Childhood injury prevention

What it is

Lead poisoning in children has decreased over the past few decades, but it is still a problem in the pediatric population, and what is asked is which single measure most reliably protects children from it.

Beside poisoning, the asphyxial injuries have their own names. Asphyxia is the condition caused by interference with respiration, or by lack of oxygen in inspired air, and strangulation, choking and drowning are the examples given; anoxia is the total absence of oxygen supply to an organ or a tissue.

Drowning itself is the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in a liquid, and the two are told apart by where the airway lies: in submersion the airway is below the surface of the liquid, and in immersion the airway is above it, as when taking a bath.

How it presents

A drowning child may be asymptomatic. When symptomatic, what appears is aspiration and hypoxia, ARDS, dysrhythmias, N&V, neurological signs, metabolic acidosis, hypothermia and trauma. Drowning also sits among the causes of non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema, with aspiration and inhalation injury.