Children don't look for danger – they just play!

The problem of child injuries remains relevant in the Republic of Belarus. It should be noted that each age group has its own characteristic dangers and injuries.

Among children under the age of seven, domestic injuries prevail, accounting for almost 80% among preschoolers. Parents often do not even suspect that certain objects can pose a danger to a child. Here's a piece of advice for parents – look at the world through your child's eyes. Get down to the child's height and see what objects might pique their interest and at the same time cause harm? A tablecloth with a vase on it, TV and computer cords, a cup of tea on the edge of the table, hot pots and pans on the stove, etc. Look carefully around and remove any objects that a child can reach. This way you can avoid serious problems.

When it comes to toddlers, it can be unequivocally stated that children get injuries due to parental neglect.

On December 5 at 15:42, rescuers received a report about the need to assist a child whose leg was stuck in a radiator fin in an apartment on Smolenskaya Street in Vitebsk. Upon arrival, rescuers found that the leg of a 4-year-old child was trapped in the radiator. Ministry of Emergency Situations employees helped to free the child's leg, and the boy did not require medical assistance.

On June 10 at 18:26, rescuers received a request for assistance to a child in Polotsk. When Ministry of Emergency Situations units arrived at the scene, it was found that a girl's head was stuck in the railings of a children's slide. Rescuers used special tools to free the child. Medical assistance was not needed.

On June 23, a 14-year-old girl died in the Vitebsk region after saving an 8-year-old boy from drowning in a river. The children were swimming in the Sukhodrovka River. At some point, the girl noticed that the younger boy was starting to drown and rushed to his aid. She managed to push the boy to the shore, but she herself went under. The other children swimming ran to the village and called her father for help, but he pulled the child's lifeless body from the water. Arriving medics pronounced the girl dead.

The accident occurred on the afternoon of February 8, 2021. According to the investigation, the teenager was working in the yard of the house. While using an angle grinder, the disc broke and injured him. The teenager's mother sought medical help, but it was not possible to save the young man: he died in the ambulance.

The number of child injuries increases during school holidays – thousands of children and their parents go on vacation to camps, villages, and dachas. Once in nature, children enjoy the opportunity to play, jump, and run. It's good when this happens under adult supervision, but if not, the child can get injured.

When going to the dacha, village, or nature with children, familiarize them with the features of the area. Tell children about the animals that live there. That they are dangerous. What poisonous plants can be found in the area, explain why they should not try unfamiliar berries, put leaves in their mouths, or drink water from unknown sources and surface bodies of water.

Children aged 7-14 are less likely to get injured at home. Their thirst for exploration leads them outside, sometimes to places completely unsuitable for walks – construction sites, cluttered yards, vacant lots, etc. Impulsiveness and a tendency to mischief often make them participants in desperate games involving fire, chases across shed roofs, jumps from great heights, climbing fences (in this age group, 78% of injuries occur in yards and on streets, and only 22% indoors).

Unfortunately, the problem of children playing with fire remains relevant. Children of preschool and primary school age are in a special risk group – they are most often injured and, most tragically, die in fires. Parents leave children alone and, locking the door, leave. But they do not consider it necessary to put matches and lighters out of reach. And, as a rule, only later, when nothing can be corrected, parents remember that they did not attach any importance to this, being confident that their child would not be able to reach them. And they only left the child for a few minutes. Unfortunately, these painfully familiar few minutes are enough for a burning match, dropped from a child's hands, to cause a fire. The most terrible thing is that in such a situation, the child has no way to escape.

In the Vitebsk region, no child fatalities in fires have been recorded for 2019, 2020, and to date in 2021.

However, unfortunately, across the republic, January 2021 brought tragedy. One child died in a fire in the Minsk region.

In the agro-town of Starye Dorogi, a tragedy occurred on the night of January 17. In a residential building on Moskovskaya Street, the 7-year-old son of the homeowner died in a fire. At the time of the arrival of the Ministry of Emergency Situations unit, the homeowner was near the house with her daughter, born in 2008, a 7th-grade student. The woman informed rescuers that her son was still in the house. After some time, rescuers found the charred body of the child, born in 2013, a 1st-grade student, on the floor in the burning living room. The homeowner was hospitalized by an ambulance team with a preliminary diagnosis of "I-III degree burns to the back and upper extremities" (45%). During examination at the healthcare facility, the homeowner's daughter was found to have a first-degree thermal burn to the left shoulder joint (1% of the body). The husband, born in 1977, is an international driver. At the time of the fire, he was on a trip. As a result of the fire, the roof and part of the ceiling were destroyed, the walls and property of the residential building were damaged, and the roof of the outbuilding was destroyed. The causes of the fire and death are being established. The API was installed in 2019 at their own expense, and the fact of its operation was not established.

Over the past year, 2020, the Vitebsk region saw an increase in the number of fires caused by children playing with fire by 41.7% (2020 – 17, 2019 – 12). In total, over 5 years, 57 fires caused by children playing with fire have been registered, resulting in injuries to 3 children and 2 adults. In almost half of the cases (26), the culprits were schoolchildren in grades 1-4.

The most common games among children involve making bonfires. They choose appropriate places – in attics of houses, in sheds, basements, near outbuildings, near haystacks, and most importantly, when adult supervision is lost. Mystery and darkness require the use of fire, and then children, without thinking about the consequences, can light a fire where it is dangerous to even light a match. While the fire is small, the child observes what is happening. As soon as the fire takes on frightening dimensions, which happens within a few minutes, the natural reaction is fear, and then a desire to hide. In addition, children tend to study the burning of various objects and substances. They throw plastic, slate, linoleum, rags soaked in unknown substances into the fire. They fearlessly pour paint, oil, gasoline, kerosene, cologne, solvents, varnishes into the fire. As a result, burns and injuries from fragments are inevitable. Moreover, when they burn, poisonous gases are released, the inhalation of which can lead to poisoning of the child.

And how many misfortunes are caused by aerosol cans, vials, bottles filled with flammable substances! When they catch fire, they explode, leading to traumatic injuries to the eyes, hands, face, and severe burns. Sometimes children find and throw gunpowder, cartridges, grenades, and unknown objects into the fire, becoming disabled as a result of the explosion. Flame burns are dangerous, which are most often observed in children of younger, middle, and even older ages during games with flammable objects (firecrackers, etc.).

Speaking of children playing with fire, we cannot ignore another important cause of injuries. Very often, children "experiment" with flammable liquids (FL), dangerous substances, and the consequences of such experiments are always predictably sad. Burns – including steam burns, FL burns – are quite common injuries in children.

To protect the lives of your children, you must remember that responsibility for children's mischief or carelessness lies, first and foremost, with adults. It is our duty to timely warn the child and foresee all safety measures, explain what playing with matches can lead to, and how to behave