“While we are ecstatic that children are finding ways to get exercise and enjoy being outside, we want to remind parents to make sure that kids are protected while having fun,” said Kara Starnes, D.O., medical director of Urgent Care at Cook Children's.

Helmets are a Must for Fun on Wheels

ATV and dirt bike crashes are a common occurrence during summer. Over Memorial Day Weekend, the emergency department in Fort Worth saw 10 injuries related to motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs and skating.

Always ensure your child wears a properly fitted helmet to avoid head injuries. Adult supervision is essential when a child is riding any motorized vehicle, and children should never ride on ATVs or dirt bikes designed for adults.

“Please supervise your children on motorized vehicles,” Taylor Louden, M.D., medical director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Fort Worth said. “They should always be wearing their seat belt and appropriate safety gear. The start of summer is a great time to check your kids’ safety gear and make sure helmets fit appropriately and are in good condition.”

A helmet that fits correctly will feel snug but not uncomfortable. 

A few other key points:

• Helmets that passed federal safety standards in testing will say “U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission certified” on the label.
• Helmets should be worn in a level position just above the eyebrows.
• If the helmet rocks backward and forward or side to side, adjust the straps. No more than two fingers should fit under the buckled chin strap.    
• Never ride without a helmet.

Water Safety: A Constant Vigilance

Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1 to 4, and the second leading cause for kids 1-14 in Texas. Drownings can happen silently and quickly. A submerged person might not attract attention or appear to be in danger. These tragedies highlight the importance of constant supervision around water.

Sharon Evans, trauma injury prevention coordinator at Cook Children's, emphasizes, "There's no off-season for drownings. A moment of inattention can be devastating."

Unplanned swim time is a major culprit, with roughly 70% of drownings at Cook Children's occurring when parents weren't expecting their child to be near water.

Layers of Protection: Keeping Curious Toddlers Safe

Multiple safety measures, known as "layers of protection," can significantly reduce drowning risks. Fencing around pools with self-latching gates, preferably 5-feet high, is crucial. Door and window alarms can alert you if a child exits the house unsupervised. Remember, young children are naturally curious, so removing pool toys and floats when not in use minimizes temptation. For above-ground pools, make sure to remove the ladder when the pool is unsupervised. Consider using a pool surface alarm for added security.

Cook Children's has developed the "Lifeguard Your Child" campaign to raise awareness about childhood injury prevention. Through this initiative, you can find resources like free swim lessons, safety videos, and loaner life jacket stations at lakes across North Texas. Visit lifeguardyourchild.org for more information.

Sun Safety: Protecting Young Skin

Sunburns are not just uncomfortable; they can increase a child's risk of skin cancer later in life. Zinc oxide-based sunscreen is best whenever your child is outdoors. Covering skin with SPF is another way to protect your child’s skin. Apply sunscreen generously 30 minutes before sun exposure and reapply every two hours, or more often after swimming or sweating. Protective clothing, hats with wide brims, and sunglasses that block UV rays offer additional defense.

Hydration: Keeping Cool and Healthy

Dehydration can lead to nausea, dizziness, headache, or even heat stroke. Encourage frequent sips of water throughout the day, even if your child doesn't feel thirsty. Avoid sugary drinks that can worsen dehydration.

Your child’s urine colors can range from clear to dark yellow to orange, depending on how hydrated they are. To tell if your child is dehydrated, read this article from Celina D. Cepeda, M.D., a nephrologist at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Prosper.

Fishing Fun Without the Hooks

Fishing is a popular summer activity, but fish hooks can pose a safety risk. Teach children to handle hooks with care and supervise them closely while fishing. Consider using barbless hooks to minimize injury if a hook snags on skin.

RELATED:

• A Cautionary Tale: The Misadventures of Summer & Top Injuries Seen at Cook Children’s
• Should My Child Ride ATVs? Cook Children's Experts Weigh In 
• Sunburn Relief at Home, When to See a Pediatrician 
• Pediatrician Shares Top Beach Vacation Health Tips 
• Heads Up: Helmet Tips for Safer Bicycling 
• Teen Driver? What to Know Before They Go This Summer 

As families and friends come together to celebrate Independence Day, it's important to keep safety in mind. According to experts at Cook Children's, drowning is the primary threat to children during this holiday. Drowning patients are commonly seen in the emergency room and these incidents can often have severe outcomes.

