For the very young children in the world their vulnerable risks to disease, injury and death are substantial. More than 7,000 children and teens from birth – 19 years of age died in 2019 because of unintentional injuries. That rate is about 20 deaths per day from causes like motor vehicle crash, suffocation, drowning, poisonings, fires and falls. These child injuries are preventable.

The data shows male children are more at risk, babies under one year old and teens in their 15 – 19 ages and races such as American Indians and Blacks are all at higher risk. A look at recent 10 years from 2010 to 2019 showed rate increases:

Suffocation deaths up 20% for infants overall & 21% among black children.

Motor vehicle crash rates up 9% for Black children while dropping by 24% among White children.

Poisoning deaths rose by 50% for Hispanic children, 37% for Black children as rates among White children decreased 24%

Drowning is the leading cause of injury death for children ages 1 – 4 years. Teaching kids of this age swim lessons and basic water safety skills are substantial prevention factors against drowning death.

These injuries are preventable and the prevention strategies in the pictograph right hand column above shows prevention strategies proven to work. The old saying goes, that an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it for the most part still holds true. The funding needed for prevention is nearly always found to be substantially less when compared to the loss of young lives. The emergency department visits, the medical costs, the family loss and expanded societal loss of potential and productive years of life. All with impacts in the community with each child injury death.

Please advocate and support prevention strategies and raise awareness that child injuries are preventable, that prevention strategies are a sound investment in the community and will result in a better quality of life for the community as a whole especially if approached with equity, diversity and inclusive purposes for all children.