Summer Safety Tips for Kids | Children’s Healthcare Atlanta

ATLANTA — It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find relief from the heat in metro Atlanta, where temperatures remained around 90 degrees Fahrenheit for another week.

While adults generally know when to take a break, children have a harder time acclimating to the heat.

Amanda Batlle, injury and illness prevention manager at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, says heat-related injuries and illnesses often increase in the summer because children don’t know when to stop and bodies more young people can’t stand the heat either.

“Unlike us adults, whose sweat receptors are fully developed, children do not have the same capabilities. The youngest are not able to sweat, or not enough,” explains Batlle. “Their thermoregulation, that is to say the ability of their body to control their temperature, is not the same as ours. Plus, they don’t know if I’m thirsty or not feeling well. »

Batlle says rapidly rising temperatures have prevented many children from properly acclimatizing to the heat this season.

“It went from cooler weather to all of a sudden a very hot heat wave, and for a lot of us, our bodies aren’t necessarily ready,” Batlle said.

Mother Maria Pumarejo hands Bella, 3, a bottle of water at the playground at Chastain Park in Atlanta, explaining that it’s essential to keep her daughter hydrated in the summer.

“Maybe she’ll say she’s thirsty, but most of the time she won’t. They don’t stop playing, so I always keep water bottles handy,” she said.

To protect children from high heat, the usual advice applies: avoid peak heat hours, cool down in shade and air conditioning, and drink plenty of water and electrolytes.

Batlle warns that some activities families use to cool down could further dehydrate you.

“Many families, when it starts to get hot outside, their natural inclination is, ‘Let’s go to the water,’ like the pool or the lake. Water can be dehydrating. This does not allow our body to sweat naturally. Plus, being in the water is a workout. Very often we consume energy. We burn calories,” she said.

Another prevention tip: apply sunscreen.

Batlle says sunburn is a natural cause of dehydration, so avoiding a sunburn will keep kids better hydrated.

Babies younger than six months should avoid direct sunlight completely, says Batlle, because their bodies can’t sweat.

Shade canopies are suitable for children old enough to use a stroller, but avoid stroller covers, which can trap heat and cause children to overheat.

“What we’re seeing is families who have adapters that would completely enclose the stroller, or they would put blankets in it, and it traps hot air in the stroller and doesn’t allow for ventilation or cool breezes to hit the child,” Batlle said. “So in the same way that a car can get hot, it can negatively impact the child and cause them to overheat.”

In older children and adolescents, Batlle says heat acclimation is essential.

“In middle school and high school, we think about teenagers who sweat and smell bad. They’re sweating, that’s great. Their body is able to regulate, but we want an acclimation period,” she said. “And especially for kids who are doing a lot of effort, like in soccer practice, we would want electrolyte replacements and carbohydrates to go along with those fluids.” This is not a sports drink. It could be a banana that goes with your water. »

For Pumarejo, alternating indoor and outdoor play will help her little one stay active this summer.

“I would say a lot of indoor playgrounds are probably the best option in the summer,” she said.