Growing Your Baby - Parenthood from Pregnancy to Pre-school » Child Safety

Poison Prevention Week In the US

Summer — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:50:34 +0000

Poison Prevention Week is an important week to help people understand the risks of various poisons and learn how to reduce the chances of a poisoning happening. Poisoning happens at any age, yet children have a greater risk due to age and body size. What may only make an adult sick, could kill a child quickly.

In 2004 there were an estimated 86,194 child poisoning incidents. That is over 400 per 100,000 overall. The majority of these cases, nearly 70 percent, involved toddlers only 1-2 years old. Most of these poisonings involved accidentally taking prescription or non-prescription medication that belonged to someone else. Following this was poisonings by cleaning products, ointments, and personal care products. According to studies, over half of these poisonings involved products that came in child-resistant packaging.

Parents need to be careful with children, especially young children, in the home. Child locks and protective packaging are not always enough to stop a child from getting into things that are dangerous. The lure of candy-like pills and brightly colored cleaning products is often too much for a toddler to resist. Parents need to take extra precautions in keeping children safe at home, and out.

The easiest way to prevent many unintentional poisonings is to move products and medication to shelves and cabinets that children cannot reach. Look around your home at the eye level of your child to see where there are potential dangers. Older toddlers often can climb into places parents thought were impossible, so you should make sure the place you choose is not able to be climbed into.

Never leave cleaning products out for just a moment. It can be easy to run to answer the phone and leave a bottle of cleaner on the table, however it would only take a moment for a child to get the bottle and become harmed by the chemicals inside. Many parents are opting to remove chemical cleaners from their homes and use safer versions in order to prevent potential poisonings from happening.

Keep medications in their original packaging and keep all warning and labels intact. If you are giving a medication to your child, make sure that you are giving them the correct dosage. Too many poisonings occur from parents accidentally overdosing their children. Take a moment to verify what you are giving your child and how much before giving them any medication.

Some poisonings happen when children are taken to other homes, especially homes where small children are not a common occurrence. It is easy for childless people to leave their prescription medications laying out without thought, making it easier for child visitors to get into things they should not. Be extra careful when taking your children to places where childproofing precautions may not have been done. Remember, it only takes a moment for a poisoning to happen.

No matter how safe you are, it is still helpful to keep the number for the poison control center (1-800-222-1222) where you can find it quickly. If you suspect your child ate or drank something call them with your child’s age, weight, any current health issues and medications they are taking, and whether or not your child has vomited. If your child is unconscious, not breathing, or behaving oddly call 911 instead.

Many of the unintentional poisonings that happen to children each year can be prevented with a moment of caution and additional safety precautions.

Related Articles:

CPSC Warns that 9 Out of 10 Unintentional Child Poisonings Occur in the Home

Safety alert: Some cleaners look like beverages

Missouri Grandma Accused Of Drugging 1-year-old child

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CPSC To Warn About Baby Slings After Suffocation Deaths

Lisa — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:50:36 +0000

The CPSC is set to issue a warning, likely to go out this week, about baby sling because of concerns of suffocation risks linked to them.

While speaking to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group that certifies certain children’s products, head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Inez Tenenbaum didn’t single out any specific baby slings but said there have been complaints for a couple years now.

“We know of too many deaths in these slings and we now know the hazard scenarios for very small babies,” said Tenenbaum. “So, the time has come to alert parents and caregivers.”

In 2008, Consumer Reports raised concerns about the soft fabric slings and some two dozen serious injuries, mostly when a child fell out of them.

Another concern is that the baby can turn its face toward mom’s chest or belly and smother in the parent’s clothing.

Tiffany Speck, a nurse who sells her own baby carriers, has been warning about slings where the baby falls into a chin-to-chest position in the classes she teaches at hospitals, stores and doctors’ offices.

“You wouldn’t want to put a baby in there,” Speck said during an interview with The Associated Press. “The baby is curling, head toward toe, and what happens is the baby occludes its own airway.”

She recommends that babies in slings remain in an upright position, with the baby’s tummy facing mommy’s tummy.

Recent Baby Carrier Recalls:

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Should Children be Allowed to Play With Fire?

Jen R — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:11:04 +0000

Would you ever consider allowing your children to sleep in the wild, cook something in the dishwasher, or melt glass? Author Gever Tulley believes you should.

