KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An expert at the Center for Childhood Safety at Children's Mercy Hospital wants to make sure parents know temperatures across the Kansas City region could be too low for kids to play outside.
If kids do go outside to play, Laura Kemerling, Program Manager for Center for Childhood Safety, said it's important to make sure most of their skin is covered.
Kemerling suggests kids wear a wool hat with additional ear covers underneath.
"So hat, ear protection of some type, even sunglasses or ski goggles because that sun can be really bright and project off the snow. So protecting their eyes is really important," Kemerling said. "If you have sunscreen, a broad spectrum SPF 30 to cover their skin, is a really ood idea."
Kemerling said it's important kids wear a base layer.
"Obviously layers of clothes across the torso is really important," Kemerling said. "You can do cotton underneath. But something that fully covers their torso and arms."
When it comes to the outer layer, Kemerling said parents should make sure those items are waterproof.
"Waterproof is best, so a waterproof coat on the exterior, same thing with the bottoms," Kemerling said. "Jeans are something that if they get wet they get heavy, so if you can do long johns underneath and something waterproof on the top. Coveralls or snow pants would be really really good."
Waterproof gloves in addition to insulated boots that are waterproof are also recommended.
"I know some kids just have rain boots, and that works fine, but having a couple layers of socks, wool socks, heavy socks to keep their feet warm, but then something waterproof. So an insulated boot that’s waterproof is good," Kemerling said. "When we were young we didn’t have a lot of money so what my mom would do is, we would do cotton socks, but then she would put plastic grocery bags around our cotton socks and we would put our boots over that and it would keep our socks dry and keep our feet from getting wet."
In addition to what kids wear, Kemerling said it's important to check on them every 15 minutes to look for signs of frostbite.
"Frostnip is really just kind of red and irritating. It’s not an emergency but they do need to be warmed if they’re having frostnip," Kemerling said. "Often times, frostbite can look white and waxy and the skin can be hard to the touch. It can be very painful but sometimes it can be numb. There is actually an injury to the skin and it is an emergency. There’s really no specific set time with the very low temps so below freezing temps we just really need to be careful with the kids. I would be checking on those kiddos."
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