Young children need supervision around dogs
by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Parenting
Children under age two are especially vulnerable to dog bites and more likely than older children to end up at a trauma center because of these injuries, new research shows.
Babies and young toddlers are not old enough to learn how to safely interact with dogs, researchers stated in the study published in the journal Injury Prevention. That means parents need to learn how to keep children safe around dogs and not leave young kids unattended with the animals, the study authors recommended.
The researchers analyzed almost 8,000 cases of dogs bites serious enough to land children ages 17 and under in the trauma center. The cases were logged in a national database between 2007 and 2014.
About 30 percent of the cases involved children ages 6 to 12, while another 30 percent involved those ages 2 or younger. Although many of the injuries were deemed minor, the youngest children tended to have the most serious injuries, the researchers noted.
Senior study author Rita Burke told Reuters all families need to be aware of dog safety. Even if you don't own a dog yourself, your child could be at risk of bites from dogs owned by neighbors or friends, she said. Most of the dog bites recorded in the database happened at home, and about half of the bites were to the face.
The researchers said young children are likely more vulnerable to serious bites than older children because they don't have the ability to recognize when a dog becomes up...
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