To ensure a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend, consider the following safety tips:

• Always supervise children when they are in or near water, even if they know how to swim.
• Designate a Water Watcher, an adult who will watch all children while they are in or around water with no distractions.
• Keep pool areas fenced and locked when not in use and remove all pool toys/floats. One to 4-year-olds are at the most risk to drown in a pool.

DROWNING PREVENTION

From June 1 to June 23, 2023, there were 10 drownings treated at Cook Children’s, two of which were fatal. Most of these patients have been in the 5 years old and under age group.

Since Jan. 1, 2023, there have been 25 drownings at Cook Children’s, three of which were fatal. Most drownings in 2023 have occurred in a swimming pool or hot tub.

While most patients survived these incidents, drowning injuries can result in severe effects, especially on a child’s brain development.

Drownings can happen silently and quickly. A submerged person might not attract attention or appear to be in danger

Drownings can occur even with many adults present. When there are children around water, always designate a Water Watcher, an adult who is in charge of watching all children without any distractions. The Water Watcher should not use a cell phone, socialize, drink alcohol or do anything else that might be a distraction.

Parents can put barriers in place to help prevent a child from accessing the water or make it more difficult to access when an adult is not present. Barriers – such as locks, alarms and fencing – can help keep unsupervised young children from getting into swimming pools.

Go here for more information on Water Watcher tags. Lifeguardyourchild.org shares many resources and tips for drowning prevention.

HEAT SAFETY

In very hot weather, high humidity, and other conditions, heat in the body can build to dangerous levels. This can cause heat illness, such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, or heatstroke.

With highs in the upper 90s, be sure to keep these heat safety tips in mind. 

Wear appropriate clothing: Choose lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothes. Wear a hat to shield yourself from the sun, until you feel yourself getting warm. Then remove any items covering your head that can trap heat close to the body.

Schedule outdoor activities carefully: Heatstroke can occur in less than an hour when you are participating in a strenuous activity on a hot day. Try to limit outdoor activity to when it’s coolest, like morning and evening hours. Rest often in shady areas so your child’s body has a chance to recover.

Hydrate: Drink plenty of water during the day, especially if you are engaged in any strenuous activity. Be sure to drink water or a sports drink before, during and after any strenuous activity.

Wear sunscreen: If you go outside, use sunscreen, wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, and put on sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher 30 minutes before going outside. Continue to reapply according to the package directions.

FIREWORKS

Fireworks can cause severe injuries that are both harmful and painful to children. Children should never handle fireworks. Even seemingly harmless sparklers can heat up to more than 1,200 degrees, making them dangerous for young children. 

Some people light sparklers at home or even set off their own fireworks, but this is dangerous. Some of the people hurt each year aren't the ones setting off the fireworks, but people who are nearby.

The safest way to enjoy fireworks is at a professional display.

If setting off fireworks at home, adults should only set them off in a designated “kid-free” zone. Adults should not hold fireworks in their hands or keep any part of their body over them while lighting. Wear eye protection, and don't carry fireworks in your pocket — the friction could set them off.

Point fireworks away from homes, and keep away from brush and leaves and flammable substances. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that local fire departments respond to more 50,000 fires caused by fireworks each year.

It’s also important to keep children away from bonfires and grills to help prevent any accidental burns.

ATV SAFETY

Though often thrilling for children, off-road motorized vehicles — including all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), ATV mules, go-karts, and even golf carts — can be extremely dangerous for them to ride, especially if they don’t use safety measures once they get on board. Cook Children's sees many patients with injuries from ATV accidents every year.

To prevent such injuries among children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under 16 should not drive or ride as passengers in two- and four-wheeled off-road vehicles.

ATV Safety:

• Always wear protective gear such as:
• Helmet
• Eye Protection
• Boots, gloves, long pants, jacket
• Do not ride an ATV at night
• Take an ATV safety course
• Never ride on public roads
• Perform ATV safety checks

RELATED

A Cautionary Tale: The Misadventures of Summer & Top Injuries Seen at Cook Children's (checkupnewsroom.com)

Should My Child Ride ATVs? Cook Children's Experts Weigh In (checkupnewsroom.com)

A Pediatrician's Advice for a Safe and Fun Fourth of July (checkupnewsroom.com)

Ahh, summer. It’s full of adventure. Or, if your kids are anything like mine — misadventure.

Barely two weeks into our summer break this year I made a visit to urgent care with my 14-year-old to have a fish hook removed from his hand. Totally worth it, he says, since he caught a bass. (Insert my motherly eyeroll and exasperated sigh.)

