Over 20% of deaths in the 0-14 age group are due to domestic accidents. It is the second leading cause of death after cancer in this age group. A fact that makes you think, which highlights the need to put into practice strategies to teach parents to foresee dangerous situations when possible and to know how to intervene in the most appropriate way if the accident should happen. For this reason, the Italian Federation of Pediatric Doctors (Fimp) has created a manual with fundamental recommendations on drowning, falling from a height and burns, but also on road impacts, violence and abandonment. A tool, distributed on the occasion of the Fimp National Scientific Congress, dedicated to family pediatricians so that they can also fully fulfill their role as health educators.
Three out of four accidents happen within the walls of the house
Domestic accidents represent 75% of the total accidents that can happen to a child under the age of 14. “Intoxications and poisonings are the most frequent (87.9%)”, specifies the secretary for scientific and ethical activities of Fimp and president of the Italian Society of Preventive and Social Pediatrics, Giuseppe Di Mauro. “32.1% referred to drug poisoning, 27.1% to household cleaning products, 2.3% to houseplants”. The age group 1-4 years is the most represented, followed by the age group 5-9, in both cases with a prevalence of males compared to females.
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The manual “Mom, Dad … will you protect me?”
Precisely in the light of these data, the Fimp created the PUER area – Prevention, Urgencies, Responsible Emergencies, and started the project that led to the creation of the inter-company document “Mom, dad… can you protect me? Guide to accident prevention and life-saving maneuvers ”, in which all environments (indoor and outdoor) in which accidents can occur are taken into consideration. “The manual describes the main dangers for the child and the recommendations regarding prevention”, explains Antonio D’Avino, president of Fimp. “The topics, of which we wanted to systematize the knowledge, deal with the dangers in travel, with the domestic ones, deriving from water, fire and electricity, up to the injuries that occur in sporting activities. Inhalation of a foreign body and head trauma are two other central themes, unfortunately, in the volume, which contains recommendations also divided by age groups, to be included in the Health Reports planned from birth “.
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“In the general context of accidents, domestic accidents in the pediatric age represent an important health problem that has not been thoroughly investigated”, adds Francesco Carlomagno, the new national referent. In recent years, there have been many initiatives by institutions or scientific societies to try to intervene in an organic and effective way in the prevention of domestic accidents in the pediatric age: publications and initiatives aimed at parents that contain the structural and behavioral measures to be implemented. in practice for the prevention of accidents. “The new guide – concludes Carlomagno – is addressed to family pediatricians, in order to make them protagonists of educational information on the prevention of accidents in developmental age, ie between zero and 16 years, in line with our role at ‘within the National Health Service, which is oriented towards a global management of the health of children and adolescents, in the family and social context in which they live ”.