It’s the hardest weekend of the year for parents of small children. We lose an hour of sleep though our kids never quite get that, do they? Despite the fact that you may be grumpy and overtired come (early) Sunday morning, you need to remember to do something other than feed your children.

Change the batteries in your smoke detectors!

It is suggested that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors when Daylight Saving Time begins (and/or when it ends). You should also be testing your smoke detectors once a month by pressing that obnoxiously loud but life-saving little button. If you’re not, start doing so now. But change your batteries this weekend. It’s not that hard. I promise you.

The truth is that sixty-five percent of reported home fire deaths in 2000-2004 resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. (USFA) And of those, 43% were without a smoke detector all together. While those fancy pants ones are a bit expensive, the truth is that a regular, working smoke detectors can save lives. Furthermore, in places like Los Angeles, it is the law to have smoke detectors in all sleeping rooms. Did you know that? Do you know the laws of your city or state? If you don’t have one, please go out and purchase one today. If you’re struggling to make ends meet, give your local fire department a call and ask if they have a program to provide smoke detectors free of charge. If you’re unsure of where to install yours or how to change the batteries, give them a call as well.

I want all of our readers to be safe and having a working smoke detector is part of that! So change those batteries and try to catch up on some sleep!

This week is Fire Prevention Week. If you have children in some form of school, you might see them come home with papers on fire safety. You might hear that a fire truck has visited their school or that they took a walk to the local fire station. While the involvement of firefighters and fire departments in our kids’ school is beyond beneficial, the truth is that you can start at home, well before your kids head to preschool. It’s never too early to start talking about fire safety. This week I’ll be bringing you tips, book reviews and other great things about fire safety.

Today I though I would bring you some links so that you can utilize the Internet as you teach your children about the importance of fire safety. Even very young children can utilize Internet sites, whether for games, for reading or for printing coloring pages. All they need is you to help them locate the sites, work on whatever the site offers and to explain the importance of each site and safety tip. Here are some of my favorites.

1. The National Fire Prevention Week website actually has some great resources for parents and kids. Things like the Fire Safety Inspection Checklist (.pdf) and the Fire Safety Information card are great activities to complete with older children. The arcade on site provides for a fun way to bring a discussion about fire safety into your learning process. For the youngest set, a coloring page with Sparky is made available that highlights the important things to remember to prepare for and in the midst of a fire emergency.

2. Sprout, the PBS kids channel, has a great Fire Safety Week program going on right now, including on their website. This site provides more coloring pages, including a counting one, a Fireman Sam one and some others. (A fun thing on the Sprout site allows for you to upload a picture of your kids’ artwork once it has been completed for others’ viewing pleasure on the website! Cool!) There are also some videos on their Fire Safety page.

3. USFA Kids (US Fire Administration) has a great site that combines pertinent information (Home Fire Safety, Smoke Alarms, and Escaping from a Fire) with some games (Crossword Puzzles, Coloring Pages, a test to be a Jr. Fire Marshal among other things). I found this site to be particularly easy to navigate for a computer-independent child who wants to learn on her own.

4. Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog is one of my favorite programs regarding fire safety. Sparkles’ owner, Firefighter Dayna, is passionate about fire safety (just like we are!). They’re actually part of the Fire Safety Week on Sprout this year! Their site offers more activity pages, GREAT fire safety videos and crafts.

These are just some great online resources for you, as a parent, to help your children understand the importance of fire safety. As a parent you need to know these things as well. First and foremost, know your house’s floor plan and make a fire escape plan should an emergency occur. Teach things as simple as “stop, drop and roll” and the importance of getting low should the hallway be filled with smoke. As you help your child navigate the online resources for learning about fire safety, make sure you’re up-to-date on all of your knowledge. Your family’s lives depend on it!

Tomorrow I will have a review of some younger child storybooks that also highlight some fire safety points. Be sure to tune in all week as I bring you various tips, fun pictures and other pertinent facts on fire safety. (Also, as this is October and Halloween is just around the corner, check out our review of the best firefighter costume on the market right now, pictured above.)

I brought you some iPhone apps a couple of weeks ago that were of interest to firefighters, young and old. Today I bring you the first app for which I shelled out the cash. It’s called smart-ICE4Family and it’s $3.99 in the app store. And you need to buy it. Now. Before you even read my post. However, I assume you want to know why so, I suppose, you can read the post first and then download it. Immediately.

ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. If you travel anywhere, even to the grocery store, in any form, on foot or by vehicle or any mode in between, you should have an ICE card, at the very least, somewhere in or on your body or belongings. An ICE card gives the responding paramedics, firefighters or police officers pertinent information about you, your health and who should be contacted. I’ve told you how Ohio actually has a Next-of-Kin Database now easily attachable to your driver’s license. You should, however, also be carrying ICE information with you.

