Golden Years Make your home safer for your grandkids For grandparents, holiday is a time to put knives, scissors, cleaning supplies, chemicals and medication out of kids’ reach By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
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ew grandchild on the way or visiting during the holidays? Now’s the time to make your home safer. Even if you reared your children in your current home, a lot has changed since then, both in the function of your home and in new child safety guidelines. The youngest grandparents must admit it’s been a few years since a little one was in the house. It’s easy to forget how quickly they grow and that curious, mobile babies get into everything. Holiday festivities can both present more hazards for children and create more diversions for caregivers. “We see a lot of toddlers getting Brayer injuries when visiting grandparents or at holiday parties where their parents are otherwise distracted,” said Anne Brayer, codirector of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids and pediatrician for emergency medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Since it’s next to impossible and likely not desirable to eliminate every possible threat, “make sure children are never without an adult,” Brayer said. “Cousins or other grade school-aged children may not recognize potentially hazardous situations and often get
carried away amusing one another, without making safety for infants a priority.” It can be hard to get back into the mindset of taking care of a baby or toddler if you’ve been out of the baby game for a while. Theresa Schoell, child life specialist at Rochester General Hospital, tells parents of tots that new grandparents’ “brains were constantly focused on ‘What are the hazards?’ when we were little, but for grandparents who don’t watch them daily, they’re excited about baking cookies or doing fun things, not putting things away.” Some rooms, however, are especially prone to hazards: kitchens, bathrooms and utility rooms. And some basic safety precautions can help make watching small grandchildren easier. Although most grandparents put knives, scissors, cleaning supplies, chemicals and medication out of kids’ reach, “purses are common places for children to reach medication,” Schoell said. Stow vitamins and supplements, too. To discover other hazards, get down on a child’s level (or have your adult children do so) in the rooms where the children will play and sleep. Look for anything sharp, breakable, small enough to fit through a toilet paper tube (these are choking hazards), or long strings, which present strangulation or circulatory hazards.
Unless secured against the wall, bookcases can topple over on children, as can small tables. The latter are especially hazardous if topped by large, heavy objects. Extension cords or dangling cords can also allow children to topple small appliances. Baby furniture has undergone major changes since your children were small. Mark Simon, owner of Simon’s Baby Furniture in Rochester, said that the biggest safety issue is “grandparents using older products that are no longer safe like drop-side cribs, cribs in general that are seven to 10 years old or older, because they likely don’t meet today’s standards.” An older crib might have an older mattress that is too soft, for example, or that has dust mites or allergenic materials in it. If your grandchild won’t sleep much at your house, you can likely get by with buying a new portable crib. These start at around $70 and have their own fitted sheets, too. But don’t put in toys or crib bumpers in any crib to reduce suffocation risks. Babies need only a properly-fitting sheet. Footed sleep suits keep babies warm; they don’t need blankets. “A lot of people use pressuremounted gates at the top of the stairs, which isn’t the right thing,” Simon said. “They should be screwed into the wall and anchored. We haven’t carried baby walkers for years. I don’t know of anyone who would have them.”
Baby walkers have been shown hazardous because they tip over easily. Don’t assume your other baby gear or toys meet today’s standards, even if your adult children used them as tots. Act graciously if your children shun your cherished heirloom toys. It’s nothing personal; they’re probably just following their pediatrician’s suggestions for the baby’s safety. Many toys of yesteryear used leadbased paint, small parts, and breakable materials. Even plastic toys of 10 or 15 years ago may have worn to the point where parts can snap off. Ask your children if the gear and toys you have are OK. Some toys would make better display items (such as a porcelain doll), but remember that many small children will not understand why they have been given a “toy” they cannot play with. Especially if your grandchildren are staying in your care overnight, review and abide by the rules your children lay down. Some are important safety rules such as laying babies on their backs for sleep, which reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Though you may be an expert in childcare, your children are the experts about your grandchildren. “Toddlers are learning their own bodies and preschoolers want to master their environment,” Schoell said. “They don’t want to be told no because they want the control. Planning ahead can make a more pleasant visit.”
November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month
Know Your Risk Factors to Help Prevent Dementia
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esearch shows that managing and treating vascular disease risk factors are not only beneficial to preventing heart disease and stroke, but also common forms of dementia. Physician Gustavo C. Roman, director of the Nantz National Alzheimer Center at the Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston, summed up decades of dementiarelated research in a review paper in Alzheimer’s Disease and Associated Disorders. Roman said although more definitive research is needed, focusing on the following risk factors can go a long way to helping reduce the risk of vascular dementia and mixed dementia (the combination of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease). By 2050, 11 to 16 million Americans will suffer some form of dementia. Page 20
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Hypertension
Controlling blood pressure reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease. Studies are also beginning to show that hypertension increases the likelihood that people with mild cognitive impairment will eventually have dementia later in life.
Hyperlipidemia
Epidemiological studies show that in addition to cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, high blood cholesterol is an important risk factor for dementia, including Alzheimer’s.
Smoking
Not only is smoking associated with increased risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and emphysema, but it also adversely
affects blood flow to the brain which can lead to cognitive decline and dementia.
Diabetes
Studies have already linked the obesity epidemic to increased risk of high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, stroke, renal failure, peripheral vascular disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In fact, people with this form of insulin resistant diabetes are twoto-three times more likely to face an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, in part because of vascular complications.
Diet and Exercise
An overall healthy lifestyle decreases risk of dementia as people age, particularly vascular dementia. Here, the focuses on a low body mass
IN GOOD HEALTH – Rochester / Genesee Valley Healthcare Newspaper • November 2012
index (25 or lower), healthy diet (based on dairy, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, cereals, low alcohol, and the ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fat), and aerobic exercise.
Hyperhomocysteinemia
Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood, and high blood levels are linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease. People who already exhibit signs of dementia and test positive for high levels of homocysteine are more likely to respond well to large doses of B vitamins. Research has proven that taking large doses of B-complex vitamins can reduce the rate of brain shrinkage by half in elderly people with memory problems and slow the progression of dementia.