The summer months can be busy ones in pediatric emergency departments, urgent care centers and pediatrician offices. With kids out of school and looking for fun, they sometimes find trouble that results in injury. Tragically, some of those injuries can be serious, life-altering or even fatal.

“In the summer, kids have all day and night to be able to get into trouble, which is what kids are supposed to do. They're just learning,” said Daniel Guzman, M.D., a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Cook Children’s Medical Center. “As parents, we're just trying to manage the chaos so they don’t make any tragic mistakes.”

Drownings top the list of summertime injuries and causes of death at Cook Children’s, according to Sharon Evans, trauma injury prevention coordinator. In fact, it tops the list nationally. Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in children ages 1 to 4. For teens, it is the second leading cause of death.

The Center for Community Health, led by Cook Children’s, offers parents and kids water safety and drowning prevention education guides and resources like water-watcher tags and life jackets through its Lifeguard Your Child program. Through this program, anyone can learn how to choose and properly fit a life jacket, how to build a water safety plan, what type of physical barriers should be in place to secure backyard pools and tips for a safe and fun swim time. 

After drownings, the top sources of summertime injuries sending kids to Cook Children’s Emergency Department include:

• Motor vehicle collisions
• All-terrain vehicle (ATV) accidents
• Dog bites
• Falls on playground equipment and trampolines

Dr. Guzman says car and ATV accident injuries are often the most tragic.

An estimated four kids are seen in U.S. emergency departments every hour for injuries related to ATV accidents, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. From 2017 to 2022, more than 700 North Texas children, most between the ages of 10 to 14, were treated at Cook Children’s Medical Center for serious injuries involving accidents with off-road motorized vehicles.

“The most critical injuries we see from these vehicles are head injuries from kids not wearing a helmet and being ejected,” Dr. Guzman said.

Golf carts can be particularly dangerous.

“With individual ATVs, people tend to put more of the safety equipment on their children, but with a golf cart people feel more secure and protected and less threatened,” he said. “They usually are not wearing a helmet or a seatbelt, so we see these ejections. When you are riding on pavement and it’s head versus pavement, the pavement always wins.”

While common summertime injuries seen at Cook Children’s Urgent Care Centers are more minor in nature than those in the Emergency Department, the sources of injury are often similar.

“We see lots of trampoline and bicycle injuries," said Kara Starnes, D.O, medical director of Cook Children’s Urgent Care Services. “Kids get outside, they're more active and they're more likely to break things. Bicycles, hoverboards, skateboards and trampolines are a big source of fractures or sprains. Fish hooks are more common in the summer, as are lacerations because kids are playing outside more. They get more cuts and things that need to be sewn up in the summertime.”

The primary care pediatrician’s summer risk list looks a little different given their focus on non-emergency care. When temperatures rise, pediatricians see more:

• Infected bug bites
• Sunburn
• Dehydration
• Poison ivy
• Swimmer’s ear infections
• Leg fractures

“Believe it or not, I see lots of leg fractures in little kids from sliding down a slide while sitting in their parent’s lap, because their leg gets caught between the parent and the side of the slide,” said Diane Arnaout, M.D., a pediatrician at Cook Children’s Pediatric Forest Park. “It’s a really dangerous thing to do.”

Pediatricians and Their Own Kids

Given these common injuries, we asked a few Cook Children’s physicians to weigh in on what they never allow their own children to do, or never let their kids leave the house without in the summer. It’s important to note these physicians are not afraid of fun, they just see the negative outcomes of these thrill-seeking activities on a daily basis. For them, the dangers associated with some of these risky behaviors outweigh the entertainment.

Here’s what they had to say:

Dr. Guzman:

“Trampolines are a big thing that I despise. We see so many injuries from those. You get multiple kids on a trampoline and that really becomes a problem. Another thing for me is golf carts. Until kids can drive, they probably shouldn't be in the golf cart unless mom or dad is in there with them. You wouldn't let your kid drive your car. Why would you let them drive a golf cart, ATV or other off-road motorized vehicle at a young age without any experience? They just don't understand the gravity of the responsibility or have the physical dexterity to maintain a vehicle.”

