Prevent child deaths
Kansas, a state that can be proud of its quality of life, should be doing more about a category of deaths – children. The toll is especially troubling in Sedgwick County, which has had one of the highest rates in the nation of infant mortality among African-Americans and was the site of nearly a third of the state’s child deaths by murder and suicide in 2012.
The 2014 report of the Kansas State Child Death Review Board, which is administered by the Attorney General’s Office, looked at the 418 child fatalities from 2012 with an eye toward trends and ways to improve. It found 256 natural deaths, 68 percent of them infants and 25 cases of sudden infant death syndrome (six in Sedgwick County). There also were 81 unintentional injury fatalities, including 48 in vehicle crashes and seven by drowning; 13 homicides (five in Sedgwick County); and 19 suicides (six in Sedgwick County).
The number of murders of children in 2012 was the lowest since 2005. The trend also has been a decline in crash deaths, though the number who died in crashes in 2012 spiked 45 percent over 2011. The report also found an increase of 31 percent in child suicides from 2011 to 2012.
What’s a Kansan to do about such losses? Try to prevent more.
Buckle up your kids, and make sure that the car seat is the right size and secured and their sleep environment is safe. Don’t leave young children unsupervised around pools, ponds, candles and matches. Enroll them in swimming lessons. Make sure smoke detectors are installed and working. Lock up your firearms. Watch for changes in a young person’s psychological state and don’t delay getting mental health help. Don’t smoke or drink when pregnant. Report child abuse or neglect (800-922-5330, or 911 if the danger is imminent). Help ensure teen drivers get enough experience and don’t text while driving.
The State Child Death Review Board offers some good policy recommendations, too, calling for more efforts to improve the health of women before conception and during pregnancy, more study of the causes of neonatal and infant deaths, more awareness of the need for caregivers to have the pertussis vaccine, laws regulating usage of all-terrain vehicles, laws prohibiting leaving children younger than 5 unattended in cars, and changes in the farm-related driving permit.
Because Kansas had an infant mortality rate among blacks in 2012 of 14.2 per every 1,000 live births, compared with rates for all races of 6.3 in Kansas and 6 nationally, efforts need to continue to seek strategies and raise awareness, including by the Kansas Blue Ribbon Panel on Infant Mortality.
Sedgwick County’s infant mortality rate was 7.4 in 2012 and continues to be disproportionately high among African-Americans, making local partnerships crucial as well. Wichitans can help through the Kansas Infant Death and SIDS Network’s community baby shower at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Mark United Methodist Church, which will highlight the challenge among African-American, Spanish-speaking and low-income populations locally (for more information, call 316-682-1301).
Each death of a child, of course, represents not a cold statistic but a heartbroken family and, in some cases, a shaken community. Kansas must not be comfortable with any number of such losses, but work harder to save more children’s lives and spare more parents grief.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published October 11, 2014 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Prevent child deaths."