In his new book, 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), Tulley encourages parents to lighten the restrictions they place on their children’s play. His book promotes safe exploration and the virtues of learning through experience.

“The framework for starting the book was the idea that kids would be safer if they had some experience in managing danger for themselves, and if we never give them an opportunity, they’ll never develop those skills,” Tully said.

This book is the most recent reaction to the modern phenomena called hyper-parenting. Hyper-parenting is the tendency for parents to hover over their children in an attempt to protect them from every danger, frustration and negative interaction.

Tully and others like him, argue that this degree of vigilance is excessive and may actually be detrimental to children’s development.

Previous books like The Dangerous Book for Boys and the Daring Book for Girls, teaching children how to build a snow fort or use a bow and arrow, started the movement away from hyper-parenting. The recession has also played a roll, as parents have had less money to pay for organized activities. This is fostering a return to the kind of childhood in which children simply play.

“We create a false impression in our minds that children are in peril all the time and everywhere, when in fact, according to the most recent studies, this is the safest time in history for children,” Tully said. “There couldn’t be a better time to be running around outside playing.”

Tully insists that his book is more about safety than risk-taking. He has included a ‘Why’ section for parents, explaining the lessons children will learn through the activities. He also gives a heads up about potential property damage, frustration, and the possibility of minor injury i.e. cuts and scrapes.

Tully explains the book, “really started as a snowball of observations that my friends’ children were not having the kind of childhood that I did or even they did. It got me thinking about how we become competent and where in the last 30 years we changed our definition of what kids are capable of.”

Tully’s book gives instructions on: damming a creek, safely playing with fire, how to throw a spear, and how to make a rope swing, among other things.

50 Dangerous Things (Your Should Let Your Children Do) is published by Tinkering Unlimited and is available in paperback. – Jen R, Staff Writer

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Warning Labels on Food May Reduce Risk of Choking

Jen R — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:10:52 +0000

More than 100 children, under age 14, die from choking every year in the United States. Thousands more are treated at the emergency room. To lower these numbers, The American Academy of Pediatrics, the largest paediatricians group in the U.S., is calling for the government to make changes to the labelling and design requirements of foods that pose a choking risk.

Children can choke on small objects of all kinds but, in terms of food, the leading culprits are candy and gum. The shape and texture of certain foods make them ideally suited to blocking a child’s narrow airway. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to avoid giving children, under four, particularly hazardous foods like hard candy, popcorn, peanuts and marshmallows, as the risk of choking is too high. Paediatricians suggest that other hazardous foods such as hot dogs, raw carrots, grapes and apples be cut into small pieces, for young children.

Children under five are especially likely to have food lodge in their airway as they are not capable of chewing, grinding and breaking their food down reliably enough to avoid choking.

A number of products, like toys and games with small parts, are already required to have choking hazard warnings printed on their labels. Some food producers, like Oscar Mayer, follow suit voluntarily, but there is no law requiring them to do so.

Previous attempts to pass similar legislation, for the food industry, have failed in Congress. It is hoped that this attempt by The American Academy of Pediatrics will successfully prove the need for the inclusion of choking hazard warnings on food labels. The academy also recommends that certain hazardous foods be recalled.

The academy is encouraging the food industry to consider the design of food products and avoid shapes that present an undue choking hazard. Reducing the risk can be as simple as making candies flat rather than spherical.

Rita Chappelle, of the Food and Drug Administration has stated that the FDA will review the academy’s analysis and recommendations and will work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to deal with choking hazards associated with food on a case-by-case basis. – Jen R., Staff Writer

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A Very Special Heart: The Must-Have Accessory That Could Save Your Life

Shannon — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:35:39 +0000

A Very Special Heart has taken the ordinary USB drive and made it extraordinary. Inside each of their unique Heart pendants for women and Globe keychains for men, users can store a wealth of important medical and personal records that can be easily accessed from any computer in the world with a USB drive.

My son was born at 24 weeks weighing 1lb 9oz. He spent 227 days in the NICU before coming home with many issues. He was on oxygen 24/7, was g tube fed around the clock and was on an apnea monitor. Just five short days after coming home from such a long stay, Ashton was readmitted and ended up ventilated again. At this time his g tube was switched to a gj tube for feeds and even now has horrible “blue spells” that, to this day, have not been diagnosed.

