This is a horrible time to be a toddler.

[The Backlash Cometh]

Time to increase vigilance on the little guys. I can't believe the number of fatalities that have been occurring around here. About two weeks ago there was a two year old that drowned in a pool while under the care of Grandparents and uncle, and then these things followed:

TV fell on toddler because stand couldn't support 100-pound set, cops say
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-tv-falls-on-toddler-20100609,0,641651.story

A two-year-old died after he drowned in a retention pond near Mission Point Apartments Thursday.
Orlando police said they were called out to the 4800 block of Cason Cove in southwest Orlando Thursday afternoon.
The child and his father had just returned home from a trip to the store and were unloading groceries when the child wandered off, police said.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-child-drowns-orlando-20100611,0,5446450.story


June 11th TAVARES – Lake County deputies expect prosecutors to "upgrade" charges facing a Leesburg man accused of injuring a 3-year-old boy after the child died at an Orlando hospital, a sheriff's spokesman said today.
Matthew W. Byrd, 23, has been held in the Lake County Jail on aggravated child-abuse charges since June 4 when he was arrested at the Sheriff's Office.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-lk-infant-dies-20100611,0,1316570.story


Teen faces felony charges in Orange for taking 3-year-old girl from a Burlington Coat Factory
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-attempted-abduction-west-orange-20100610,0,2614367.story

[Codeine]

1. Statistically this is the safest time in modern history

to be a toddler.

[HughMoran]

2. Perception and statistics rarely jibe

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. But there are at least FOUR news stories there! At least four!

So maybe it is "statistically" the safest time to be a toddler, if you're dealing in stuff like provability and truth. But it is "emotionally" a very dangerous time to be a toddler, as this anecdotal evidence makes me feel.

;-)

[Codeine]

5. Your crumbcrunchers are doomed! DOOOMED!!

:rofl:

[NeedleCast]

7. This certainly explains the dwindling population of the world

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. If this is common, then what's new is that the newspaper is printing all of them.

I consider myself a newsjunkie. So there is definitely an increase in coverage.

[Dappleganger]

14. Do you want to know why there's an increase in coverage??

Because 'journalists' hired by those 'news' orgs don't know how to be real journalists any longer. All they do is report the easiest fucking thing they can find.

[Kalyke]

44. That's not entirely true.

I'm sure there are some lazy reporters, but the biggest problem is that the news organizations have laid off a lot of reporters, leaving a precious few to cover everything and, in the case of a daily paper or 24-hour news organization, the easiest thing to find is what gets into the paper or on the air because the reporters don't have the time to develop an investigative piece.

You have to fill the daily pages with SOMETHING.

Oh - that and the fact that the average pay for a full-time newspaper reporter is about $25,000 a year. Reporters are paid even less than teachers - and reporters, in some sense, are adult educators.

[Dappleganger]

47. This certainly isn't true in the Orlando and Jacksonville area..

My 12 year old can do more investigative reporting than they currently submit as 'news.'

If we want to find anything worth reading we are forced to find something from another city (such as Tampa or Miami).

[Kalyke]

63. Just a quick glance of your newspaper shows me there

are about 40 to 50 actual reporters (not counting production staff, editors and other who rarely report).

Of that number you have about 20 or so who are sports, lifestyle and other non-hard-news reporters.

Therefore, there are probably only about 20 or so news reporters to cover all of the Orlando and Jacksonville area, which isn't that much, considering (based on their titles) that they work in staggered shifts - some working nights and weekends, etc.

It looks to me like the owners of your local paper think sports and lifestyle draw more readers than hard news articles. Perhaps you should write them and tell them their idea of balance is skewed.

[Dappleganger]

64. Yep, sports and tawdry news is our god.

I gave up and joined metrojacksonville.com, where there is much better news (although it's really a blog-forum of sorts). The TU is all right-wing and slants their articles heavily toward their own special interests. At least on MJ we submit interesting stories one doesn't usually find in these areas and discuss them at length.

