5 big dangers for your kids -- right in your backyard
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Kiddie pools
Kiddie pools- Your lifeguard alerts are on when your family is at a park district pool or swimming in open water. However, portable pools -- the plastic kind or that you inflate for backyard dips - can be very dangerous. A new study in the journal Pediatrics reveals that 94% of drownings and pool accidents that occurred in an eight-year span involved children under the age of five, and 73% took place in the child's backyard. Fewer than half of these kids were being supervised. But here's the really scary stat -- 18% of the children who were injured or died were left alone for just a moment while the person watching them stepped away. All this adds up to one child death every five days. Experts advise treating portable pools with the same seriousness and safety precautions as above-ground pools when possible and to always maintain a focused watch on children while they're swimming in even a little bit of water.
The reality is that, even inside our own fences, children can be seriously injured (or worse) by summer activities and gear most of us have in the backyard. Here are five surprising risks every parent, grandparent, and caregiver needs to be aware of so that kids have a safer -- and sillier, splashier, fun-and-games -- summer.
What are your best tips for keeping the brood safe in your own backyard?
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