Canadian Statistics: Between 1997 and 1998, 11,709 children ages 14 and under were hospitalized for fall-related injuries. Eleven children died from falls in 1997.

Most playground injuries can be avoided by making sure playground areas are safe, and by teaching kids to play on playground equipment correctly and safely.
For more information on playground safety and to download a copy of "How Safe Is Your Local Playground? A Parent's Checklist," visit the Consumer Federation of America's Web site.
Window screens are not strong enough to keep children in, so window guards can be used to prevent children from falling. Window guards should not be used on fire exit windows, unless they're equipped with a quick release mechanism that can be opened easily from the inside.

Playground Exploration

Visit your local playground with your children. As you explore the different playground equipment, go over basic safety rules. Tour the playground and stop at each piece of equipment and ask how to play safely on that particular piece. Go over rules such as:

• Take turns on the equipment.
• Tell a grown-up if playground equipment does not look safe. Look around for examples to show your children - a swing chain is broken, climbing bars are loose or broken, steps are broken on the slide, no soft surface (such as chips, mulch, mats) under equipment, hard spots (such as hard-packed dirt, where grass has worn away, cement, asphalt) that could hurt children if they fall, equipment that is too high (taller than 6 feet), and equipment that doesn't have guardrails to protect children from falling.
• Play gently - pushing and roughhousing on equipment can lead to falls.
• When getting off the seesaw, work with your seesaw partner to get off about the same time - when the seesaw is flat and in the middle, nobody will crash. Don't get off when you are at the bottom and your partner is fully up in the air.
• Always swing sitting down, with one person on the swing at a time. Walk far away from a swing with someone on it. Allow yourself lots of room - remember the person swinging may jump off.
• Wait your turn on the slide until the person in front of you has slid all the way down to the bottom and gotten off. Slide sitting down, feet-first.

Ask your children to look around the playground and point out safe and unsafe playground behavior. They get one point for each behavior they "spy." The person with the most points wins!

When your children recognize unsafe playground behaviors, make sure they know the proper behavior as well. For example: If your children "spies" someone sliding down a slide on their stomach, ask them why this is wrong and what the proper way is (slide sitting down, feet-first).

Data Sources: Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Consumer Federation of America, Health Canada, National SAFE KIDS Campaign®, Safe Kids Canada.