children to survive? How about your grandchildren?

Children prepared for an emergency

How prepared are these kids to respond in an emergency?

Little ones may not understand the potential danger of a storm or other emergency, and perhaps they don’t need to. But they CAN be prepared to take action when they recognize certain warning signs.

Emergency Preparedness at School

These days all schools have access to emergency preparedness training through FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Education. (Just search for “Emergency Preparedness for Schools” on their websites.) Most schools have and practice emergency procedures.

In fact, our grandchildren (aged 10 and 13) seem to know more about how to respond in an earthquake than their parents do!

However, take these children out of the school setting, and they have no experience in taking care of themselves. These are children who have grown up in the suburbs. They’ve never spent time in the wilderness, never used tools, never hiked more than a couple of blocks! (Don’t get me wrong. They’re smart, and getting a great education. But it doesn’t include any survival skills!)

Action Step: Find out what Emergency Preparedness training your children’s teachers go through, and what drills they and the children participate in. It may reassure you!

What about survival training for younger children?

If your children are home with you all the time, then naturally you will be making decisions for them in the case of an emergency.

Still, you may not be with them all the time! What if the storm hits when your child is:

  • At a day-care center
  • On a play date at a friend’s house
  • At a birthday party or an athletic event where other adults are in charge
  • At the movies, at Sunday school, playing in the backyard – the list is endless!

You simply can’t be with your children 24 hours a day. So, what survival skills are you giving them?

A simple emergency preparedness tool for starters!

In 1993, FEMA and the American Red Cross put together a Coloring Book for Children. (Yes, it was created in 1993, so the illustrations are pretty dated . . . but I feel that overall, the coloring book has value.)

Here are five highlights from the coloring book, as I see them:

  1. Work together.  The book is designed to be worked on by an adult and child team. Do you have older children who would find the coloring book silly? Let them be the “adult” in the conversation with the younger child.
  2. Call 911. Use the coloring book as a tool to teach your child when and how to call 911.
  3. Family emergency plan. If you haven’t done it yet, use the book as a motivation to identify your “outside meeting place” and your “out-of-area” emergency contact person.
  4. Survival kits. Discuss – and build! – emergency supply kits for each family member.
  5. Repeat.  The quiz on the last page is a good review.

Action Item: Here’s the link to the book. Click on it and print out the book. It’s 26 pages long, so you probably won’t be going through it all in one sitting.

Click to download Coloring Book

(Here’s the entire link again, in case you need it:  https://s3-us-gov-west-1.amazonaws.com/dam-production/uploads/20130726-1505-20490-1849/color.pdf)

I think this coloring book could be improved by being brought up to date. In fact, I’m ready to do a new version myself, because it seems as though young children still like to color. What suggestions do you have for improving it? Please let me know by using the comment box below.

Thank you!

Virginia – Your Emergency Response Guide Team