December e-news

Welcome to our final e-news for 2015! It’s been a great year with lots of work in the world of child injury prevention. Two big highlights of our year include ‘The Unconventional Oven’ campaign (details below) and the launch of ‘Find a Fitter’, our online Child Restraint Fitting Station Listing. We would like to thank all of our subscribers for your ongoing support this year. We hope that we can continue to provide you with helpful safety tips and information in 2016.

Just a reminder that our office will be closed from 18^th December – 4^th January. If you have any enquiries during this time, please email info@kidsafevic.com.au and we will get back to you as soon as possible! Also keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages which will still be active during this time.

For our final 2015 edition, we will leave you with some tips for keeping children safe during the silly season, as well as the most recent product recalls.

Again, thank you for subscribing. Have a very merry Christmas and a safe new year!

From the team at Kidsafe Vic. 

Keep kids safe around the pool this summer

Summer with a pool means lots of visitors and lots of fun, but it also means parents and carers need to be extra vigilant when it comes to keeping children safe.

Drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children aged 0-4 years. In the 2014/15 financial year, 26 Australian children aged 0-4 years drowned, a 30% per cent increase from 2013/14. Backyard pools are the most common location for these drowning incidents to occur.

Evidence suggests that a large number of backyard pool drowning deaths are the result of fencing that is faulty, or non-compliant with Australian standards.

If you’re planning on having a Christmas/New Year party, or just a relaxing afternoon with family and friends by the pool, it is a good idea to nominate a ‘dedicated supervisor’ whose job it is to actively supervise children who are in or around the pool. You can share this role throughout the day so everyone gets a chance to relax.

While active adult supervision is the best way to keep children safe around water, it is also important to regularly check that your safety barrier is in proper working order. Now is a perfect time to get outside and do a check before the Christmas parties begin.

Some key things to look out for when checking your pool fence include:

1. Is the gate self-closing and self-latching?
2. Are there any gaps under the barrier or gate that are greater than 100mm?
3. Are there any climbable objects near the barrier that may enable a child to access the pool or spa?
4. Is the gate propped open?

So let’s keep toddlers within arm’s reach, check our pool fences and make this the safest summer yet!

For more information on keeping children safe around water and a detailed home pool safety checklist, please visit Pool Fence Safety

The Unconventional Oven with Matt Moran

Every year, an estimated 5,000 children are rescued after being left unattended in cars. Leaving a child unattended in a car can be extremely dangerous. To show just how dangerous, we asked celebrity chef Matt Moran to cook us some lamb- in a car.

After 90 minutes parked at Bondi beach, the inside of the car was over 75 degrees and in Matt’s words, the lamb was “totally overdone”.

The video of the event has reached nearly 4.5 million people and has been shared more than 40,000 times. We are thrilled that this important message is reaching so many Australians as the weather starts to heat up for summer.

Why are children at risk?

• The temperature inside a parked car can be 20-30 degrees hotter than outside.
•  Children cannot moderate their body temperature the same way adults can, which means that they are at increased risk of becoming dehydrated and experiencing life threatening heatstroke.
• Cars heat up quickly, and most of the increase in temperature occurs in the first 15 minutes of parking the car.
• Leaving the windows open has little effect on the inside temperature of the car.

Remember that the sun can turn any car into an oven, so if you have to have to leave the car, always take the children with you. It is also a good idea to keep keys on you when unloading children and shopping bags from the car, to avoid accidently locking the keys and your children inside.

We would like to say a big thank you Matt Moran for helping us with the campaign, as well as DDB and AAMI for their support.

To see the full video and find out more about the campaign, please visit http://theunconventionaloven.com.au/  or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og-t_74sQ78

‘Do Not Leave Children Unattended in Cars’ Campaign – Work with local Councils

We are excited to announce that the City of Casey and Hume City Council have joined Kidsafe Victoria’s ‘Do Not Leave Children in Cars’ campaign and will be assisting to raise awareness of this important issue throughout their municipalities. Both councils will be installing warning signs in car parks across the municipality as part of the campaign, as well as promoting safety messages through their social media accounts, websites, newsletters and early childhood services.

To find out how your local council can join the campaign, please visit Local Government Community Awareness Kit

Christmas Toy Safety

If like us, you have lots of Christmas presents to buy this year, we have a few tips to ensure that the toys you buy for children don’t have any nasty surprises!

When purchasing toys for children always:

• Take notice of the age recommendations. A toy marked as not suitable for a child under 3 years may have small parts which a young child can swallow.
• Read the label and instructions carefully to ensure the toy is non-toxic, non-flammable and is set up/used correctly.
• Inspect the toy to look for possible hazards including sharp edges, small parts or long strings.

For a more detailed guide of what to look for when buying toys for each child’s age group, check out our Christmas Toys fact sheet: Christmas Toys PDF

There have also been reports that there are a number of ‘fake toys’ for sale that could be unsafe for children. Please visit http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/fake-kids-toys/ to read more about this story.

Help us Keep Kids Safe

Falls, cuts and scrapes are a part of growing up. We all know that when it comes to kids- accidents happen. But that’s not why we do the work we do. Every year in Victoria, approximately 29 children are killed and over 86,000 are treated in hospital due to unintentional injuries. These injuries can often have a life-long impact on the child and their family.

It is these more serious injuries that Kidsafe Victoria aims to prevent.

Since Kidsafe’s establishment, the number of children killed by unintentional injury has more than halved- but we still have a long way to go…

Did you know that Kidsafe is a charity? We rely on the support of individuals and organisations to deliver our accident prevention campaigns and programs.

This Christmas, donate to the Kidsafe Victoria appeal and help us work towards making a safer world for kids. Every dollar helps: https://www.givematcher.com.au/kidsafe-victoria

Product Recalls

Baby Bean Bag Shop—Sea Friends Woodstock Bean Bags

The zip on the bean bag doesn’t have a child resistant slide fastener, which means children could access the polystyrene balls inside. If you have this bean bag, remove the paper clip from the zip tag immediately to prevent children from opening the zip. For more information, please visit http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1080055

Target Australia Pty Ltd—Baby Girl’s Loreto Dress

The tassel may detach from the dress and present a choking hazard. Return the dress to your nearest Target as soon as possible for a full refund. More information can be found at http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1080035