Preventing Childhood Injuries: Protect the Ones You Love
Nearly 9.2 million children between birth and age 19 are seen each year in emergency departments for injuries. Injuries are the leading cause of death in children ages 19 and younger. You can play a life-saving role in protecting children from injuries.
Everyone wants to protect the children they care about from harm and keep them safe. Yet injuries are the leading cause of death in children ages 19 and younger. CDC's Injury Center is pleased to announce new resources to help prevent child injuries in the United States.
Childhood Injury Report
On December 10, 2008, CDC's Injury Center released the CDC Childhood Injury Report: Patterns of Unintentional Injuries among 0-19 Year Olds in the United States, 2000-2006.
This data report provides an overview of child injuries related to drowning, falls, fires or burns, transportation-related injuries, poisoning, and suffocation, among other causes. Data is broken down by age group and sex, and injury death rates by state are provided.
Key findings in the report include:
- On average, 12,175 children 0 to 19 years of age died each year in the United States from an unintentional injury.
- Injuries due to transportation were the leading cause of death for children.
- An estimated 9.2 million children annually had an initial emergency department visit for an unintentional injury.
- Injuries due to falls were the leading cause of nonfatal injury.
Read or download a copy of the report.
Protect the Ones You Love Initiative
"Protect the Ones You Love: Child Injuries Are Preventable" is a new initiative to raise parents' awareness about the leading causes of child injury and how they can be prevented.
As part of the initiative, CDC's Injury Center offers resources to help parents keep their children safe from injuries, including fact sheets, podcasts, e-cards, and media outreach and event planning guides. All materials are available free of charge at www.cdc.gov/safechild.
Prevention tips include the following:
Burns—Fire and scalding water can pose threats to children. To help keep kids safer from burns caused by fire, install and maintain smoke alarms in your home.
Drownings—Drownings can happen quickly and quietly, but installing four-sided fences, with self-closing and self-latching gates, around backyard swimming pools can make a life-saving difference by keeping kids away from water when you're not there to supervise.
Falls—Falls can happen at the playground or at home. To protect your child, check playground equipment to make sure it's properly designed and maintained and that there's a safe, soft landing surface below.
Poisonings—Everyday household products can be poisonous to children, but you can safeguard your home. Keep medicines and toxic products, such as cleaning solutions, in locked or childproof cabinets.
Road traffic injuries—To make injuries less likely when you're on the road, always use seat belts, child safety seats, and booster seats that are appropriate for your child's age and weight.
More Information
- Web-based Resources
- eCards
- Podcasts
- Burns (
2:58 mins) - Drowning (3:05 mins)
- Falls (2:52 mins)
- Poisoning (2:34 mins)
- Road Traffic Injuries (3:16 mins)
- Burns (
