There’s no bigger responsibility in life than raising children and making sure they grow up to be decent human beings who would contribute to the betterment of their societies. It’s also pretty much the most challenging task. Many parents try and do their best to raise their kids, but ultimately fail and end up doing more bad than good to the well-being of their offspring. It takes time, practice, and a certain maturity to raise kids and take care of them.
Unfortunately, not all those who give birth are ready, but in any case, you have to make the most of it. One of the bigger challenges of taking care of your child is looking after their physical wellbeing, especially at younger ages when they’re quite susceptible to injuries. You need to know what to do in these situations, and how you can prevent any threat to their lives. There are 5 things you need to do after your child suffers an injury.
Tend to the wound
That is the most crucial part and based on it, the whole situation can have a happy or a bad ending. You need to tend to the injury as soon as humanly possible, and this is one thing where you’ll need to have quite a fast response. Let’s assume it’s a head injury, for example. In that case, you should have your child rest or lie down, which is very important because they may have suffered a concussion or the brain might’ve shaken inside the skull. Then, the next step would be applying something cold to the injury to reduce swelling and pain –– ice or cold veggies for instance. Then there are some waiting to notice the symptoms. If the child feels drowsy or nauseated, it’s a good idea to call an ambulance to have them checked up. This is important because if they’re being unresponsive or nauseated, then they might have a serious head injury. In that case, they need to be checked in and have an X-ray immediately to make sure everything is okay.
Identify the culprit
After you’ve made sure of the safety of your child, next comes a very important step. You need to identify how the injury happened to prevent it from occurring again in the future and to claim your rights if a third party was responsible. How so? Anything from someone running into their bike in the street to medical malpractice should be subject to accountability. Also, accidents from defective toys can be in the thousands on a yearly basis, and plenty of child injuries happen as a result of these toys. You have a moral responsibility to sue the manufacturing company, person, or hospital in those cases because it’s not only your child’s life at stake but also the lives of many other children. This is why legal action is very important in those situations, so as to hold parties responsible for the incident and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Prevention
You tend to your child and you’ve identified why the accident happened. Next, you should take measures to prevent any further incidents in the future. Children are somewhat naïve and they wander into danger without knowing it. That’s why it’s your responsibility as a parent or caretaker to make sure their settings are secured. To do that, you should take security precautions like safeguarding areas such as pools with fences. You should also baby-proof doors, tables, and pretty much anything that might cause, a serious injury to the child on impact.
These things might seem like a bit much, but you’d be surprised at the number of accidents prevented because the place was well secured against any possible scenario. Do whatever it takes from hiding sharp objects like cutlery to getting them the safest car seat. It’s the only way to make sure your kids are safe, and that alone is worth every effort made and every penny spent.
Emotional recovery
Kids’ psyche is something very fragile, and that is one point you really have to watch out for. Having an injury can be a traumatizing experience for a child, and you need to make sure it won’t affect them growing up because that would have an everlasting effect. Say your kid got injured riding their bike. It’s very possible they wouldn’t want to get on a bike again lest they get hurt. It’s your job to reassure them that it’s going to be fine and that accidents and injuries are a natural part of the life cycle, no matter how hard we try to avoid them. Don’t pressure them into doing something they don’t want to do, but also don’t let them wallow in fear and frustration. They’ve got their whole lives ahead of them, and they need to know that having a broken arm isn’t the worst thing that could happen.
Relax
The 5th thing you need to do as a caretaker or parent is to relax! This one’s not about the child, but rather you. As mentioned earlier, raising children is a serious responsibility, and it’s one that can take a toll sometimes. If the child suffers an injury, it’s easy to let yourself drown in feelings of guilt and shame, but that’s the worst thing you could ever do. If that happens, you’ll find that your relationship with the child is affected, because your actions will be driven by the fear of the accident happening again. So, you might end up not letting them play or have fun like before, which could damage your relationship. As a parent, you need to relax and don’t beat yourself up. Just because a child under your care sustained an injury doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent or caretaker.
It’s a safe bet that most, if not all injuries sustained by children would be fun/games related. You shouldn’t let that get to you, because accidents will happen. You just need to try and minimize their effects, before and after. Remember to enjoy yourself with the child, because having an injury at a young age is not the end of the world. They’ll recover and get better, but the worst thing that could happen is for them to recover to find out you can’t enjoy yourself anymore with them out of fear they’d get injured.
