The American Academy of Pediatrics has developed a program to educate parents about the importance of securing firearms or removing guns from the home entirely. Twenty-eight percent reported that one or more firearms are kept in the home. These parents were less likely to trust other children with a loaded gun than their own children. Despite American Academy of Pediatric guidelines for safe firearm storage, there are still many parents who store their guns in manners that are unsafe and underestimate the risk of leaving their children in the home with an unloaded or unlocked gun. The authors suggest that there is a pressing need for parental education about firearm safety and storage.
Parents are often unaware, however, that babies placed in adult beds are also at risk of dying.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has published a study to identify and assess such dangers. Nakamura, S. et al. Review of Hazards Associated with Children Placed in Adult Beds. Fit of bicycle helmets and risk of head injuries in children Reviewed by Jeff Weiss, M.D. Bicycle helmets have previously been shown to be 70-75 percent effective in preventing head and brain injury. In this study, the authors measured head sizes and examined the helmets of 126 children who had been in bicycle crashes.