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You want your child to grow up safe, healthy, and free from injury. The following resources will help caregivers prevent common childhood injuries and accidents and keep children happy and safe.
 
  • Home Safety Guide Renters Insurance Guide provides a guide for home safety.
  • Babysitting Child Care Safety - Familiarizing a new babysitter with you, your baby, and your home will help you find the best person to take care of your child while you’re away. Safe Kids USA offers tips to parents on how to familiarize a new babysitter with your child’s safety, your home and steps to choosing quality childcare.
    -Healthy Families Florida lists important features to look for in any childcare program. There is also a checklist for parents to consider before leaving their child with someone. Find quality child care in Sarasota at Early Learning Coalition of Sarasota's Look for the Stars website.
  • Baby Safety Basics - Keeping your baby healthy, happy and safe is one of the most important jobs for new parents. Safe Kids USA provides the information you need to help you keep your baby safe from potential injuries - including choking, drowning, falls, poisoning and burns - that could occur at home.
  • Baby-proofing Your Home - helps keep your baby safe and can make your job easier too. Click here for some tips to get you started.
  • Product Safety The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is a great way to learn about product safety and recent recalls concerning products your child may be using.

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  • Disaster Safety - Disasters that occur in the Florida area include tornadoes, fires, hurricanes, medical events, hazardous material spills or terrorist acts. Early Learning Coalition of Sarasota County provides the proper steps to prepare a disaster plan for your child to follow.
  • Child I D. System - The McGruff Safe Kids Total Identification System is the leading, most comprehensive child safety/identification and education program available in the United States. 
  • Gun Safety - Even if you don't have a gun in your own home, it is important to educate your children about firearm safety in case they discover a gun outside the home or in the homes of their friends.
  • Fire Safety - Child of all ages set over 35,000 fires annually - 8,000 are set in the home. Healthy Families Florida offers tips on ways to prevent house fires. Topics include the installation and replacement of smoke alarms, fire escape plans and more.
    -U.S. Fire Administration for Kids gives parents kid friendly tools for learning fire safety.

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  • CPR Safety -When performed correctly, CPR can save a child’s life by restoring breathing and circulation until health care providers can give advanced life support. CPR may be necessary during many different emergencies, including accidents, near drowning, suffocation, poisoning, smoke inhalation, electrocution injuries and suspected sudden infant death syndrome. Kids Health provides parents with information about how and when to administer CPR. -Sarasota Memorial Hospital offers a class on Infant CPR, taught by an American Heart Association certified instructor.
    -Healthy Families Florida gives information on causes of a child choking, suffocating, or strangulation. The site also lists safety tip in preventing airway obstruction.
    -About.com Pediatrics provides the basics for first aid for children.  Learn about how to handle animal bites, choking, poison emergencies and more.

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  • Water Safety - Safe Kids provides tips, fact sheets and more for drowning prevention.
    -American Red Cross offers general water safety tips for the beach, pool, boating, water-parks and more.
    -Medline Plus offers the latest news, tips and more for playing it safe in the water.
  • Sun Safety - Sun Safety for Kids is a site dedicated to reducing the incidence of skin cancer through teaching and promoting sun protection for children.
    -Kids Health will provide you the facts about sun exposure. Most kids rack up between 50% and 80% of their lifetime sun exposure before the age 18, so it’s important that parents teach their children how to enjoy fun in the sun safely.
    -SunWise Kids by US EPA will help you learn more about the harmful effects of sun and teach you ways to protect your child.

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  • Abuse Prevention - The Child Protection Center’s Personal Safety and Community Awareness Program is designed to beak the cycle of abuse. This program includes both victim and offender prevention components.  This program offers workshops and professional training in Sarasota County free of charge.
  • Phone Safety - What should I do if the telephone rings?  Parents can help their child learn home phone safety rules by visiting Kid Safety.

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  • Bus Safety - Do2Learn offers fun animated songs to help children learn the rules of riding the bus to school.
  • Fire Safety - Do2Learn makes learning fire safety fun with. Check it out!
  • Safe at Home - Safe Kids and the MetLife Foundation have partnered to bring you a series of safety videos highlighting how you can take precautions in the home to help prevent injuries to children with physical, developmental or cognitive disabilities.
  • Street Safety - Do2Learn can help teach your child to "Stay in the Yard", "Walk on the Sidewalk", "Cross the Driveway", "Cross at an Intersection", "Cross at a Walk Signal", and "Cross at a Traffic Light".

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  • Healthy School Year - Florida's Suncoast SAFE KIDS Coalition's safety tip sheets cover everything from how to have a healthy school year and getting to and from school safely, to playground safety.
  • Bullying- Help your child stop bullying in its tracks.  Kid Safety offers some simple advice for your elementary school aged child.
    -Kids Health offers parents a number of useful tips for helping your child to deal with bullies and peer pressure.
    -PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center unites, engages, and educates communities nationwide to address bullying through creative, relevant, and interactive resources.
    -Stopbullying.gov provides information from various government agencies on what bullying is, what cyberbullying is, who is at risk, and how you can prevent and respond to bullying.
    -Stomp Out Bullying focuses on reducing and preventing bullying, cyberbullying and deterring violence in schools, online and in communities across the country.
    -Teaching Tolerance is a place for educators to find thought-provoking news, conversation and support for those who care about diversity, equal opportunity and respect for differences in schools (free kits available for educators/teachers).
    -PBS Kids Go! It's My Life created a guide to help kids deal with bullying.
    -Seattle Public Schools offers a set of internet safety curriculum materials focused on cyberbullying.
    -The Miller Early Childhood Initiative A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute provides anti-bias workshops and materials through the Anti-Defamation League designed to train early childhood educators, caregivers and family members to help children understand, respect and appreciate differences.
    -The Cyberbullying Research Center is dedicated to providing up-to-date information about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents.
  • Bus Safety- Teach your child how to reach school by safely by visiting Kid Safety.

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  • Car Safety- 80% of all car seats are installed improperly and those children are not properly protected in the event of a car accident.  Sarasota Memorial Hospital offers a one-session class that instructs participants in the proper installation of infant car seats, and how to avoid the most common mistakes that put infants at risk.
    -ABC7 has pulled a few important tips and online resources to help you make heads and tails of the whole child car seat safety issue.  Topics covered are types of booster seats, safety starter tips for car seats, safety seat inspection stations, and more.
    -Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide a Child Passenger Safety Fact sheet to the public, covering the main risk factors that cause motor vehicle injuries and deaths in children and how they can be prevented. In the United States during 2008, 968 children ages 14 years and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle crashes, and approximately 168,000 were injured.
    -All Children’s Hospital’s information on back to school child passenger safety can help you answer questions like: Is my child over the booster seat’s height and weight limits?  Take the Safety Belt Fit Test here!
    -Healthy Families Florida provides information on the prevention of your child dying from hypothermia (heat stroke). From 1998-2004, 230 children died from hypothermia after being left in a car. 
  • Pedestrian Safety- All Children’s Hospital and Suncoast Kids Safe present: Walk This Way.  Parents can help their children by sharing the pedestrian rules found on this pedestrian safety link.
  • Bike Safety - Safe Kids USA can help you prepare your child for bicycling and skating safety. Get the safety tips and tools you need here!

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