Now, at 4.5 years old, Ashton continues with struggles in life and is constantly at the hospital. In June of 2007 he had a cochlear implant placed as we found out in September 2006 that he was profoundly deaf. In January 2007 we found out that he was legally blind and therefore needed glasses. Just shortly after receiving this heart to review, Ashton was admitted to the ICU for a trial of bipap as he has severe sleep apnea. Unfortunately on his third night he coded twice, both times requiring CPR. This led to him having a tracheotomy done on December 11th.

During this time, A Very Special Heart has been a wonderful thing for me. Each time we meet a new doctor or end up in hospital I am always asked over and over about his history, medical conditions, surgeries, medications, vaccinations, feeds, hospital stays and other doctors that he sees. It has been very convenient to be able to just hand over the heart with all of his information without me having to go constantly over it.

On start up, the main page features picture identification for each person that has information stored on the Heart as well as advanced directives, such as a living will or power of attorney. Getting setup was easy. Once plugged in, a Very Special Heart’s software prompts you to enter information for each family member. This includes stuff like medications (both prescribed and over-the-counter), allergies, medical conditions (asthma, g-tube, cochlear implant), primary physician and insurance information. For kids, this is especially nice because there is also a place for their vaccination schedule.

Additional storage on the Heart also offers sections for both public and private documents. In public you have medical release forms, parental consent forms, organ donor information, DNR(Do Not Resuscitate) information to make sure your wishes are followed and then x-rays and MRIs. This is another huge plus for me. I love that I can store my son’s x-rays, MRIs and other important scans so that any new doctor has all the information at their fingertips.

Private documents are password protected. Here you can store copies of your drivers license, birth certificates, passports, credit cards, visas and any other important documents.

A Very Special Heart has been so simple to use and I love that I can update it as I need to. You never know when you might need it, but you can feel comfortable knowing that IF you or someone else in your family ended up in an emergency situation that the EMTs and doctors would be able to give any of you the best possible care with all of the information right at their fingertips.

I highly recommend this heart to all families. Having it gives me the peace of mind of knowing that all possible information is there and best of all – it’s always around my neck in case of an emergency!

*Thank you to Very Special Heart for providing me with this heart to review*

Britax Advocate CS Car Seat GIVEAWAY{CLOSED}

Lisa — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:20:02 +0000

On January 16th celebrity parents descended on the Century Plaza in LA for the annual Boom Boom Room Gifting suite.

For the event, Britax was on hand to introduce them to their newest convertible car seat, the Britax Advocate CS Car Seat, which many, including Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Chad Lowe and Ali Landry, took home.

Unveiled last Spring, the Britax Advocate CS is a high weight capacity convertible car seat which introduces the revolutionary energy-managing Side Impact Cushion Technology, reducing incoming side impact crash energy by 50 percent by diverting crash forces away from the child.

The seat features the Britax tangle-free, five-point harness, a rear- and forward-facing recline, and accommodates children rear facing from 5 to 35 pounds and forward facing from at least one year old and 20 pounds up to 65 pounds. It is also equipped with Britax True Side Impact Protection, Versa-Tether®, HUGS™, premium LATCH connectors, and the Click & Safe® Snug Harness Indicator, which provides extra assurance when the harness is within range of appropriate snugness.

This technology is the first and only to:

Absorb side impact crash forces before reaching the child, resulting in fewer head injuries.
Feature robust air chambers that require up to 10 times more force to compress than competing technologies. This results in the transfer of significantly more crash force energy away from the child.
Provide an energy-absorbing surface area along the full length of the seat, protecting the child’s head, neck and torso.
Offer a soft, protective surface for the adjacent passenger in a side impact crash.

WIN IT!! Britax offered one (1) Growing Your Baby Reader the opportunity to win a Britax Advocate CS Car Seat.

Congratulations to Michelle comment #32

Thank you to the following sites for blogging about our giveaway:

and the 19 readers that tweeted!

Toxic Metal Found in Kid’s Jewelry From China

Summer — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:34:17 +0000

A probe by the U.S. product safety authorities has found that some manufacturers are replacing the lead in their toys and jewelry with the toxic cadmium. This dangerous metal can hinder brain development in young children and is a known carcinogen. Children need only suck or chew on the pieces to receive low doses.

