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No fearI was planting flowers as my 18-month-old son played with a ball nearby. It had to be just a couple of minutes that I had my back to him, but when he was suspiciously quiet, I turned to find the ball, but no little boy. I did a frantic scan of the surroundings. There he was, 100 yards away at a full-on run, heading to see the cows. As I ran after him, in what was surely a ridiculous sight, (I know this because his brother was doubled over laughing as he watched me) he grabbed the hot-wire fence with two hands. Why he did not get shocked, I do not know. He was just a few feet from the cows by the time I grabbed him. Our cows didn't even move during the whole chase scene. They simply laid there, chewing lazily, wondering what the big deal was. But I have a feeling, had Lincoln actually reached them and tried to pet them, they might have had a different attitude. Lincoln could be the poster-toddler for the clothing company, No Fear. No Fear sponsors many extreme sports, none of which is "Dodge-the-cow" but who knows what the newest extreme sport might be? When his 9-year-old brother recently discovered how to climb onto the roof of the barn, you could literally see the wheels going around in Lincoln's mind wondering what he had to do to get up there too. This is the same child who can pull a chair away from the table far enough, so he can then climb up the chair and onto the table, empty the salt shaker and throw the pepper grinder to the floor so peppercorns scatter across the dining room floor--all in the amount of time it takes to throw a load of clothes into the washing machine. And then grin because he's so proud of his accomplishment. This ornery 18-month-old and ornery 9-year-old in our house are proof enough that every farm and ranch parent needs to raise their awareness of the dangers on the farm. Children simply do not have a sense of fear or danger. They don't know that flowing grain isn't a huge sand pile. They don't know that a PTO isn't a spinning toy. And they don't understand that jumping off of the roof of the barn can actually hurt you. As schools recess for the summer, children will spend more time around the family business and more time around dangerous activities. An estimated 104 children younger than 20 years of age die of agricultural injuries on U.S. farms and ranches each year, according to the National Farm Medicine Center. More than 22,500 were injured in 2001. It is simply imperative that parents raise their own awareness about risks to their children on the farm and do what they can to prevent injury and death. Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the safety of rural children, recommends these precautions to prevent kids from getting hurt: --Be aware of developmental characteristics; --Identify hazards; --Set up appropriate rules; and --Supervise children, according to age. For our family, our little incident of the vanishing toddler was a very good wake-up call. It's proof that parents, especially this one, can get distracted and in an instant, children can be in danger. I'm certain that our little dare-devil will try our patience for years to come, but my husband and I can keep our guard up and enforce the rules to help protect our children. Holly Martin can be reached by phone at 1-800-452-7171 ext. 1806 or e-mail at hmartin@hpj.com. B 4 5/28/07 6 Star Midwest Ag Date: 5/23/07
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