Perhaps you think you are invincible. (You are not.) Perhaps you think you will remember all of your own medications and be able to verbalize them to paramedics even if you are unconscious. Perhaps you can dictate to paramedics each time your children have been hospitalized or their allergies while you are in a state of shock. In fact, even medical professionals can find themselves uncertain of such things when an emergency hits their own lives. This particular story is a very important reminder why this information needs to be easily available. To paraphrase his tips:

Accept that you are human and that accidents happen. Print out ICE cards for all wallets, purses, backpacks and vehicles. Program *ICE numbers into all cell phones. Print out detailed sheets of medications and other health issues to have easily on hand should something occur. If you experience an emergency and your responder is not familiar with the concept of ICE, please pass on the information. Your brief stint as educator may save another life.

And so what does all of this have to do with an iPhone app? smart-ICE4family is an iPhone app that holds your pertinent emergency info. But, it gets better! It’s a multiple profile ICE meaning that you can put in your information and the info of your family members. Designed by an EMS director with over 30 years experience as a fire-medic and emergency room medic, this program has everything that you need for first responders and ER staff to appropriately treat you or your children.

I learned about this app just before my trip to NYC for Swagapalooza. I quickly downloaded it, entered my info and went to sleep. I felt safer knowing that if anything happened, my information was with me. While we do have ICE cards in our wallets, I liked having it on hand in my phone as well. It is now the very first app on my screen. The icon that this app uses is actually the trademarked ICE symbol that is recognized around the world. It’s also bright orange and blue. It’s hard to miss. When I got home, I also entered the information of my children and husband (who were not traveling with me on the aforementioned trip).

The features of the app are pretty nifty.

• Multiple profiles.
• Fast 911 access.
• Alert function: After dialing 911 fromt he app, the phone goes into an alert mode and will sound an audible alert every two minutes. This feature allows EMS personnel to find your phone and medical information should you become incapacitated.
• Passcode wallpaper: This will allow you to set a custom message on your wallpaper if phone is locked.
• Stores all of the critical information needed in an emergency situation for up to five people.
• Dials emergency contacts within the app.

Things that I found especially handy: allergy information, preferred hospital (as we do not prefer the hospital here in city) expressed wishes (bleh) and medical history. The latter of which is very important for people and children with chronic illness. I don’t look like a very sick human being but my kidney disorder means that I can’t be pumped full of ibuprofen without a chance of throwing me into kidney failure. I’d really rather avoid that, mmkay?

It was easy to set up and fill out. And while we have printed ICE cards, I like the features of this app. I like knowing that I’ll be able to give very pertinent information, especially about my children, even if I am not alert.

I encourage all families to, at the very least, carry ICE cards. Make them up now even if you don’t have a fancy icon. Write them and put them in your wallets, purses and vehicles tonight. If you’re an iPhone user, I encourage you to download this app, make it your first icon button and enter the information. Immediately. I don’t like to think about emergencies and being unable to remember things or be awake to give paramedics information. No one likes to think about it. But I’d rather be prepared for such an event. I want our readers to be prepared as well. I want paramedics to know how to treat you, your significant other and your children. (As a side note: the company also offers a single profile version of the app for the single people among us. It downloads for $1.99 as opposed to $3.99.)

If you have all of your ICE information in place, iPhone app or not, please do your friends and family a favor and tweet or share this post. It’s so vitally important that people know about the concept of ICE and how easy it is to manage. I’ve got all of our information in now for our quick trip to Cincinnati tomorrow to see Disney on Ice. To be honest, I’m glad we have it there for our even quicker trips to the library and school. You never know… you just don’t.

You can read more about the app on EMS-Options.

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[No compensation was received for this post. I paid for the app myself. I believe in keeping my readers up to date on safety information and technology. I always blog with integrity.]

Today is the first day of September, the first day of a brand new month. You get to start a new month with a clean slate. Before you do anything, including baking a mean peach cobbler since peaches are so wonderful right now, you need to do something. What?

Check your smoke detectors. Watch my video.

Is it really necessary to test your smoke detector every month? Yes. As an example, we went on vacation in August. We were gone for eight days. Our smoke detector batteries could have died while we were gone despite changing them with the time change every year. (More on that next month!) Even if you’re gone for half of a weekend, you could lose function. It’s best to test and know for sure than find out the hard way.

So go press the button on your smoke detectors right now. Use earplugs though. Man. That was loud.