After the use of lead in children’s toys was discovered the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has continued to test and review children’s toys and products coming out of China. After testing some play jewelry that had been imported from China they found that the toxic metal cadmium was being used instead. Some pieces were almost entirely made of cadmium, being 91 percent by weight. They were also found to easily shed the toxin into children.

Bruce A. Fowler, a toxicologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted, “There’s nothing positive that you can say about this metal. It’s a poison.”

The AP did independent testing on jewelry bought from New York, Ohio, Texas and California. They found that at least 12 percent of the jewelry contained at least 10 percent cadmium by weight. Jewelry charms bought from Wal-Mart, Claire’s, and a dollar store were among the most dangerous. Pendents from “The Princess and The Frog” movie were found to have dangerous amounts of cadmium in them.

According to the CDC’s priority list of 275 most hazardous substances, cadmium is ranked number 7. However jewelry manufacturers in China say the metal has been used for years in China. When the U.S. passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 many Chinese toy companies had to find a replacement for lead that could be exported. Standards limiting the use of cadmium were set in painted toys, however the CPSI act did not cover jewelry. To date there had not been a recall of cadmium products in the US.

Xu Hongli, a cadmium specialist in Beijing, says the toxic mental is fairly common among toys and jewelry in China, despite manufacturers being aware of the risks. “Usually, though, they are more careful with export products,” she stated.

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Bulky Winter Clothes Can Reduce Car Seat Safety

Jen R — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:36:32 +0000

It’s cold out there! Temperatures across Ontario, this morning, range from a balmy -5oC in Windsor, to a ridiculously cold -29oC in Sioux Lookout. It’s the time of year when parents become preoccupied with keeping their children warm. Puffy awkward coats and snowsuits become a child’s day-to-day norm, conjuring the image of Randy in A Christmas Story crying, “I can’t put my arms down!”

Bundling a child under mountains of bulky outerwear poses a problem, however. His or her car seat harness no longer fits correctly.

Car seats are not designed to be used with bulky clothing. The more compressible the outerwear is, the looser the harness becomes and the greater the risk that is posed to the child. The worst case scenario is that, in a collision, the loose harness may result in the child being ejected from the car seat. The straps of the car seat harness need to fit snugly against the infant or child’s chest with no more than two fingers fitting between the strap and the shoulder bone.

So, what’s a responsible parent to do? The kids have to be warm but they also have to be safe in the car. The key is to remember that bulky, compressible clothing doesn’t belong under the restraint system of a car seat but it can go over it.

Toddlers, in forward facing car seats, need to have their heavy outer wear removed before buckling the restraint. Once secured, the coat can be put on backwards, with the child’s arms through the sleeves. Alternatively, the child can be covered with a blanket.

Infants, in rear facing car seats, can be protected with blankets and an elasticised car seat cover, after being buckled into their seat. The blankets cannot be tucked under the harness or behind the baby’s back. When using a seat cover, double-check that the baby is buckled into the restraint. It’s an easy thing to forget when it is out of sight.

Often, parents dress their children too warmly. Don’t use the temperature of the baby’s hands or feet to decide if they are cold. Instead, feel their neck or the small of the back and see if the baby is sweating. A hot, uncomfortable baby will start to fuss during the car ride and that’s not pleasant for anyone.

Remember the basics:

Adjust the straps of the car restraint so they fit snugly over the child’s chest and shoulders
Use bulky clothes and blankets above the harness; not beneath
Dress the child so that they are comfortably warm, not overly hot

Have a safe and happy winter. – Jen R.

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Toddler in Hospital After Family Heats Apartment With Outdoor Grill

Lisa — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:58:39 +0000

A Washington toddler is in critical condition from carbon monoxide poisoning after a family, who is living in an apartment, brought a barbecue grill in from outside to keep warm.

Medics were called to the residence at 4am yesterday morning and transferred the toddler and other family members to a hospital. The toddler was listed in critical condition, while the other family members were evaluated and released.

Hospital officials warned that using a grill inside your home is extremely dangerous because Carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, deadly gas, is made anytime fuel is burned.

My heart goes out to this family. The recession paired with cold weather is making people get creative on how to keep their families warm.