Dr. Starnes:

“I would never let my kids ride their bikes without a helmet because we see some pretty severe head injuries from bike accidents. ATVs are an absolute hard no for me. Also, kids go barefoot a lot in the summer, so we'll see things get stuck in their feet more often, like glass or gravel. To avoid this, I would recommend they at least wear flip flops or some sort of shoe while playing outside.”

Dr. Arnaout:

“I never let my kids leave the house without a water bottle in the summer. We don’t do trampolines without safety nets or bikes without helmets. And ATVs are a no-go for me.”

Bianka Soria-Olmos, D.O., pediatrician at Cook Children’s Pediatrics Haslet

“Insect repellant, sunscreen and big hats for scalp protection are a must for my kiddos. Water safety is my No. 1 topic in the summer and must be the No. 1 focus of parents when their kids are in or near bodies of water.”

RELATED:

• Should My Child Ride ATVs? Cook Children's Experts Weigh In (checkupnewsroom.com)
• Sunburn Relief at Home, When to See a Pediatrician (checkupnewsroom.com)
• Pediatrician Shares Top Beach Vacation Health Tips (checkupnewsroom.com)
• Heads Up: Helmet Tips for Safer Bicycling (checkupnewsroom.com)
• Teen Driver? What to Know Before They Go This Summer (checkupnewsroom.com)

The Fourth of July is a time for celebration and getting together with family and friends. Cook Children’s experts are sharing safety tips and information to remember as people gather this weekend. Keep in mind that drowning is the leading threat for children, especially during the Fourth of July holiday.

In the emergency room, drowning patients are seen the most frequently and drownings most often lead to fatal outcomes, said Corwin Warmink, M.D., medical director of Cook Children’s Emergency Department.

“Keep a close eye on your child any time there is water nearby,” Dr. Warmink said. “People are often in large groups and let down their guard thinking that someone else is watching the kids in or around the water. They should identify an official Water Watcher who is responsible for keeping track of everyone.”

DROWNINGS

In June 2022, there were 19 drownings treated at Cook Children’s, none were fatal. Seventeen of those children were 5 years old and under.

• In June 2021, there were 22 drownings, one was fatal.
• In June 2020, there were 8 drownings.
• In June 2019, there were 13 drownings.
• In June 2018, there were 16 drownings. Three were fatal.

While most patients survived these incidents, drowning injuries can result in severe effects, especially on a child’s brain development.

Many of the drownings so far in 2022 have occurred during unplanned swim time. This is when parents didn’t expect their child to be in or around the water.

Drownings can happen silently and quickly. A submerged person might not attract attention or appear to be in danger.

Drownings can occur even with many adults present. When there are children around water, always designate a Water Watcher, an adult who is in charge of watching all children without any distractions.

Drownings on July 3 and 4:

• 2018: one drowning on July 3 and two on July 4
• 2019: four drownings on July 3
• 2020: one drowning on July 4
• 2021: one drowning on July 3 and one drowning on July 4

None of these drownings listed above were fatal, but parents and caregivers must remain vigilant.

Parents can also put barriers in place to help prevent a child from accessing the water or make it more difficult to access when an adult is not present. Barriers – such as locks, alarms and fencing – can help keep unsupervised young children from getting into swimming pools.

For more information and resource, including Water Watcher tags, visit: LifeguardYourChild.org

HEAT SAFETY

There are other threats during the Fourth of July holiday that can lead to severe injuries.

“Boating, jet ski and watercraft accidents are very frequent and often very tragic injuries. Burns from fireworks and cookouts are also very common,” Dr. Warmink said. “Snake bites and other bites are also common because a lot of people are outdoors along with very severe sunburns and heat exhaustion.” 

With the highs in the upper 90s and triple-digits, be sure to keep these heat safety tips in mind.

“Sunscreen is important and it should be reapplied every few hours. Drinking plenty of water and hydrating drinks throughout the day,” Dr. Warmink said.

Wear appropriate clothing: Choose lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothes. Wear a hat to shield yourself from the sun, until you feel yourself getting warm. Then remove any items covering your head that can trap heat close to the body.

Schedule outdoor activities carefully: Heatstroke can occur in less than an hour when you are participating in a strenuous activity on a hot day. Try to limit outdoor activity to when it’s coolest, like morning and evening hours. Rest often in shady areas so your child’s body has a chance to recover.

Hydrate: Drink plenty of water during the day, especially if you are engaged in any strenuous activity. Be sure to drink water or a sports drink before, during and after any strenuous activity.