[The Backlash Cometh]

73. I almost spilled my guts laughing.

First, thank you for breaking it down the way you did. I don't have the professional eye to identify what's wrong with the paper, but people have been complaining for decades. It is a paper which, I suspect, was controlled by local, political influences up to recently. I have notice that some of the reporters are getting sharp, but they're young reporters and don't really know the history of the place. If they did, they would be looking at the old reporters/editors in the paper and blame them for getting slick-talked by the people they should have been investigating.

Orlando is not a place where you can go anywhere and have a heady conversation. At first you might hesitate to criticize, thinking that there's homespun common sense that drives the local opinions. But then you get to know them and you realize that they don't want you inquiring too closely about their personal business because we really do have more than our share of shysters around here.

[ieoeja]

66. Things also are more newsworthy as they become less common.

As childhood fatalities drop, those that do occur become more shocking.

When I first moved to Chicago, school shootings were so common they didn't even make the front page on local newspapers. Today, it is national news when a Chicago school kid is shot a block from school.

[Dappleganger]

70. Very good point. nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

74. I hope you're right.

[NeedleCast]

19. Of course, toddler death is sensationalist news and prompts emotional response

what else do you expect from the media today?

Go forth, news junkie, and inform theyself:

In 1960, the infant mortality rate in the US per 1000 live births was over 25. By 2008, that number has fallen to 6.7
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_imrt_in&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=infant+mortality+rate+united+states

The death rate among toddlers is also about 7 per 1000 live births and has fallen steadily for...well forever really, but has seen rapid decline since the 60s.

http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2007/US-Death-Rate1may07.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. 7 per 1000 live births

What depressing numbers.

[NeedleCast]

31. Why is that depressing?

Its the best its EVER been. Most western countries have a rate somewhere between 4 and 9.

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. Because I just read about four of them in a two week period.

If you extrapolate, it's depressing.

[NeedleCast]

39. Not to me

it's tragic for the families but I'm happy I live in a time when there is a nearly 100% chance that if I have a child it will live well into adult-hood.

[Statistical]

55. No it is called life. 993 out of 1000 infants don't die.

That is a very good number. Maybe we can get that a little lower like 995 or 996 out of 1000 but it will never be 1000 out of 1000.

Historically that number was much much much lower. Even 200 years ago it was more like 600 out of 1000.

[skygazer]

59. It's certainly depressing that this is what passes for "news"

Of course it's always tragic when a little kid dies but to make the assumption that this means that the number of these instances has somehow shot up is just as logical as assuming that more pretty, blonde white women are abducted and murdered now than in the past.

[Codeine]

60. How is a very nearly 100% chance that any child born

in America will live to adulthood a tragedy? Shit, we're doing something amazingly right.

[Tsiyu]

81. Because every life counts

even yours


imagine if you died as a toddler, and were not on DU to enlighten us all


what a tragedy









:D

[The Backlash Cometh]

82. Oh, sure. Point out the obvious.

LOL!

[Codeine]

83. Well-played!

:spray:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. I've read estimates from between 30-50% child mortality rates during the Medieval era

Those were some though times.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Those were expected to be tough times.

get real.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

61. Hmm

I get the impression you felt I was mocking your post. I wasn't. I was just noting the difference between modern times and historical times. It was in reference to their reply, not your OP. Hence the reason I didn't post it as a reply to your OP.

Peace.

[NeedleCast]

3. This is an incredible time to be a toddler, especially in the West

Live birth rates are the highest they've ever been. Accidental death is extremely low. You have cherry picked a handful of bad stories that have no significant impact on actual statistics.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. I'm talking about toddlers and you're talking about birthrates?

Drownings, a t.v. on a weak stand, child abuse vs. higher birthrates?

Since you bring it up...

[TheWraith]

12. The fact remains that a baby born today has a better chance than ever of living to adulthood.

The rate of accidental deaths among toddlers is at a historical low. Period. The fact that the media realizes people pay more attention to scary stories, and thus the media gets more ad revenue, does not impact the actual scientific numbers.

It's like any other perception that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Take all the violent crime in America today. In fact, violent crime has gone down by a third since 1993, but you don't hear the media talking about that, do you?

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. So they're printing these stories to sell newspapers?