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Britax Introduces The Parkway® SG Belt Positioning Booster

Lisa — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:48:50 +0000

Arriving in stores this month, Britax®, is introducing their newest child safety seat — the Parkway® SG belt positioning booster with the SecureGuard™ Seat Belt Anchor. The SecureGuard — also known as an anti-submarining clip — helps prevent the child from sliding under the lap belt (or submarining) during a collision, reducing the risk of abdominal injury. The Parkway SG easily converts to a backless booster while maintaining the SecureGuard feature, and fits children from 18.1 kilograms (40 pounds) and 96.5 cm (38 inches) up to 54.4 kilograms (120 pounds) and 160 cm (63 inches).

“The Parkway SG was designed with safety features that provide greater protection for children who have outgrown harnessed child safety seats,” said Sebastiaan Selders, product manager at Britax. “The SecureGuard clip and its strap connect the seat base to the lap-belt portion of the vehicle’s lap-shoulder belt between the child’s legs to effectively create a four-point harness. This additional point of contact stops the child from sliding under the lap portion of a vehicle’s seat belt.”

The advanced safety features of the Parkway SG also help absorb energy in a crash, offering maximum safety to children. When used with the seat back, the Parkway SG provides Britax True Side Impact Protection® — a combination of deep side walls and head wings made from energy-absorbent material and an adjustable head restraint — which transfers energy away from the child during a side impact crash.

Approximately one in four of all motor vehicle crashes that involve children occur from the side, and these crashes result in a significantly higher injury rate than front or rear crashes, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. True Side Impact Protection, combined with the SecureGuard, helps to ensure that children are properly positioned in the event of a collision, reducing the risk of life-threatening injuries.

“For safety’s sake, it’s very important that when parents shop for booster seats, they continue to seek out features designed specifically to help protect children from both frontal and side impact crash forces,” said Laura Jana, M.D., pediatrician, child passenger safety technician and mother of three. “Parents should also look for seats with features that help keep children properly positioned in the seat. In the case of booster seat use, correct lap-shoulder belt positioning — with the shoulder belt crossing over the shoulder (not the neck) and the lap belt sitting low across the hips — can significantly minimize the risk of internal organ and/or spine injuries in the event of a crash.”

In addition to the aforementioned features, this booster offers a number of comfort and ease-of-use features that help keep children content and ensure that caregivers use the seat correctly. These include :

supportive high-density comfort foam that cushions the child and helps him stay properly positioned in his seat
armrests and retractable cup holders that can hold the child’s beverage
a quick-adjust mechanism easily adjusts the head restraint
color-coded vehicle belt guides help caregivers correctly position the vehicle seat belt
the seat is also designed for three-across seating in many mid- and small-sized vehicles

The Parkway SG meets and exceeds all standards of compliance currently mandated for such substances as phthalates and lead content. It will be available in two fashions at independent and mass retailers in August 2009. Its suggested retail price is $139.99.

Growing Safety Concern: Falling flat-screen TVs

Lisa — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:56:46 +0000

A new find study finds that our need for bigger flat-panel televisions and entertainment centers are now more narrow and less-stables has caused furniture related children accidents to increase by 41 percent.

In 2007, nearly 17,000 children were rushed to emergency rooms after heavy or unstable furniture fell over on them, a new study reported this month. The study, published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found that the such injuries had risen 41 percent since 1990.

Injuries from televisions alone accounted for nearly half of all injuries related to falling furniture during the study period — 47 percent.

Three-quarters of the victims of falling furniture are younger than 6 years old, and children that age “simply don’t recognize the danger of climbing on furniture,” said Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

That makes it imperative that parents take steps to secure flat-panel TVs, which have narrow centers of gravity, and other top-heavy pieces, said Yvonne Holguin-Duran, a child safety specialist with University Health System in San Antonio, Texas.

“If we just take one glance around our house, [parents can] see what safety dangers on their level these children can get into,” Holguin-Duran said.

Like many other childhood bumps and bruises, most of the injuries related to falling furniture were minor. But 3 percent of the 264,200 children whose cases were reviewed from 1990 to 2007 were injured seriously enough to require hospital admission — most of them for head and neck injuries — and about 300 of them died.

