Summer Safety Tips for Kids

Our most awesome pediatrician, Dr. Jeffrey Yablonski, is a Framingham resident and father of three. He practices at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Wellesley and shares  his top three summer safety conerns/tips: 

• Sun exposure:  The sun is most intense between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when your shadow is shorter than you. On both sunny and cloudy days use a sunscreen with SPF of 30 or greater that protects against both UVA and UVB rays. Be sure to use enough sunscreen (about an ounce each time for a young adult) which equals about one shot glass full. Very few people use enough! Sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours or sooner after swimming or sweating. Because it is impossible to see how well one has applied sunscreen, the best defense against excess sun exposure is staying in the shade and wearing lightweight cotton clothing. For infants under six months, use of shade and clothing are the main recommendations but a small amount of sunscreen can be applied to exposed areas such as the face and back of the hands. 
• Water Safety: Swimming is wonderful fun in the summer but parents need to follow some simple rules to keep it safe. Never leave children alone in or near a pool. Children under age 5 should have an adult within arm’s length providing “touch supervision” when in or near the water. Swim lessons may lower the risk of drowning in children over one year of age but this never “drown-proofs” the child. Pools should be surrounded by a fence that a small child cannot get over, under or through. Pool decks can be slippery so there should never be running. Pools and bodies of water of all sizes pose the same risks.
• Tick-Borne Disease: Ticks are most active in the warmer months at dawn and dusk. Use of insect repellents with DEET work but parents should avoid applying it to their children’s hands, eyes and mouths. Parents should examine their children daily for ticks especially under arms, in/around the ears, belly button, groin, waist, ankles, behind knees and in the hair. Deer ticks carry Lyme disease bacteria and can be as small as a poppy-seed so use a magnifying glass if necessary. Remove the tick with fine-tipped tweezers by grasping as close to the skin surface as possible at the head rather than the fattest part of its body. Pull upward with steady pressure. Try not to twist or jerk as this can cause the mouth parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, try to remove the mouth parts with tweezers. If you can’t don’t despair, Lyme bacteria lives in the stomach of the tick and is therefore long gone. The skin will heal and push out the foreign body eventually. After tick removal, clean the bite area and apply an antiseptic or a topical antibiotic.  Watch for rash development at the bite location over the next month as this would be an early sign of Lyme disease but a tick must be attached for over 48 hours for Lyme to be transmitted.  

If you have any questions, call your child’s primary care doctor.