I don't think so. This is the news I prefer to avoid. I wouldn't buy a paper to read this depressing news.

What else you got?

[NeedleCast]

35. LOL, okay

You can argue all you want about it but the statistics bear out my argument 100%. Don't let that stop your knee-jerk response though.

I've got 50 years of US census statistics my side. You've got a few days of anedotal journalists across the country printing stories that you happened to notice.

I win.

[TheWraith]

71. Have you worked a journalism job? I did, for six years.

And I've associated with media people for almost nine. There's an old adage: "if it bleeds, it leads." The more shocking a story is, the more attention it gets. And lots of people, even if they say they don't like it, look at it for the details. They want to scare you into thinking that you have to read the paper, or watch the news, to find out how to protect yourself.

[The Backlash Cometh]

75. This is definitely a topic that touches the emotion.

Look at how much attention this thread has received. Whatever side you take, it's a topic that captures the attention.

[NeedleCast]

20. Understsand that the two are related, yeah?

Live birth rates and child death rates are related. They are, statistically, a very easily tied-together blueprint of the overall healthcare in a nation.

Your four stories are anecdotal and you have obvisouly not done any research on actual statistics. There has never been, in the entire world, a better time to be a baby or toddler. Accidental death and intentional murder happen, but they have never happened at a lower rate.

[stuntcat]

11. sadly

meaning there will be 2 billion more 1st-world-style consumers in a couple of decades.
And more precious/special/cherished babies means DEATH to all the rest of the Earth's life, to me. :cry:

[NeedleCast]

21. Birthrates in the west also continue to decline

When you find a way to have a free society that also controls it's populations ability to reporduce, let me know.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. That's going to be a tough one.

I can't believe there's a show about a family that has 19 children.

All I can say, one of them better be an Einstein.

[NeedleCast]

37. But that family (The Durgers) has the money to support them

They've chosen to have that many children based on their religious faith. While I'd never want something like that, all those 19 kids seem loved and well taken care of which is a lot more than I can say for many families out there with one or two kids.

And again, thats one extreme example. Statistically, birthrates in just about every western-ized country on the planet are way down from what they were 30 to 50 years ago.

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. I don't think the true story about that family will come out until

the kids reach adult age.

That goes for all these large family shows. This is going to turn out to become a multi-generational reality show.

[stuntcat]

68. no matter how low the birthrates seem..

we will still get to 9 billion before we level off and at that point the Earth will be a mess and life for a lot of humans will be even more pathtic and warlike. IMHO the best thing anyone can do for a child is not to create it :)

Rich 1st-worlders like the duggers will of course be the last to pay. If their children don't care about the Earth and animals (and religious people tend not to, I think) then they'll have nice lives perhaps.

[Dappleganger]

13. Did you just discover the internets???

Jesus H Christ, those kinds of toddler accidents have been happening for years and as a matter of fact, the incidents are way down.

Guess what...the sun rose today and it's daytime all over the world!!!

[NeedleCast]

22. +1

[semillama]

25. Indeed!

The reason these are news stories is because they are so rare nowadays, not because of any actual increase in 'toddler trauma'.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. We went from saying that is was common to now saying it was rare, that's

what makes is newsworthy?

Can we reach a consensus?

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. This is all local news.

Of course you can find articles in different papers. But when this is happening in one area, it makes you wonder what we can do to improve the odds.

[Dappleganger]

34. Sweetie, this is ORLANDO...

Jacksonville is almost identical with the stupid (that's where I am). It happens every. single. year.

But the statistics don't lie, incidents have been greatly reduced but unfortunately our not-so-bright state's constituency insists upon this kind of reporting.

[The Backlash Cometh]

42. The reporting serves a purpose.

It's a reminder to keep your eye on your kid. Coming before the summertime is not a bad idea. As school closes, parents have to change hats again. More time to keep their kids busy and supervised.

[Dappleganger]

45. Of course.

But just because you read about several incidences within a short period of time, doesn't mean that the incidences are up. The stats don't lie.

If you feel so strongly about this, why don't you submit a LTTE on this topic??

