ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

Well.  I sometimes write the titles to my blog posts before I write the posts themselves.   That is what happened with this post, but now I am derailed but I am going to keep the title because it is still apt. I just finished reading the June 3, 2013 issue of OT Practice.  The cover story is entitled 'On the Go: Safely Transporting Children with Special Health Care Needs.'  This is an excellent article, full of practical and relevant information about the topic.  The Riley Hospital for Children at the Indiana University School of Medicine has blazed this trail for years and years - and that fact bothered me because I could not understand why I was reading yet another article about child passenger safety as if it was the first article being written.  I totally appreciate the article; I just don't want to see any more calls arguing about HOW or WHY this is a legitimate area of concern.  I think it should be established by now. That cause me to beg...

I was pleased to see the article in the recent OT Practice entitled "School Buses + Safety Belts = Good Idea." (Loveland, 2009). I think it is important for OTs to have a good discussion about ways to promote safety and prevention of child injuries. There are some additional facts to consider so I wanted to list them here: 1. In the studies cited in the Loveland article, there was an annual average of 17,000 children seen for emergency treatment for school-bus related injuries. However, that number is a little misleading. The study reports that only 42% of those injuries were crash related, so by extrapolation, it is arguable that seat belts would not have made a difference in many of those injuries. In fact, the 17,000 number includes slips and falls outside of the bus, getting on/off the bus, etc (McGeehan, 2006). 2. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports detailed research on their website about school-transportation related injuries and deat...

Earlier this week Consumer Reports reported on the performance of certain child restraints in side impact crashes. That generated a few calls and emails to me from concerned parents. Now I see that they are retracting the article because of new data they are considering. It seems that the crash velocities used in the Consumer Reports testing far exceeded the 35-38 mph standard that is typically used. Go check out their retraction statement HERE. I like to highlight this information because any pediatric OTs out there who have young children on their caseloads should be sharing this information with parents. When parents hear about these reports they begin to lose confidence in their car seats - it is critical that parents continue to place their children in their car seats. This is particularly true for parents of children who have disabilities. Many of these parents already lack confidence in child restraints. Traditional child restraint devices do not address the unique positioning n...

I don't typically pass around web sites that I think people should go visit although I have done so lately. I hope that when people see that I am referring a web site that it is not the equivalence of junk mail or spam. I would only send you somewhere that I really think you need to visit. I got involved in child passenger safety sometime in the late 90s. I was forced there out of necessity and parent demand - a parent whose child had a spica cast chastised the hospital I was working in because there was no appropriate restraint to send her child home in. I am thankful to that parent to this day; I am not sure if she is aware of the changes that were made because of her concerns. I educated myself on the issue and learned that a nationwide education campaign resulted in increased use of child restraint devices in automobiles but many children are still restrained improperly (Glassbrenner, 2003). National studies demonstrate that the misuse rate of child restraint devices in automob...

Pediatric occupational therapists often have good opportunities to talk to parents about injury prevention. Parents are often looking for advice on proper child restraints and other child passenger safety issues. Parent education regarding safety and wellness issues should be critical components of all occupational therapy interventions. It is very difficult to cut through the hype when it comes to reporting on SUV safety - and the reporting on the newest study in Pediatrics this month is no exception. Read the full article at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/117/1/9 On average, SUVs in the study weighed 1,300 pounds more than the cars studied. The extra weight of SUVs enhanced safety, reducing the risk of injury by more than a third. That safety is offset by findings that SUVs were more than twice as likely as cars to roll over in crashes. So what should parents do? Study the rollover risks of SUVs. Go to the website http://www.safercar.gov/ and study the is...

We have received several phone calls in recent weeks regarding a controversial new 'research' study that was published on the 'Freakonomics' website. To view the article, click here . The article states that the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data shows that child restraint systems are no more effective than regular seatbelts for children ages two and up. There are several potential problems with this conclusion that need to be resolved. First, FARS data only accounts for fatality crashes. The incidence of injury is far greater than the incidence of death in motor vehicle crashes, and this study doesn't address the way that child restraints may function to prevent injury in less-severe motor vehicle crashes. Second, the 'study' has not been peer-reviewed. We encourage the authors to submit their findings to a reputable peer-reviewed journal so that it can be scrutinized appropriately. Third, we are concerned that there has been no consideration fo...