Simple Steps to Keep Kids Safe This Summer (posted May 7, 2025)

By Adam Behnke, Communications Specialist for Brown County Public Health

It’s as if my neighborhood came alive this week, spurred into activity by the improving weather. Like the fictional Rip Van Winkle, we’ve collectively emerged from our 20-year nap and are embracing the changed world that now greets us. This past Sunday was especially lively, with sidewalks full of pedestrians and the nearby park replete with young families enjoying the blue sky and pleasant sunshine. My wife even commented that “the weather never seems nice enough to enjoy until May.” And, after giving it thought, I think she’s right. It wasn’t until the past few days that I really noticed the additional daylight in the mornings and evenings, the growing chorus of birdsong, and the fervent green of reawakened lawns and budding trees. May is when things start to feel alive, and I’m here for it. 

May is also an exciting time for families as they begin to prepare for the hustle and bustle of summer activity season. It’s also when we observe Safe Kids Month, an awareness effort to prevent child injury and empower parents with practical safety tips ahead of vacations, picnics, and time away from work and school. The timing is intentional, because preventable injuries are the number one cause of death among children ages 1-19 in the U.S., and 41 percent of these deaths happen between May and August. 
 
This edition of the Healthy Herald explains the key aspects of Safe Kids Month and provides actionable ways you can help protect children during what health professionals call "summer trauma season." 

What is Safe Kids Month?

Safe Kids Month is a collaborative effort spearheaded by Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit organization working to reduce unintentional injuries to children and build sustainable systems that support injury prevention. Since 1988, Safe Kids and its partners have contributed to a more than 60 percent reduction in the rate of deadly childhood unintentional injury in the U.S. Their focus is on the unintended consequences of summer fun season, known as the "100 deadliest days of summer" among health professionals because preventable injuries and deaths increase dramatically among children. 

This year’s theme of Safe Kids Month is "the right fit can make a big difference." This puts an emphasis on the importance of properly fitting safety equipment such as bike helmets, booster seats, life jackets, and creating safe sleep environments. Well-intentioned parents may supply all the safety equipment their children could ever need but neglect to properly adjust that equipment to fit their particular child. A major focus in many child injury prevention campaigns is to urge a proper fit and thereby significantly lower the change of serious injury. 

1. Remind your child to wear a properly fitted helmet when biking, skateboarding, riding a scooter or inline/roller skating. 
2. Check equipment. Make sure your child’s bike is the appropriate size and works properly. 
3. Teach your kids the rules of the road. Make sure they know proper hand signals, understand traffic signs and signals. 
4. Be sure your kids are seen while riding. Wearing bright colors, using lights, and wearing reflectors will help them be seen. 
5. Teach kids to ride on the sidewalk when they can. If not, ride in the same direction as traffic as far on the right-hand side as possible. 

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1. Choose the correct car seat for your child's age, weight, and height. 
2. Keep children in rear-facing car seats as long as possible until they have outgrown the seat. 
3. Teach your child from a young age to use their seatbelt for every ride, every car, every time. 
4. Use and install your car seat according to the instructions.  
5. A properly installed car seat should not move more than 1 inch when the base is tugged. 

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1. Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside bedrooms and near sleeping areas. 
2. Store guns unloaded and secured with effective, child-resistant gun locks in a locked container out of the reach and sight of children. 
3. Install carbon monoxide (CO) alarms and test alarms every month. In a CO emergency, leave your home immediately. 
4. Watch children around balconies and windows. Install window guards and safety gates on stairs to prevent falls. 
5. Save the Poison Help number in your phone and post it visibly at home: 1-800-222-1222. Specialists at poison control centers provide free, confidential, expert medical advice 24 hours a day. 

1. Watch kids around water. Keep young children within arm’s reach of an adult. 
2. Enroll children in survival swim lessons and learn CPR. 
3. Install 4-sided fences around home pools. 
4. Teach children to wear life jackets. 
5. Wear sunscreen that is broad spectrum (UVA + UVB protection) and at least SPF 30 or more. Reapply at least every 2 hours. 

1. Place babies on their backs for naps and at night until they are 1 year old. Make sure babies sleep on a firm, flat, and level surface in their own crib, bassinet or play yard. 
2. Choose a firm mattress and fitted sheet for baby’s crib. 
3. Remove everything from the sleep environment except the fitted sheet. 
4. Dress baby in a wearable blanket, onesie, or similar clothing to keep them warm. A loose blanket could cover baby’s airway or make their body temperature too high while they sleep. 
5. Share your room, not your bed, for the first year of life. Place baby’s crib, bassinet or play yard in your bedroom instead of letting baby sleep in the same bed with you. 

• Wear a properly fitted bike helmet for every ride: 
• Your child should be able to see the helmet when they look up. 
• The straps should make a “V” under their ears. 
• The chin strap should feel snug when they open their mouth wide. 

• A booster seat provides a step between a car seat with a harness and a seat belt. 
• The seat belt must lie flat across your child's chest, across the bony part of their shoulder, and lie low on the hips or upper thighs. 
• The shoulder belt should not be placed under the child’s arm or behind their back. 

• Use U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets. 
• Choose a life jacket that is the right size for your child according to their weight: 
  • Infant jackets (8 to 30 lbs.) 
  • Child jackets (30 to 50 lbs.) 
  • Youth jackets (50 to 90 lbs.) 

• Place babies on their backs for sleep in their own sleep space with no other people. 
• Use a crib, bassinet or portable play yard with a firm, flat mattress and a fitted sheet for naps and at night. 
• Keep blankets, pillows, toys, bumpers and other soft items out of the sleeping space.