There is renewed and concerted interest in getting our young children out of doors to play. Yet there are concerns about where kids play and what can happen if they go to the playground.  Parents need to know what they can do to help make their children's playgrounds safer for everyone.  Kids' Health from Nemours notes that each year more than 200,000 children in the U.S. are treated for injuries received on the playground! 

Good adult supervision is certainly key to avoiding accidents, but there are other factors that are important as well in keeping our kids safe on the playground. Going with your child to the playground is good. Taking an inventory of the equipment there can be the start of a playground improvement project. Faulty or broken equipment, rough surfaces on which to play, physical obstacles that should be removed, inadequate playground design, lack of supervision and, of course, carelessness, rank in the top causes of accidents that take children from the playground to emergency rooms. 

Advising school and civic officials of needed playground equipment maintenance can help to make your child's playground safer. Reaching out to responsible officials, sometimes having to be persistent in making sure that faulty playground equipment is either fixed so that children can use it safely or removed so that it is not a hazard to those who use the playground, can be an important task. Networking with other parents, school administrators and civic officials can help initiate and move playground improvement projects forward.

Parents can do many things to help ensure children are safe on the playground--especially offering to help kids learn how to play the games they like to play. Parents who have skills as a soccer or tetherball coach or simply support their child's Little League team can help get other parents involved and bring family to the games. Participating also offers rewarding mentoring opportunities while keeping mom and dad in the loop about where, how, and with whom our kids are playing. Nothing wrong with that!

The safest playgrounds have specific areas where children of different ages can play, with defined areas for infants and toddlers, pre-schoolers (2-5 year olds) and school-aged children.  Young children should not play on equipment designed for older children as this is frequently the cause of accidents.  Playgrounds should be checked for equipment that can pinch children's hands or feet or that has moving parts which could trap a child's head or body parts.  Wooden equipment should be solid and not splintered, metal equipment should not be rusted and playground equipment hardware should be secure with no broken parts.  If there is equipment kids can fall off while climbing, there should be appropriate soft materials--like woodchips or rubber mats--below.  If there is a sandbox on the playground, the sandbox should also be checked for debris or trash that might be unsanitary if handled by kids and for sharp objects that may have become lodged in the sand over the winter.

Parents and caregivers can do a lot to make their kids' playgrounds safer, from supervising the games to alerting officials to needed improvements, to simply making sure that trash on the playground is regularly picked up and removed.  So, to all of our parents, caregivers, family members and babysitters childsafetyblog.org encourages us to get out of doors and get involved!