psychological trauma. Some families report increased emotional and financial stress following injury to a child. Severe injuries in children can result in considerable loss of schooling.
Global interest in addressing the injury burden has identified a range of proven and promising interventions. These are sum- marised in the World and European Reports on Child Injury Prevention. However, changes in social trends can create new injury hazards. For example, although the admission rates for medicinal poisoning in pre-school children in England decreased by 23% from 2000 to 2011, admissions from ingestion of soaps and detergents doubled over the same time frame. The intro- duction of liquitab washing detergents in 2001 may have played a role in this. Other examples of “new” injury risks that have been identified include burns from hair straighteners and poisoning from ingesting the contents of e-cigarettes.
Besides describing the public health importance of child injury prevention this article examines the risk factors associated with injuries. It discusses recent international and national guidance, together with recommended approaches to prevention. Crucially it highlights the key actions that paediatricians can contribute to child injury prevention.