Saturday May 18 Is National Safe Kids Day

Buckle up, wear a helmet, learn to swim. These are important ways to keep kids safe. Today, Saturday, May 18, is National Safe Kids Day. Here are a few important child safety reminders:

• Scan your home for places where kids can get into medicine. Pills in purses, vitamins on counters, and medicine in daily reminder boxes are all places that curious kids get into.  Every 8 minutes, a child goes to the ER for medicine poisoning. Secure the medicine you need and dispose of medicine that is unwanted or expired.  Properly dispose of medicine at Hennepin County Sheriff's Office locations.  For more information, visit http://www.hennepin.us/medicine.

• Check around your house for coin-sized button batteries.  They come in musical greeting cards, remote controls and key fobs. Kids put them in their mouth. There are about 10 phone calls each day to poison control centers due to this problem.

• Check smoke and CO alarms monthly. Replace devices every 10 years. Replace batteries every year.  When a young child dies from a house fire, a smoke alarm is usually either not present or not working because of dead or missing batteries. You can’t see, taste, or smell carbon monoxide, so your family needs both types of alarms.

• Have children always wear a bike helmet while riding a bike: (from the city of Plymouth):

Plymouth Police and Fire departments have an annual Bell Bike Helmet Program, in which they sell bike helmets at a reduced cost twice per month. 

Bike helmet sales will be offered the first and third Thursday of each month through August. Helmets range in size from toddler to extra-large adult and come in a variety of styles and colors. Traditional helmets cost $5-13; multi-sport helmets, $15-23. 

The next sale is 6-8 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at Fire Station No. 3, 3300 Dunkirk Lane N. 

According to the Minnesota Safety Council, if all bikers wore helmets, one death could be prevented every day and one head injury could be prevented every four minutes. 

“Kids get to pick out the helmets that they like," said Sara Lynn Cwayna, Plymouth Public Safety Education Specialist. "We’ll fit them, and the family is on its way to a safe summer. Many times families can purchase four new helmets for less than the cost of one adult helmet in retail.”

Since the year 2000, the City of Plymouth has sold more than 10,000 helmets, Cwayna said. 

(Some information provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office from the source Safekids.org and the city of Plymouth.)

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