Safety and Emergencies: Family Resources

Keeping children safe is one of the biggest responsibilities for a parent or child caregiver.

Check out our list of resources below for more information, activities, and tools.

Creating a Safe Home Environment for Children in Pennsylvania

• Allegheny County Health Department’s Safe and Healthy Homes provides free in-home health and safety assessments to qualified participants in Allegheny County as well as Beaver, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. The program aims to reduce hospitalizations, injuries, illnesses, or deaths from preventable home health or safety hazards. Assessments include a visual inspection for potential dangers in the home such as child safety hazards such as drowning, poisoning, tripping, burn risks, and window safety; lead-based paint; pest infestations; mold, and more.
• Allegheny Lead Safe Homes Program offers qualifying homeowners and renters in Allegheny County with free lead-paint testing throughout their homes and hires a certified lead abatement contractor to repair any lead hazards found up to $12,000.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency outlines actions you can take to protect your children and prevent them from coming into contact with lead before they are harmed.
• Staffed 24 hours a day by nurse specialists who have extensive training in clinical toxicology, the Pittsburgh Poison Center responds to requests for poison information from the general public and medical professionals who reside in 44 Pennsylvania counties. There is no fee to the general public for this service. The Pittsburgh Poison Center conducts comprehensive, continuing poison prevention education programs, as well as training programs and seminars for healthcare professionals. For emergencies, call 1.800.222.1222.
• ChildproofingExperts.com was founded by childproofing professionals of the International Association for Child Safety (IAFCS) as a resource for parents and caregivers seeking information about keeping homes, child care centers, and play facilities safer for young children.

Safe Sleep

• Cribs for Kids® aims to prevent infant sleep-related deaths by educating parents and caregivers on the importance of practicing safe sleep for their babies and by providing portable cribs to families who, otherwise, cannot afford a safe place for their babies to sleep. The organization’s Sleep Safe Academy offers additional tools and resources for parents.

• The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has a comprehensive Question and Answer page about how you can make sure your infant is sleeping safely. Learn more about creating a safe sleep environment for your baby.
• The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) crib information center offers information on crib safety and up-to-date information on infant product recalls.
  
• The American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement, SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2016 Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment provides recommendations for building safe sleep environments.
• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Safe Sleep for Infants” video discusses infant safe sleep recommendations, the need for standardized SUID investigation and reporting practices, and promising interventions.
• The Safe to Sleep campaign has outreach activities to spread safe sleep messages and educational materials about ways to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths.

Car Seats and Travel

• The National Child Passenger Safety Certification Training Program directory is provided as a way for parents and caregivers to contact technicians for information and assistance.  Simply fill in the online form and search by location, language or special needs training.
• UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh‘s Injury Prevention Program sponsors car seat checks throughout our community. Car seat safety technicians are on-hand to teach parents to properly install car seats and explain the importance of child passenger safety seats. Call 1.877.498.4332, press 4 to make an appointment.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration maintains a directory of many car seat inspection stations.

• Safe Kids Worldwide offers tips for parents and caregivers before, during, and after a car seat inspection appointment. Safe Kids Allegheny County is led by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

• Team Educators for Child Safety (TECHS) coalition of certified Child Passenger Safety (CPS) technicians and Instructors serving the greater Pittsburgh area.

• The PA Traffic Injury Prevention Project (PA TIPP) is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to assist in the development, training and promotion of Car Seat Loan Programs throughout Pennsylvania. Car seats provided to loan programs are purchased through the Child Passenger Restraint Fund from the traffic citations issued for violations of the Pennsylvania Child Passenger Protection Law.

• Pennsylvania Car Seat Fitting Stations have certified child passenger safety technicians available to assist with a car seat inspection and to teach you how to correctly use and install your car seat.
• The booklet A Parent’s Guide to Playing It Safe with Kids and Cars is designed to equip you with easy-to-understand information about today’s vehicle safety features, car seats and how to keep your kids safe in and around vehicles.

• The Car Seat Lady website offers some insight into how bulky winter coats pose a safety risk when worn in a car seat and what you can do to keep your child warm and safe. 

Pet Safety

• The California Department of Health’s “Don’t Let the Dogs Bite: How to be Safe Around Dogs” coloring book can aid parents and caregivers in teaching their children how to behave safely around dogs.

• The CDC’s  “Stay Healthy Around Animals” coloring book teaches young children how to care for themselves and animals.
• The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) offers a large amount of information for pet owners including:
  • Tips for dog owners, including training your dog and teaching your children to respect your pet
  • An outline of dog aggression and factors to consider to help you determine if your dog needs professional training.
  • An outline of the types of behavioral and training specialists and their differences.
• Kids Health from Nemours has a list of infections that pets carry, how they spread, and how to prevent them.

Personal Safety

• KidSmartz offers a list of safety scenarios to practice. Other resources include:
  • Tell People “No” video
  • The Safety Dance video
  • Lesson plans about personal safety with project-based lessons for grades K-2 and 3-5. They’ll learn how to be safer through art activities, journal writing, and animated videos. 
• The CDC has a backpack emergency card that parents can fill out and keep in their child’s backpack.

Emergency Preparedness

• The CDC’s Ready Wrigley books teach children about different emergencies such as natural disasters and illness.
• American Academy of Pediatrics published Are You Ready for Disasters? Family Readiness Kit
• Sesame Street Let’s Get Ready: Planning Together for Emergencies is a bilingual (English and Spanish) multiple media resource designed to help entire families, especially those with young children, to plan and prepare together for emergencies. Through simple strategies and tips that can be incorporated into everyday routines, Let’s Get Ready helps children, families, and caregivers to prepare ahead of time in age-appropriate and engaging ways.