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Child Dangers Around the X-mas Tree

By On · Add Comment · In accidents, Christmas tree, emergency room, holiday hazards, injuries, toddler

Parents beware: Your toddler is at risk around the Christmas tree this season. Although rare, holiday hazards can occur. In Boston alone, five children per year end up in emergency rooms due to injuries ranging from eating broken glass to swallowing batteries.

A study done at Children’s Hospital in Boston showed that between 1995-2008, 76 cases of injuries involving holiday decorations, such as ornaments and light bulbs occurred. Half of the injuries happened when a child ate fragments of the decorations–glass, metal or small light bulbs.

Dr. Lois Lee, director of the hospital’s Emergency Injury Prevention Program says, “If there are toddlers in the house, keep them away from the Christmas tree or at least keep the ornaments off the lower branches where the children can reach them.”

A few other things to think about:

  • Place tree away from fireplaces, radiators and other heat sources. Heated rooms dry trees out rapidly, creating fire hazards.
  • Artificial snow sprays can irritate lungs if inhaled. To avoid injury, read container labels; follow directions carefully.
  • Check each set of lights, new or old, for broken or cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires, or loose connections. Discard damaged sets or repair them before using.
  • Use no more than three standard-size sets of lights per single extension cord.
  • Turn off all lights on trees and other decorations when you go to bed or leave the house. Lights could short and start a fire.*
  • Never use electric lights on a metallic tree. The tree can become charged with electricity from faulty lights, and any person touching a branch could be electrocuted! To avoid this danger, use colored spotlights above or beside a tree, never fastened onto it!
  • Keep “bubbling” lights away from children. These lights with their bright colors and bubbling movement can tempt curious children to break candle-shaped glass, which can cut, and attempt to drink liquid, which contains a hazardous chemical.

For more tips on preventing accidents this holiday, please visit The U.S. Consumer product Safety Commission’s website.

*Watch the video below to see how fast a Christmas tree can ignite and end the party.

Childrens’ Vocabulary Linked to Pointing

By On · Add Comment · In communication, education, gesturing, hand gestures, infant, toddler, vocabulary

When speaking to your infant or toddler, gesturing will help increase his or her vocabulary. Scientists have found that the more a child can communicate with gestures, the richer the vocabulary when starting kindergarten. And the ability to use hand and arm gestures to express oneself might be translated later into a better education overall.


University of Chicago researchers looked at the communication habits of fifty Chicago-area families of varying socioeconomic status. They found that the children (aged 14 months) whose parents used the most gesturing to communicate with them (and vice versa) had the greatest vocabulary. The gestures were not a form of sign-language but instead a way to communicate everyday concepts and objects–for instance, pointing at an object while naming it, “Yes, that’s a dog,” or signifying directionality like “up” “down” or “big.”

Another interesting find was that families of higher socioeconomic status tended to use more gestures on average than those of lower income and lower educational status. The way parents talk to their children from babyhood onward has been previously found to influence vocabulary early on; and it persists into later life, ultimately leading to better overall education. On average, children from higher socioeconomic families produced 25 meanings in a 90-minute period, while poorer children produced only 13. This study does a good job of explaining at least one reason why poorer children enter kindergarten with smaller vocabularies than their financially better-off classmates. Kindergarten vocabulary is a predictor of how well youngsters ultimately fare in school.

So the take home lesson here is when speaking with Junior, use lots of hand gestures. Hey, you don’t have to be Italian or from Brooklyn to get into talkin’ witchya hands. Heck no, start today–you’ll be doing your kids a great service in the learning department, as communication is the first form of problem solving. Getting started early in brain training is often of great advantage; but saying that, it’s not too late to start with your toddler now, either.

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Nick Campos - All Rights Reserved.