Wear sunscreen: If you got outside, use sunscreen, wear a wide-brimmed hat, and sunglasses, and put on sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher 30 minutes before going outside. Continue to reapply according to the package directions.

FIREWORKS

Severe injuries from fireworks can be harmful and painful to a child. Even sparklers can heat up to more than 1,200 degrees and are dangerous for young children.

“Kids should not shoot off fireworks and they should be shot off in a ‘kid-free’ zone," Dr. Warmink said. "Keep kids away from grills and bonfires also.”

ATV SAFETY

Though often thrilling for children, off-road motorized vehicles — including all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), ATV mules, go-karts, and even golf carts — can be extremely dangerous for them to ride, especially if they don’t use safety measures once they get on board.

To prevent such injuries among children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends children under 16 do not drive or ride as passengers in two- and four-wheeled off-road vehicles.

ATV Safety:

• Always wear protective gear such as:
• o Helmet
• o Eye Protection
• o Boots, gloves, long pants, jacket
• Do not ride an ATV at night
• Take an ATV safety course
• Never ride on public roads
• Perform ATV safety checks

So says Cook Children’s safety experts who reported more than 600 North Texas children were treated at the medical center for serious injuries involving accidents in these types of vehicles from 2017 to 2021. Of those, more than half were between ages 10 to 14.

“It feels like almost every week we see somebody injured who fell off an ATV or rolled a golf cart,” says Dan Guzman, M.D., a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Cook Children’s. He also heads the medical center’s Aim for Safety, an educational firearm safety program designed to reduce unintentional gun-related injuries to children.

“Some come in with bumps and bruises or a broken arm, nothing significant, and they get to go home,” he says. “Then you have those who rolled the golf cart and it landed on them, and they have a severe head injury. We want to reduce and prevent these injuries and deaths by providing community awareness.”

The 625 North Texas children in Cook Children’s report suffered injuries that required treatment in acute care, intensive care, surgery or were held for observation. Of those injured, 312 were ages 10-14. Children ages 5-9 were the next highest category with 180 injured in off-road vehicle accidents.

Six children died from injuries sustained in the accidents during that time frame, according to Cook Children’s report, which included patients younger than 1 year old.

Preventing Injuries

To prevent such injuries among children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends children under 16 do not drive or ride as passengers in two- and four-wheeled off-road vehicles.

If parents followed AAP guidelines, it would help, says Sharon Evans, trauma injury prevention coordinator at Cook Children’s, pointing out most injuries happened among ages 5-14 based on the hospital’s data.

“That’s a lot of kids who could avoid injuries,” Evans says.

AAP’s guidelines were determined based on the physical and developmental stages of children, Dr. Guzman says.

“What’s really important is that parents understand their kids’ developmental and decision-making skills are not fully developed and potentially place them in danger,” he says. “You wouldn’t let your 12-year-old or 14-year-old drive a car, so why let them drive a golf cart or an ATV without adult supervision?”

“And the dexterity of a 9 or 10-year-old combined with their limited experience and ability to handle a potentially powerful machine—it’s a bad combination and potentially deadly,” Dr. Guzman says. “We’re relying on them to be able to make decisions to stop or brake when there’s a fence. All these factors that we take into consideration as adults when we’re driving…kids can’t process quickly because of lack of experience and their overall development. It makes it really difficult.”

Safety Measures

Since many families allow their children to drive and ride in off-road vehicles before age 16, Dr. Guzman says the next best approach to prevent injuries is to teach them safety measures.

Besides determining whether their children are physically and mentally ready, Evans and Dr. Guzman also recommend adult supervision for children operating or traveling in off-road vehicles, as well as requiring helmets and seatbelts and using whatever safety system the vehicles have in place.

Both suggest parents think ahead before allowing their children access to these vehicles.

“Basically, it goes as fast as a car, but there are no sides. There’s nothing to protect children, especially if they’re in there with no seatbelt, no helmet, no nothing,” Evans says. “There’s always that best practice we wish every parent could do. As a parent, realize it can be deadly and set guidelines before the child even gets close to getting on it—like what the speed is going to be, how far they can go, what area they’re driving in. For example, crossing a road, be it a major one or a rural one, is still dangerous.”

The ATV Safety Institute published a Readiness Checklist to determine when children are prepared to safely handle ATVs. The checklist covers areas such as physical development; visual perception/motor development; social/emotional development; and reason and decision-making ability.

Dr. Guzman says he hopes parents understand most injuries related to off-road vehicle accidents are avoidable.

