Accidents in the infantile period and childhood.

1. Big picture

Accidents are among the most important causes of preventable morbidity and mortality in infants and children. In pediatrics, accidents are not random: they follow the child’s age, developmental stage, environment, supervision, and risk-taking behavior.

For the final exam, you must be able to:

1. Recognize life-threatening injuries immediately.
2. Manage the child using Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure.
3. Know common accidents by age group.
4. Recognize non-accidental injury/child abuse.
5. Know prevention advice for parents.
6. Avoid dangerous interventions, especially in poisoning, head injury, aspiration, burns, and foreign body ingestion.

The key pediatric principle is:

Children are not small adults. Their anatomy, physiology, behavior, and injury patterns are different.

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