I’m sure there are a number of parents that worry about what a new school year brings for their children.  New course work, new challenges and new dangers.  I can’t come by all of your houses after school and help tutor your children, but I can help you make them safer.  This month I’ve included a list of back to school reminders and safety tips that you should review and share them with your children, which I pulled from the American Academy of Pediatrics website.   

Traveling to and from school

School bus:

• If your child’s school bus has lap/shoulder seat belts, make sure your child uses one at all times when in the bus. If your child’s school bus does not have lap/shoulder belts, encourage the school to buy or lease buses with lap/shoulder belts.
• Wait for the bus to stop before approaching it from the curb.
• Do not move around on the bus.
• Check to see that no other traffic is coming before crossing.
• Make sure to always remain in clear view of the bus driver.

Biking:

• Always wear a bicycle helmet, no matter how short or long the ride.
• Ride on the right, in the same direction as auto traffic.
• Use appropriate hand signals.
• Respect traffic lights and stop signs.
• Wear bright color clothing to increase visibility.

Walking:

• Make sure your child’s walk to a school is a safe route with well-trained adult crossing guards at every intersection.
• Be realistic about your child’s pedestrian skills. Because small children are impulsive and less cautious around traffic, carefully consider whether or not your child is ready to walk to school without adult supervision.
• If your child is young or is walking to new school, walk with them the first week to make sure they know the route and can do it safely.
• Bright colored clothing will make your child more visible to drivers.
• In neighborhoods with higher levels of traffic, consider starting a “walking school bus,” in which an adult accompanies a group of neighborhood children walking to school.

Before and after school child care 

• During middle childhood, youngsters need supervision. A responsible adult should be available to get them ready and off to school in the morning and watch over them after school until you return home from work.
• Children approaching adolescence (11- and 12-year-olds) should not come home to an empty house in the afternoon unless they show unusual maturity for their age.
• If alternate adult supervision is not available, parents should make special efforts to supervise their children from a distance. Children should have a set time when they are expected to arrive at home and should check in with a neighbor or with a parent by telephone.  

Most of these safety tips are pretty basic and mostly a reminder, but be sure to review them with your children because it never hurts to review safety tips, but it can hurt not to. 

I’ve personally never had my home or apartment broken into, but I have had my car broken into.  Luckily, I keep hardly anything in my car, so the thief only made off with the change in my ash tray, I did have to pay to repair my door where he broke the lock.  Even though the financial damages were small the thief was able to take away something much more important for me, my security. 

After you have had a break-in you feel violated and vulnerable.  I couldn’t help but think to myself if the thief had found my address on my registration and was planning on breaking into my home at some point.  You are on high alert for a period of time after a burglary.  I’ve seen it a number of times with clients of mine that have had their house broken into.  When I’ve show up to a client’s house after an incident you can see vulnerability on the persons face.  There belongings are thrown everywhere, there are empty spaces where a TV, piece of furniture or picture used to be and the police are there going through everything trying to get fingerprints.

We all want to minimize the chance of having our house burglarized, so I’ve compiled some security tips to help us reduce the likelihood:

• When you take a vacation be sure to have your mail stopped or have a relative stop by and pick up your mail for you.
• If you are away for an extended period of time in the winter, have a relative/friend stop by your house to make some tire tracks in your driveway or have your driveway plowed.  This will give the appearance that someone is home
• If you are going away on vacation don’t announce it the various social media websites, like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.  Wait until you get back to share the pictures of you on the beach sipping margaritas.
• If you have a security system on your home or are thinking of getting one make sure that the activation pad is in a place that can’t be easily seen from a door or window.  You don’t want a burglar to be able to see from the window if the system is activated or not.
• If you have children be sure to keep their toys put away and not left out in the yard.  If you have good toys in your yard, someone is most likely to think that you have good toys in your home, like expensive gaming systems and computers. 
• If you have a contractor come to your house to do some work, be sure to check all of your locks on your doors and windows afterwards.  Sometimes a contractor will unlock a door or window for easy entry later on. 

This is just a brief list of safety tips that was provided by Reader’s Digest.  I could have listed pages and pages of security tips to keep you and your property safe and secure.  The best rule of thumb is to use your best judgment to minimize the chance of being burglarized.

First off, my daughter Kaci Kathleen VanScoter was born 7/18 at 8:42am, since that time Christine and I have learned a lot about babies.  In our brief stay in the hospital the nurses got to know us pretty well.  We frantically called the nurse’s station to come to our room and examine Kaci because she seemed to have very deep hiccups.  The nurse assured us that babies get hiccups and she is fine. 

The hospital thought they had gotten rid of us, but just over 24 hours after we were discharged, we were making a trip to the emergency room.  Kaci had spit-up ferociously, what appeared to be her entire feeding.  We were concerned with the projectile nature of the spit-up, so our pediatrician recommended that we go the hospital.  The doctor asked us a series of questions, such as, is she feeding ok?, is she having bowl movements?, is she lethargic?, we replied, she’s feeding fine, she’s filling the diapers alright and she’s as alert as you could expect from a new born.  He checked her out and then asked us the most important question of all, are you first-time parents? Yes, we are, then his tone changed and he assured us that babies spit-up and she is fine. 

I’ve also learned to watch where you keep hands when you’re preparing to bath her and she’s not wearing a diaper.  My hand got soaked and it wasn’t from the bath water.  Also when you’re changing her, be sure to get that new diaper on her as fast as possible or there could be a mess on the changing table.

Christine and I have learned a great deal in the just the first two weeks the hard way, so I thought I would do a little research so we won’t have to learn everything the hard.  So below are some safety tips for babies and children provided by Safe Kids Worldwide:

•  Keep soft things out of the place where an infant sleeps
•  Babies should be put to sleep on their backs
•  Put all plastic wrappings or bags where children can’t reach them
•  Infants should ride in rear-facing car seats until they weigh at least 20 lbs (9 kg) and are at least 1 year old. Do not put a rear-facing car seat in the front seat of a vehicle with an active passenger air bag
• Children over 1 year old and weighing between 20 lbs (9kg) and 40 lbs (18 kg) should ride in forward-facing car seats
• Children ages 4 to 8 weighing between 40 lbs (18 kg) and 80 lbs (36 kg) should ride in booster seats restrained with lap and shoulder belts. A regular safety belt won’t fully protect a child this size in a crash
• Don’t leave a baby alone on a changing table, bed, couch or other furniture. Keep one hand on the baby while changing diapers
• Always strap a baby into a high chair, swing, changing table or strollers
• Teach children a plan for escaping your home in a fire and practice it
• Before bathing children in heated water, always run your open hand through the water to check its temperature
• Keep hot foods and liquids away from table and counter edges. Never carry children and hot foods or liquids at the same time
• Always watch children near water. Don’t leave, even for a moment

Hopefully you can benefit from our learning experiences and these safety tips.