Bl4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 28,1884
Protect your child - use a cor sect
BY SUZANNE KEENE
LANCASTER Most parents
are very concerned about
protecting their children from
harm, yet many neglect to buckle
their infants and toddlers into car
seats that can save lives in
automobile accidents.
The car accident is the leading
cause of death and injury to
children. In Pennsylvania alone,
nearly 9,000 children under age
five are involved in auto accidents
each year. Many are permanently
crippled or disfigured.
However, if children are buckled
into car seats and seatbelts, they
have a 90 percent less chance of
dying in a car accident, according
to Dr Clark McSparren, a 'Lan
caster pediatrician
“So it’s clearly and
unequivocally a way of reducing
child and infant deaths,” he said.
There would be fewer deaths, he
said, if parents would take the time
to use the seat - not just buy it - and
if they would stick to their guns
when their two-year-olds protest
having to sit still in a seat belt.
“We have to convince them
because we care about them,”
McSparren said.
In Tennessee, where the first
infant seat law was passed in 1979,
infant deaths in automobiles
declined significantly in the first
year. Today most states, including
Pennsylvania, have a child
passenger restraint law.
Effective January 1, 1984
parents or guardians in Penn
sylvania are responsible for
securing infants under one year in
a federally-approved car safety
seat and children from one to four
in a safety seat or in the rear
standard seat belt Violators will
receive warnings until January 1,
1985, when they will be subject to a
$25 fine.
To help new parents select the
right seat and use it properly,
Cathy Ketterman of Lancaster
talks to prenatal classes at the
Lancaster YWCA and to classes at
St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Mother of a two-year-old
daughter, Ketterman said she
became interested in car seats
when she was expecting her child
and decided to share her
knowledge with others.
Parents should shop at a store
with a wide selection of car seats,
so they will have the opportunity to
compare the different features in
each, Ketterman said. They should
also consider if the seat will stay in
one car all the time or if it will be
moved from car to car.
Once parents select the seat that
seems to meet their needs, they
should ask the sales clerk to allow
them to try the seat in their car to
check for proper fit.
It’s definately recommened that
a car seat be tried in a car before
you buy the car seat,” Ketterman
said.
After buying the seat, parents
should carefully read the in
structions and then follow them
exactly.
Infants should be placed in their
car seats facing backwards, or
away from the car’s dash as long
as possible. When the child is able
to hold his head up or when his legs
get too long for that position to be
comfortable, he should be turned
around, Ketterman said.
Baby should be tightly secured in
his seat so he doesn’t move around
in it
“Make sure the harness is snug
with the straps high on the
shoulder of the child,” Ketterman
said “Otherwise the child can
slide around in the car seat ”
To insure a tight fit, the child
should be dressed in clothing that
has definite legs in it so the strap
can fit between his legs Bag
sleepers without legs should be
avoided
The middle of the backseat is the
safest place for the infant seat.
This stuffed dog is safely strapped into an infant seat that
could save his life or the life of his owner in an automobile
accident.
Ketterman said, but if a parent is
alone in the car, she may want to
have the child in the front seat
beside her where she can more
easily attend to the infant if he
should cry or fuss
If the mother wants to wrap the
baby in a blanket while he’s in his
car seat, she should cut holes in a
blanket for the seat’s straps, put
the blanket in the seat and then
strap baby in. After he is secure,
the blanket can be wrapped around
him, Ketterman said. If the baby is
first wrapped in the blanket and
then buckled in, he isn’t really in
the seat, she said.
To make baby more comfortable
in his seat, his back and bottom
should rest against the seat. If he is
slouching, he will not be com
fortable, she said.
“In warm weather,” she said, “a
vinyl care seat gets very hot and so
do those buckles and belts.”
Parents can cover the seat with a
blanket or quilted seat cover and
should allow as much ventilation in
the car as possible to make baby
more comfortable.
To make small newborn babies
more comfortable in car seats that
are usually too big for them,
Ketterman suggests rolling
blankets or towels and tucking
them in around baby for support
If a child would ever have to ride
in a car without a safety seat, he
should be buckled into the regular
seatbelt, Ketterman said. Children
should not ride in feeder seats or
fabric snuggly earners, which
offer no protection in a crash, she
added.
Many parents, Ketterman said,
believe their child is safer in their
arms than in an infant seat But
tests have shown that in accidents
at 30 mph a child can be thrown
forward on his face with a force
thirty times his weight.
And if the child is in someone’s
arms, the individual holding him
crushes him into the dash.
“There’s no way an adult - even
a prepared adult, can hold an in
fant in a crash,” Ketterman said
“Even if you’re strapped in. you
can’t hold that baby.”
“You have a whole lifetime of
holding your baby other than just
those few minutes or hours in a
car,” she said
w
i ,
An infant who cannot support his head should be strapped
in a safety seat and positioned with his face toward the car
seat and away from the dash for greatest safety.
INDIANAPOLIS, 11. - As soon
as a baby begins to get around
under her own steam, parents need
to think about teaching her that
some things-like electrical outlets
are off limits. This is the beginning
of discipline.
In the dictionary, discipline has
many meanings. From the point of
view of child-rearing, some of
these definitions are helpful and
others are not so helpful, ac
cordiong to Growing Child, a
monthly child development
newsletter.
• Instruction. The dictionary
says this is an old-fashioned
meaning. That’s a pity because
good discipline should instruct a
child.
• Training which corrects,
molds, strengthens, or perfects.
This is the best meaning of
discipline.
• Punishment, chastisement.
Many people think of discipline as
punishment. They try to decide if
"ei tain kinds of punishment are
better or worse. But if discipline is
something positive that helps a
baby learn, grow, and develop,
then it is an entirely different
matter.
• Control gained by enforcing
obedience or order. This definition
of discipline does not focus on
instructing or strengthening or a
child’s need to leam.
The heart of the matter is this:
Can discipline be used in a positive
way?
Most children under a year old
will continue to do exactly what
you don’t want them to do. Their
curiosity is enormous. Their
physical drive propels them from
one situation into another.
Presented with fascinating new
objects and places, they do not
have the necessary knowledge
Toddlers need disciplined
or experience to determine
what’s “yes” and what’s “no”.
In short, they are just too young
to fully understand why some
things are acceptable and others
are not. By wisely selecting what
will be left within a child’s reach,
adults create a better learning
environment for the child and save
themselves many moments of
anxiety or griqf.'
For example, assume you have
an expensive television set. The
knobs are an endless source of
fascination for your daughter who
takes every opportunity to twist,
turn, and pull them. Every time
you see her doing this, you tell her
“no” and pull her hands away. Her
response: the minute you’re not
looking, she’s back at it.
What to do? You can:
1. Persist in “’no-no” until she's
old enough to get the message.
This won’t do much good for right
now.
2. Slap her hands along with the
“no” until she learns what you
mean. This may be months away,
if your television set still works by
then.
3. Use your ingeunity. For
example, rearrange the furniture
so the set is inaccessible to her, or
tape a piece of cardboard over the
knobs.
Almost any discipline problem
can be solved by adjusting the
environment. For instance, you
can remove the tempting
breakable knickknacks or make
the object inaccessible. Sometimes
the answer to a problem is not to
insist the child adhere to a set of
adult rules but to find some means
of temporarily changing the
situation so a child has room to
explore, look, feel, leam, and, at
the same time, stay out of trouble
or harm’s way.