[The Backlash Cometh]

50. I feel strongly about a lot of things.

[snooper2]

65. Take the crack pipe away

would help for starters...

Meth also...Florida is trying to be the new meth capitol right?

[Dappleganger]

69. It would seem so...

Baker and Clay county residents have to harvest *something*, right?? :rofl:

BTW, the prescription pill biz is so hot down here but the reporting on it is abysmal. It wasn't until just the past year that anyone began doing much of any investigating. There are some politicians who are closing a few of the loopholes but there is still so much to be done. We're the pill-popper's dream vacation!

[Brickbat]

15. The vast majority of toddlers are doing just fine, and are doing much better than they have in all

of human history.

[guitar man]

16. The TV one is scary

I was talking to a friend last weekend and she was telling me about how her 3 year old grandson was badly injured. There was a tv on top of a dresser in the bedroom, he wanted to put a DVD in so he pulled the drawers out and proceeded to climb up, only to pull the dresser and TV over on himself, broke his arm and fractured his skull :(

The first thing I though of was my 4 year old daughter, as soon as I got home I looked at the TV she uses most often. I threw the flimsy stand out that it was on and put it on a couple large milk crates, nice and low so she can reach the dvd player and everything without having to climb up on anything.

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. That's the lesson to learn.

That's what I was trying to get at by posting this thread. It's time to increase vigilance.

I'm reminded of the article I read the other day about tech parents who are so engrossed in their blackberries they ignore the kids when they're calling for them.

Now, this isn't out of the ordinary. I use to tune out my kids while I was cooking or doing something that was taking my attention. It just means that today, there is more distracting the parents. So, it's time to look around and see what you overlooked.

[Dappleganger]

36. I disagree, there isn't more distracting the parents.

Parents have historically been tuning out their kids since the dawn of time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

43. We'll agree to disagree.

[Dappleganger]

46. I stand with the facts.

[guitar man]

51. We try

You certainly can't wrap them in bubble wrap or put them in an oversized hamster ball,lol, but you are right about being as vigilant as possible as to what might be dangerous to them. Since she was born, I have made it a habit to do a walkthrough of the the house at least once a month and look at everything, trying to see it through her eyes, what might attract her and what might be dangerous. But I never thought of the TV in the back bedroom until I heard the story of the child being injured.

Right now she is participating in a swimming program, learning how to swim and swim well. I think the best defense against children drowning is knowing how to swim, if they do fall in the water, they are not helpless.

Still, despite all our best efforts, sometimes things happen that we couldn't forsee. It's tragic when it does, but it is just a sad fact of life.

[The Backlash Cometh]

53. That is the real issue about these things, isn't it?

You can almost understand deaths which occur from something that you can't forsee. But, there are somethings which will dog you for life. Essentially, those things which can be prevented.

[Blue-Jay]

17. None of these situations are what you'd call new.

Tragic, certainly, but not new.

[Berry Cool]

18. Statistics or not, it's a good time of year to remind people about toddler safety rules

such as not to leave toddlers alone near water because they are at great danger of drowning, whether in natural water or unattended swimming pools. There have been instances of very young children, just able to crawl, left for a few moments in a room with an open sliding glass door, and an ungated pool beyond it, who managed to crawl out of the room and over to the pool and fall in before anyone noticed. And they don't scream--their bodies just make a little plop noise that no one may even hear.

Same thing with leaving kids in hot cars. Every summer the stories come along in the news...baby/toddler dies from being left for "just a few minutes" in a car on a hot day while someone "ran into the store."

Yeah, the likelihood of your kid dying of the black plague is pretty minimal these days, and that's great. But that doesn't mean it's not a good idea to try to prevent things like this.

[Dappleganger]

29. Of course it is tragic, we hear it every single year here in FL

some grandparent's precious one falls into the lake or pool, another child is left inside a burning hot car while Mom's inside the neighbor's trailer playing strip poker (this is all from just LAST month!). It's a shame that it happens but it does, and it's been going on ever since people began popping babies and making firepits at crawling level.

