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Top Issues for Tweens
How to Keep Your Preteen Healthy By Kendeyl Johansen
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) accidents are the No. 1 cause of death for children ages 9 to 12. "Preteens are at risk for injury because they have difficulty pre-thinking about the consequences of an action," says Dr. Franchek-Roa. "They are still impulsive; for example, they can react without thinking."
Stuart Mills, a Boulder, Colo., father to 10-year-old Jessica, rushed his daughter to the emergency room for a broken leg after she and her friends used an icy roof as a slide. "The kids climbed our fence, got on top of our sloping gazebo and slid down into a snow bank," says Mills. "I was shocked when I heard what they'd done they could have broken their necks or backs." While driving home from the hospital he asked Jessica what she had been thinking. "Jessica sighed and said, 'Sorry Dad, it seemed like a good idea then,'" he says.
Some injuries, like Jessica's, may be hard to avoid since parents don't think like tweens, but Dr. Franchek-Roa says many impulsive-based injuries can be thwarted with safety rules. For example, CDC data shows that motor vehicle accidents account for more than half of accidental deaths among tweens, but you can reduce the chance of this. Use a car booster seat until the seatbelt fits your child properly and never allow a child under 12 to sit in the front seat, especially with an airbag.
Dr. Franchek-Roa's other suggestions for accident reduction include: keeping guns locked in a cabinet, storing gun ammunition separately, teaching rules for walking or riding a bike across streets and having children wear the proper protective gear while playing sports.