General Playground Safety When Traveling
While we were traveling last December, we noticed that many kid friendly hotels and restaurants boast play areas for your children. I even noticed air purifiers and sanitizers in some play areas. While these playgrounds can give harried traveling parents a few minutes respite and give kids with cabin fever a way to burn off some energy, parents need to keep a few safety tips in mind.
1) First, check with the staff to be sure the play area wasn’t painted with lead based paint. Wood playsets are generally treated with chemicals, so be sure to have kids wash their hands after playing on them. With either type of outdoor play set, be sure your children don’t put their mouth on them.
2) Keep the play area surface in mind. Wood chips, play mats and other “spongy surfaces” are safer than gravel, dirt, and grass. Because the soft spongy materials absorb energy better, your child is less likely to break a bone when they fall. Watch very young children around wood chips. They are just as likely to taste them as to play in them.
3) To reduce the risk of serious injury, children under 5 should not climb more than five feet off the ground. Make sure to remove any jackets with hoods before they reach the playground; hoods can easily become choking hazards in the heat of the moment. Other hazardous clothing can include loose pants, pants that are too long, and untied shoes.
At any playground, children should behave. Pushing and shoving not only lead to hurt feelings, but at the top of a slide or fireman’s pole, they can lead to injury also.
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