5 Safety Tips to Remember for Spring
*Collaborative Post
Spring is an excellent time to venture outdoors and enjoy a warm fresh breeze with your kids. However, warmer temperatures often bring more opportunities for injuries, especially with little ones. Here are some essential safety tips to keep you and your family safe while you enjoy the warm weather this spring.
1. Practice Sun Safety
Welcome the warmer temperatures with open arms, but ensure to protect your family from the sun’s harmful rays. Sunburns can cause skin damage, put your child at risk for skin cancer and injure their eyes. Hats can provide shade for kids for their heads, eyes and often some of their bodies. Sunglasses shield their eyes from the sun and protect them from injury.
Don’t forget to slather up on sunscreen regardless if it’s sunny or overcast. Ensure your sunscreen has at least SPF 30 and is broad-spectrum, which protects against UVB and UVA rays. When necessary, seek shade for shelter under a tree or bring an umbrella when you must be outdoors. Reapply sunscreen frequently, especially if your kids are playing in the water (choosing reef-safe sunscreens is the better choice for our environment). You can get water-resistant sunscreen, but it doesn’t last all day.
2. Beware of Unsafe Surfaces
The sun heats everything from sidewalks and asphalt to equipment on a playground. Ensure your child wears shoes outdoors to avoid them harming their feet on the hot driveway or sidewalks. Playgrounds are an excellent way for kids to play outdoors and get physical activity. Physical activity has myriad benefits for all ages, but playgrounds especially benefit children. They help them develop critical thinking skills and play with peers.
Each year, there are around 29,000 injuries related to playgrounds in children under the age of 15. Kids are bound to fall down and hurt themselves when they play, but you should never leave them unsupervised. Most playgrounds have shock-absorbent surfacing which reduces the risk of falling. To be safe, check the playground before you let your kids play on them and try to avoid surfaces underneath playground equipment like concrete, grass, asphalt, sharp rocks or packed dirt.
3. Drink Plenty of Fluids
Staying hydrated is essential to your overall health, especially in warm weather situations. Ensure you and your child drink plenty of water or other hydrating fluids to reduce the risk of dehydration. Staying hydrated can increase your child’s energy levels, hydrate their skin, carry nutrients throughout their body and regulate their body temperature. While you want to encourage your child to play and run around, you want to ensure they get the hydration they need.
Daily activities cause your child to lose water, especially if they’re sweating so you want to ensure to replenish them. Children require different amounts of water depending on their age range. For example, if your child is eight years or older, they need 7-8 cups of water daily. Serving snacks rich in water like popsicles, watermelon, cucumber or celery can help keep your child hydrated. Reusable water bottles can also encourage kids to drink more water.
4. Wear Protective Gear
Spring weather brings so many fun outdoor activities like bike riding, rollerblading, water sports, camping and hiking. Walking in nature can work wonders for your overall health from reducing blood pressure to aiding digestion, improving sleep and boosting your immune system. So, don’t hesitate to get your hiking boots and take your kids on a refreshing hike.
Don’t forget to provide your child with protective gear and clothing so they can safely navigate these fun activities and prevent injuries. Protective boots can protect you and your child from slipping or twisting your feet on rocks and from snakes. Ensure your child wears a life jacket when they’re playing in large bodies of water, knee pads when they’re rollerskating or rollerblading and helmets when they ride their bikes.
5. Prevent Stings and Bug Bites
Bugs are just as excited as you are about the warm weather, so they’re out in full swing. Ensure that you stock up on insect repellent and spray down your kids before they go out to play. Teaching your child how to identify dangerous insects can help them stay away from them when possible. Bug bites and stings are a part of growing up–it’s bound to happen when kids play outside.
You can treat bites and stings from insects at home, but some can be poisonous or cause allergic reactions. You should seek medical attention immediately if your child experiences severe symptoms from an insect bite. Severe insect bite or sting symptoms include dizziness or loss of consciousness, difficulty breathing, fever, nausea or vomiting, confusion, muscle spasms, rapid heart rate and lips, throat, face or eyelids swelling.
Spring Safety Tips for Parents
Being outdoors during springtime is refreshing and can encourage physical activity for you and your family. Don’t let fear of injury keep you from enjoying the beautiful weather. Stay safe with these tips and tricks for spring safety and enjoy the great outdoors with your kids.
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