Gary Smith offers a “few simple prevention steps” dramatically reduces the likelihood of injury:

Place television sets low to the ground and near the backs of their stands.
Strap televisions and other large furniture to the wall with safety straps or L-brackets.
Buy furniture with wide legs or with solid bases.
Install drawer stops on chests of drawers and place heavy items close to the floor on shelves.
Eliminate kids’ impulse to climb by remembering not to place items like toys or the remote control on top of furniture or the television.
Always keep tabs on where your kids are and what they’re doing.

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Keep Your Toddler Safe With Baby Sherpa’s Safe2Go Harness

Lisa — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:35:07 +0000

Moms who are concerned about their little one fleeing the scene while they are out will like the Baby Sherpa Safe2Go Harness.

These toddler harnesses feature a retractable 38” tether which can hold children up to 50 lbs and can be retracted into the pack when not needed.

Each backpack is discreetly disguised as a cute child’s character and all are big enough to hold a snack or toy.

Harnesses are a controversial item with some parents because they can look like you are putting your child on a leash.

But sometimes they are a necessity for events like summer carnivals, airports or busy malls.

If you find the right one, your child may not even know they are wearing it.

More information and lots more styles available at babysherpa.com

$25 each

Letter To Santa Leads to An Arrest

Lisa — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:44:00 +0000

When children write to Santa they sometimes ask for things that have nothing to do with Christmas.

A 9-year-old girl’s letter to Santa Claus asking that a relative stop touching her and her sister has led to the arrest of Andres Enrique Cantu, 55, on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a young child.

The girl wrote the letter Thursday and turned it in at Cesar Chavez Elementary School. Andres Cantu was arrested on Friday.

A probable cause complaint said a counselor at the school reported that the student turned in a wish list to Santa asking that the relative stop touching her and her sister. A day later she was interviewed at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Edinburg, which works with abused children, and told authorities about the alleged molestation. Police investigators believe the molestation occurred over a four-year period, according to the complaint.

The relationship of the man to the girl was not revealed in order to protect her identity.

The charge against Cantu is a new one, created by the Texas Legislature last year. It is part of a series of changes to the penal code called Jessica’s Law, designed to heighten punishments of sexual predators.

I am so proud of this little girl for finally having the courage to tell someone about what was happening to her.

The sad part is that the only person she felt she could trust was Santa…

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Study: Grandma and Grandpa Make The Safest Babysitters

Lisa — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:58:59 +0000

A new study shows children are less likely to be injured when they are in the care of grandparents.

“Recent growth in the number of grandparents providing child care has some observers concerned they don’t adhere to modern safety practices,” said lead study author Dr. David Bishai, a professor with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health “To the contrary, this research tells us not only is there no evidence to support this assumption, but families that choose grandparents to care for their children experience fewer child injuries.”

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analyzed caregiving and injury data from the National Evaluation of the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program. The program includes information about 5,500 newborns in 15 United States cities during 1996 and 1997, with follow-up over the next three years.

The analysis showed that having grandparents as caregivers cut the risk of childhood injury by about half. Compared to organized day care, care by other relatives, or even care by a mother who doesn’t work outside the home, children who were cared for by a grandmother were less likely to be injured. The findings were published in this month’s issue of Pediatrics.

I wonder if Grandma and Grandpa fared better in these studies because they have less children to take care than community day care centers or in home day care providers.

Their ratio would be 1:3(or less), as opposed to a 1:8 or more at a professional care facility…

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Every Parents Nightmare: Drunk School Bus Driver Passes Out at the Wheel

Lisa — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:33:37 +0000

Could you imagine finding out that your child was on a school bus that was found stopped in the middle of a street because the bus driver was drunk?

Well this is exactly what happened in Tennessee today.

An East Tennessee school bus driver was found passed out behind the wheel, with 30 students were on the bus, 18 of them high school students and the rest from middle school or younger.

A blood alcohol test was administered but the results were not immediately available.

The Loudon County Emergency Management Agency noticed the bus stopped for an extended time, Police Chief James Webb said, and police were notified. No one was hurt.

Wayne Honeycutt, director of schools, said the driver has been on contract since last November with a clean record. He said she has had a background check and passed two drug screenings.

The driver, 48-year-old Vicky Lynn Kwasny, was taken to a hospital and then jailed where she remained this evening.

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