I'm personally amazed and astounded that our four kids have survived this LONG. Maybe today is a good day to remind them that Mom worked hard to keep them safe and they owe me a strawberry milkshake for that endeavor, at least.

[The Backlash Cometh]

38. My young adult daughter finally figured this out.

I forget what was on the news, maybe it was the subject of the young girl who got lost in the wood. Maybe it was about the girl who took off with someone she met on My Space. But the topic came up and we talked about how easy it would be to lose a kid and a light-bulb finally came on over her head. And she said the strangest thing. She said, "Thank you."

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. Thank you. Someone who gets the point of this thread.

[pipi_k]

41. Something far too many people don't think of...

is how lightning fast kids can be.

In literally seconds a kid can be from one end of a room to the other and pull something down on himself, or crawl out a window, or stick a fork in an electrical outlet, etc.

People think a couple of seconds won't make a difference. They get busy...they get distracted. Maybe it really IS only a "couple of seconds". Most of the time it's longer, and the results can be tragic.

My daughter's stepdaughter narrowly avoided such a tragedy when her 3 year old son was chasing their new kitten around the house. The poor kitty ran behind the media center. The kid tried going behind it as well and tipped the whole thing over, demolishing the (quite large) flat screen TV and some other things. The lucky break...her infant daughter wasn't on the floor walking or crawling around near the scene of the accident.

[The Backlash Cometh]

49. Geez. That's a story.

I bumped into a lady who told me that she had pulled her two year old out of the pool. The child's eyes had a popped-out look and she wasn't breathing. She began CPR and got the child to breath again. She then took the child to the emergency room and this is the strangest thing. They didn't admit the kid in right away. In fact, the family sat there in the emergency room, waiting, for so long, and the child seemed normal, that they left.

They said that complications occur when the lungs get filled with water, but that her child had been "drown-proofed" and at least knew to hold her breath.

[Dappleganger]

62. That woman wasn't very bright, she should have called 911.

If the ambulance had responded and brought the child in they would have given her child immediate attention.

[The Backlash Cometh]

76. That's good to know.

She probably didn't think of it because the hospital is less than a mile from her home.

[FarCenter]

48. In 2008, 8.8 million children under 5 died, down from 12.5 million in 1990

LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Childhood deaths have declined across the world, data released on Thursday showed, but mortality is increasingly concentrated in poor countries.

A study by the United Nation's children's fund (UNICEF) showed that thanks to better prevention methods for malaria and action to reduce mother-to-child AIDS virus transmission, some 8.8 million children under five died in 2008 compared with 12.5 million in 1990.

But 99 percent of child deaths occurred in poor countries.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LA609360.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

52. You brought up an interesting point.

We're combining all deaths. Maybe we should compare accidental death vs death caused by health issues? And, of course, in that case, only US statistics matter so we don't game the numbers.

[Green_Lantern]

54. If someone tried to take my 5 month old niece he'd better

Hope the cops got him first.

But I think accidental death is the bigger risk. There's so much kids can get into.

[The Backlash Cometh]

56. It may be a sad thing to say,

but if you're not traumatized by motherhood, you're not doing it right.

[Green_Lantern]

57. probably true....

nt

[pipi_k]

67. Sad, probably, but it's the truth!

My kids will be 38 and 40 years old this year.


I'm still being traumatized. :scared:



No matter how old they get, they're still your kids.

[Statistical]

58. unrec, Statistical fail. 993 out of 1000 infants survive infanthood.

Very good numbers.

[Jennicut]

72. I have two young children and things are actually safer for them they they were for me.

We road in a car, with no seat belts. They have booster seats. My kids wear helmets when using their scooters, there is safety warnings on small parts and certain foods.

[Codeine]

77. So true.

We rode in the back of the pickup sitting on the wheel wells. Insanity when viewed from my current perspective.

[Jennicut]

78. I did too. I was born in 75.

In 34 years, safety for children has come a long way.

[Liberal_in_LA]

79. agreed

[Liberal_in_LA]

80. Back in the old days TVs used to look like furniture and sat on the floor

in the 90s, they were huge monstrosities that were put up on cabinets. Hopefully these new flatscreens will be safer