“We want to make sure families understand we’re not here to preach. We’re just giving them information and a unique perspective,” he says. “Unfortunately, what we do and what we see on a daily basis gives us a window into these tragedies that are totally preventable.”

Click here to see full story on cbsdfw.com.

The 8-year-old daughter of Jamie Lynn, and the niece of Brittany Spears, swerved to dodge a drainage ditch on Sunday, flipping her ATV into a pond in Kentwood, La. She was submerged under water for several minutes as her parents tried to free her from the all-terrain vehicle’s seatbelt and netting.

Sharon Evans, Cook Children’s Trauma Injury Prevention coordinator, hopes that this tragedy will serve as a reminder to other parents that children shouldn’t be on ATVs.

“It breaks my heart to see a child injured. I hope that people will see the reality of this situation. ATVs aren’t toys. They weigh more than 800 pounds and can reach speeds of 50 miles per hour or more. They are very dangerous for kids,” Evans said. “Children shouldn’t be on them. The manufacturer of the ATV that Maddie was on warns that children under 10 should never be allowed to operate or even ride as a passenger on the vehicle. We’ve seen too many of these injuries at Cook Children’s to think otherwise.”

Since 2009, Cook Children’s has cared for more than 520 children injured as a result of an ATV injury and three have died. The last death was in 2015.

The state of Texas requires that ATV operators younger than 14 must be under the direct supervision of a parent. The minimum age to operate an ATV is 6, and older for ATV engine sizes under 70cc, 12 and older for engine sizes 70-90cc, and 16 and older for engine sizes 90cc and over. An offense of these laws in Texas is a Class C misdemeanor.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) discourages kids ages 16 or younger from driving or even riding on ATVS.

Evans knows no matter how much she warns against it that parents will still let their children ride ATVs. If so, please follow these guidelines:

• Kids age 16 and younger should not ride an ATV. To reduce the risk of an accident or injury, anyone riding an ATV should follow these tips before and during riding:
• Take a safety certification program to learn how to operate an ATV safely.
• Ride an ATV that's right for your size and age. Visit 4-H ATV Safety for information on how to tell if an ATV is right for a rider.
• Always wear an approved helmet and eye protection. In many states, helmets and eye protection are required by law, particularly for kids.
• Wear long pants, long sleeves, gloves, and over-the-ankle boots to help prevent scrapes and cuts.
• Only ride during daylight hours.
• Always ride at a safe speed on a designated ATV trail.
• Know basic first aid to treat minor injuries, and be able to get help in an emergency.

It's important to never do the following while riding an ATV:

• Never ride on a three-wheel ATV.
• Never ride while drinking alcohol or using drugs.
• Never ride on paved surfaces or public roads (except to cross them).
• Never exceed the limit of passengers allowed by the manufacturer.
• Never allow kids and teens to drive another passenger.

"If it can accelerate your body, it can injure you," said Corwin Warmink, M.D., medical director of the Emergency Department at Cook Children's. "Vehicular accidents, including boats, ATVs, cars, scooters and bikes are all too common on holiday weekends during the summer."

Another danger Dr. Warmink is concerned about this weekend: broken bones. No one wants to spend Labor Day weekend in the hospital. But Dr. Warmink says many families do, thanks to trampolines and monkey bars.

One of the scariest threats we see all too often is drowning. And yes, it can happen to you. In August alone, 14 children were admitted to Cook Children's Medical Center for drowning-related injuries. Two of those children died.

"We've seen many cases where children took their life preservers off and jumped back into the water," said Magdalena Santillan, Trauma Injury Prevention specialist at Cook Children’s. "Often, parents are getting ready to leave the pool and don't realize their kids have jumped back in."

One of the best ways to protect your child around the pool or lake is to become a Water Watcher. This means adults take turns supervising the water with undistracted attention. You can find more information about the program here, including 5 seldom used tips that could save a child's life.

And Labor Day may mark the unofficial end of summer, but that does not mean an end to the heat. According to Dr. Warmink, heat-related illness also tops the list of Labor Day dangers. "Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, hot cars and sunburns are among the common injuries we see over the Labor Day weekend," said Dr. Warmink. "Parents should make sure their kids drink plenty of water and wear sunscreen, and of course, never leave a child alone in a car."

With your help, we can cut the number of Emergency Department admissions this holiday weekend and ensure a safe celebration for everyone.