You can prevent your child's injury or death

"Today, we just buried my 4-year old daughter, and it was my fault. My fault she died, my fault I and everyone around me is hurting," a woman who lives in El Paso, Texas, wrote on a website called Grieving.com.

"I'm still in shock and traumatized. My kids don't deserve me as a mother. I don't deserve to be a mother. I killed my precious daughter all because I didn't look to see if she was in the damn car. I keep going through that morning over and over and over and over, and still, I don't understand. I don't wish this ugly guilt and fault upon anyone."

We all know that children can wander off. A busy, stressed-out parent can think they can run a quick errand by leaving the child strapped into the car seat despite the outside temperature in the 90s. We know that accidents can happen. We all mourn when they do. But in our everyday life, we need to stop and think about how we can prevent traumatic injury or death from occurring.

Let me tell you what I saw last week while we were taking a walk through Dover Bay. In the water, not surprisingly in this heat, was a woman on a paddleboard with a child I would guess to be around 4 or 5 years old sitting behind her. Neither the woman nor the child was wearing a life jacket. Really. Do you know how easy it is to tip one of those over and how easily the child could slip off with nothing to hold her back? The mother apparently didn't.

Drowning is the number one cause of accidental deaths in children under 5 years old. A child can drown in as few as 25 seconds, even in shallow water. A child's personal floating device can cost as little as $15. I'd vote for the PFD that costs $60. But maybe that's just me, but I wouldn't think of taking a child near water without one.

Besides which it's against the law. "Idaho Code requires all people using kayaks, paddleboards, rafts, and all other watercraft to have a life jacket on board at all times. In addition, children 14-years old and under are required to wear them. This law is no secret," the Idaho news.com website says.

Before you think this was just one careless mother, floating quite close to this woman was a man with an even younger child in a kayak. I assumed it was her husband, but I could be wrong; it doesn't matter. What does matter is that neither of them was wearing a life jacket either. What the heck? And, to top it off, the tiny toddler was hanging almost upside down playing in the water while Daddy wasn't paying him one bit of attention.

I was taken back by these people. I'm not a doomsayer, but that was a trauma waiting to happen. And, speaking of thinking, as I walked home on the bike path, I was passed by a family of six out for a bike ride. Do you think any of them had on a helmet? Nope.

It made me think about my childhood friend, Jack. I think Jack lived on his bike; he was on it so much. He refused to wear a helmet because he said he liked the wind in his hair. One day Jack took a spill and hit his head. He got up, brushed himself off, thought he was fine until a few days later, he began having seizures from the head injury. Jack lived. But he never could ride again. As an adult, his quality of life has always suffered because he wouldn't wear a helmet.

I know I'm ranting. But, please, for all that's good in the world, take precautions against accidents. Wouldn't you like to know that if your child fell in the water, he would only get wet? Wouldn't you want to save the brain of your toddler so she can grow up without disabilities? Wouldn't you rather not bury your child and live through the guilt the El Paso woman does?

Think about it. That's all I ask. Thanks for reading.

Kathy Hubbard is a member of the Bonner General Health Foundation Advisory Council. She can be reached at kathyleehubbard@yahoo.com.