It’s fun to play with fireworks — until it’s not. Emergency departments across the country see an increase in burns and hand injuries around the July Fourth holiday. Charity S. Burke, M.D., hand surgeon with Norton Louisville Arm & Hand, has treated such fireworks injuries. Norton Louisville Arm & Hand The skilled surgeons with Norton…
Every summer, children are lost or suffer long-term disabilities related to submersion injuries. Submersion injuries include drowning and near-drowning incidents. Frightening stories about “dry drowning” go viral on social media. You may scroll past them, thinking dry drowning is not a real threat. But it is. And it can be life-threatening. Nonfatal dry drowning refers…
Two-thirds of all drownings happen between May and August, according to Safe Kids Worldwide. The Norton Children’s Hospital emergency department typically sees an average of 19 drowning victims a year in these months. Sadly, most drownings are completely preventable. Know the signs of drowning. “There are some safety precautions you can take to prevent drowning,…
The number of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) cases fell by more than half in Kentucky from 2016 to 2018, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. In 2016, 103 SUID cases were recorded in Kentucky. The number dropped to 84 in 2017 and 48 last year. Expectant parent classes “Childbirth 101,” infant care…
The Kentucky Poison Control Center of Norton Children’s Hospital has been working to reduce illness and death from poisoning in Kentucky for 65 years. The center provides 24/7 free and confidential access to specially trained nurses, pharmacists and physicians. The nurses are nationally certified specialists in poison information, and the physicians are board certified in…
If you were a second-grader in Jefferson County after 1993, chances are you took a field trip to Safety City. For 25 years, nearly 150,000 second-grade students from private, public, parochial and home school programs in Metro Louisville have visited Safety City, a model city located behind Bates Elementary School on Bardstown Road in Fern…
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, backover crashes cause approximately 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries each year. Driveway accidents, including backover and frontover incidents, are more common in warm weather, when children begin playing outside. Children under 5 are at the greatest risk, due to their small size, of likely being in a…
These days children often are exposed to adult language, images and behaviors before they are developmentally prepared to handle them. As children see and hear these at a younger age, parents need to start thinking about talking to their children about sexuality earlier than previous generations. Nikki Boyd, coordinator of health and wellness for Norton…
As the temperatures continue to drop, many parents are making a potentially fatal mistake by putting their kids in winter coats while they are in car seats. When a child is wearing a winter coat, it may feel like they are strapped snugly into the car seat, but the straps actually are dangerously loose against…
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect families across the nation. Flu season is upon us, and pediatricians are reminding families that there is still time to get kids a flu shot. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) strongly recommends children receive their flu vaccinations by the end of October. This includes all eligible kids 6 months and…
Fireworks around July Fourth result in thousands of trips to hospital emergency departments. Last year, a man even died in Henderson, Kentucky, after bending over to light a firework. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), nearly 12,000 people were treated for fireworks injuries last year, including more than 250 per day in…
As a mom of two healthy, happy and well-behaved young girls, I thought I had parenting all figured out. My girls go to bed on time (most nights), they pick up their toys (by the time I count to three) and they eat their veggies (after some serious convincing). As a wellness specialist with Norton…