Childhood memories are flavored with fun summertime activities, including trips to the beach, walks to the ice cream shop and rides around the neighborhood.

While you and your children enjoy the seemingly carefree elements of summer, emergency room doctors know it as “trauma season.”

This summer, children ages 14 and under will be rushed to emergency rooms nearly 3 million times for serious injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes, drownings, bike crashes, pedestrian incidents, falls and other hazards. More than 2,500 of these children will die.   

Some key things to remember for summer safety for your children:

— Ride safe. Children should always ride in the back seat with appropriate fitting safety belts, booster seats and car seats. Our fire department provides an excellent community service to check to be sure your car seats and booster seats are safely installed, and you can go online for more information including appropriate guidelines for car and booster seat safety at kentuckystatepolice.org/hsp/child_safety.htm.

— Water and swim safety. Always supervise children near water, including pools, spas, toilets, bathtubs and buckets. Children can drown in minimal amounts of water with toddlers being at highest risk.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention warn children under age 1 most often drown in bathtubs, buckets, or toilets; and among children ages 1 to 4 years old, most drownings occur in residential swimming pools. Most children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes and were in the care of both parents at the time.

— Wheel safety. Make sure your children wear fitting helmets and other protective gear every time they ride their bikes, scooters, in-line skates or skateboards. Teach your children the rules of the road and practice obeying traffic laws with them.

— Sun safety. Most children rack up between 50 percent and 80 percent of their lifetime sun exposure before age 18, so it’s vital parents teach their children how to enjoy fun in the sun safely. With the right precautions, you can significantly reduce your child’s chance of developing skin cancer.

First, avoid being in the sun for prolonged times when it’s the highest overhead and therefore the strongest (generally from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the northern hemisphere). If your child is in the sun between these hours, as many children are, be sure to apply protective sunscreen — even if he or she is playing in the backyard. Most sun damage occurs as a result of incidental exposure during day-to-day activities, not at the beach.

One of the best ways to protect your family from the sun is to cover up and shield skin from UV rays. Ensure clothes will screen out harmful UV rays by placing your hand inside the garments and making sure you can’t see your hand through them.

Because infants have thinner skin and underdeveloped melanin, their skin burns more quickly than that of older children. Sunscreen should not be applied to babies under 6 months of age, so they must be kept out of the sun whenever possible.

If your infant must be in the sun, dress him or her in clothing that covers the body, including hats with wide brims to shadow the face. Use an umbrella to create shade.

Use sunscreen consistently, paying attention to the SPF label. The SPF number tells you how much longer you can stay in the sun without burning if you apply the sunscreen, which acts as a “block” to the sun’s rays (hence the term sunblock).

For example, if your child would burn after 20 minutes of sun exposure, applying a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 gives him or her 15 times the protection.

For children ages 6 months and older, select an SPF of 15 or higher to prevent both sunburn and tanning. Choose a sunscreen that states on the label it protects against both UVA and UVB rays (referred to as “broad-spectrum” sunscreen).

For more, contact the Clark County Health Department at 744-4482.