Author: Health Care Policy Center

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Preventive care tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Parents need to be advised that rigid, motorized pool covers are not a substitute for 4-sided fencing, because pool covers are not likely to be used appropriately and consistently.

Pediatricians should alert parents to the dangers that standing water presents to children. Parents need to be advised that they should learn CPR; and they should keep a telephone and equipment approved by the US Coast Guard (eg, life preservers, life jackets, shepherd’s crook) at poolside.

When people talk about more money for preventive care and health education, this is what they have in mind. These tips are two of the 190+ verbal advice directives that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) thinks that physicians should verbally deliver to their patients in the name of preventive care. The Academy also recommends various health screening questions, most of which make nosy neighbors look as inquisitive as big box store clerks. They begin with do you ride in airplanes, continue with things like “Do you have a swimming pool or spa at your home,” and progress to the utterly outrageous “Do you have firearms at home,” and “Does your child have ‘toy’ firearms at home.”

Note the scare quotes around toy. To the AAP, there is no such thing as a toy firearm.