Newborns: Safety Outside the ... Video Transcript

Participants

Bonnie Boswell , Sajjad Yacoob MD, Shetal Shah MD

Summary

A newborn child is always a bundle of joy and responsibility. When traveling with a newborn, it is especially important that parents follow certain safety measures to protect their child from harm. On this webcast, we'll discuss car and stroller safety issues every new parent should be aware of.

Webcast Transcript

BONNIE BOSWELL: Hello, I am Bonnie Boswell and welcome to our program. We are here talking about injury prevention in newborns, and my guest is Dr. Sajjad Yacoob. He is an Attending Physician in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles.

Let's talk about some of the problems that happen with newborns when they are outside of the home. They are beginning to look around and see the world, but they are still very susceptible to the universe around them, and parents really do have to take a lot of responsibility for them.

Let's talk about their first getting out there. Usually, it is in a car seat of some kind. What are your recommendations to parents about safety and use of a car seat?

SAJJAD YACOOB, MD: First and foremost is, use it. Use it every single time you get into a car with your child. That is a very important thing. Now, for children in this age group, the important thing for parents to keep in mind is, always make sure of two things. That the child is in back middle seat, because that is going to keep them away from danger the most, and, in this age group, that the child is facing toward the rear window, so they are not looking forward, they are facing backwards, actually. That is the position that is recommended for the safest travel for your child.

BONNIE BOSWELL: At what point can you can the position of your child?

SAJJAD YACOOB, MD: The recommendations are that you can change your child to face forward when they have attained two milestones. One is when they are 20 pounds and they have turned a year of age.

BONNIE BOSWELL: Keeping the child in the back seat is important. But sometimes, kids will get fussy. What can the parents do to make sure that they minimize that?

SAJJAD YACOOB, MD: Like anything with safety, it all goes into planning. So, try before you even go out of the house to make sure that your child is ready for the trip. The baby is well fed, the diaper is changed, and that you put them into a sort of a good frame of mind, maybe a toy to play with, etc. Those are all important because you are right, if the child is fussy, the parent is going to be distracted a little bit, and you want to make sure the ride is safe for everybody. So that is one thing they can do, starting in before they put the child in the car.

BONNIE BOSWELL: So, make sure the child is settled and is as comfortable as possible. Put him in the back seat, strap him in correctly.

SAJJAD YACOOB, MD: Exactly. You mentioned a very good point. It is not just putting them in the car seat, but make sure you strap them in every single time.

BONNIE BOSWELL: Any other points for child safety in the car at this age?

SAJJAD YACOOB, MD: One other very important point is you should never put a child in the front passenger seat of any car that has an air bag. Those can cause injuries, and they have caused not only injuries, but deaths in children when they have been accidentally deployed in even minor, 5 mph, traffic collisions.

So, it is very important. The safest place for a child to be in a car in this age group is facing backwards in a car seat in the rear middle seat.

BONNIE BOSWELL: Okay. Let's move on to some other things. Devices that parents use these days to move their children around. We have infant carrier seats, joggers, strollers, what are your recommendations on those items?

SAJJAD YACOOB, MD: The infant carrier seats, one of the important things is they are nice and handy to use, but always make sure that the handle that you are using is locked in place so they can't accidentally slip out, and that the child in the infant carrier seat is actually strapped in as well.