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Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Are grandparents the next best thing to mom and dad?
A new study shows that grandparent caregivers cut kids’ injury risk in half.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A new study published in “Pediatrics” magazine has found: “When grandparents act as caregivers for children of working parents, the risk of childhood injury is reduced by about half.” Here’s the link to the study.
This U.S. study “challenges the widespread belief that children are more likely to suffer an injury while being cared for by grandparents.”
“Compared to organized day care or care by the mother or other relatives, having a grandmother take care of the children was associated with a decreased risk of injury, said Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers.”
“ ‘Recent growth in the number of grandparents providing child care has some observers concerned they don’t adhere to modern safety practices. To the contrary, this research tells us not only is there no evidence to support this assumption, but families that choose grandparents to care for their children experience fewer child injuries,’ study author Dr. David Bishai, a professor in Bloomberg’s department of population, family and reproductive health, said in a news release.”
A couple of thoughts on this: I trust my parents, especially my mother, beyond anyone to care for my children. When we recently went to New York I didn’t worry about their care at all. (I worried about my baby missing me.) Not only does my mother keep them well fed, clean, and in bed on time, she is also very good at actively playing with all them (sewing with Rose, making monsters with Walsh, and taking care of baby dolls with the baby.) If my mother had been retired when we first had kids and was willing to keep our kids, I might have gone back to work.
However, with that said we did have to encourage her to buy a new crib seven years ago when the first grandbabies came because she still had her crib from when we were babies and the rails on it were too far apart. She didn’t think it was a big deal, but we finally convinced her it was. Also we’ve had a discussion about calling Poison Control. A few years back when Walsh got a hold of some medicine and drank some of it, I immediately called Poison Control and they told me I had an hour to get it out of his system. My mom said she would have watched him for a while and then decided whether she needed to take him in. Well at that point it would have been too late. Now granted, they didn’t have Poison Control when we were little and also he probably would never have gotten the medicine at my mom’s house. I told her when we went to New York if any of the children swallowed anything to call Poison Control immediately.
Did you notice the one line from the article though that says grandparents even do a better job than the mothers at keeping the children safe? I’m not sure what to make of that statement. Is it because statistically they are spending less time with the kids so there are more chances for injury on the parent’s watch?
What do you think: Do you trust your parents above everyone else to care for your children? Who do you trust more — the day care workers or your parents? Do they fight with you about old-fashion safety rules?
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