(Provided photo)

Summer is here and Father’s Day is fast approaching.

Dads, and moms too, who want to take their children to the playground on Father’s Day (or any day for that matter) have been teeter-tottering over to me about the safety of their neighborhood park or school playground and whether or not added precautions need to be taken.

Let me swing into this one and provide a few playground safety tips.

Almost 200,000 children are injured annually on playgrounds.

The most common reasons for injuries include:

— A lack of adequate protective surfacing

— Falls off slides and climbing equipment higher than six feet

— Swings too close together

— Head entrapments from improperly sized openings in the equipment

— Puncture wounds and lacerations from hooks and nails that stick out.

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Ways to reduce playground injuries

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First, always supervise your young child during trips to the playground.

Swings:

— Make sure swings are made of soft materials such as rubber, plastic, or canvas. There should also be at least nine inches of sand, mulch, wood chips, or rubberized matting under all playground equipment extending at least six feet in all directions so it is energy absorbent.

— Children should always sit in a swing, not stand or kneel on it.

— Make sure the swing stops before getting off.

All equipment:

— Make sure your child can’t reach any moving parts that can pinch or trap a body part.

— Ensure that vertical and horizontal spaces are less than three and a half inches wide or greater than nine inches wide, so heads do not get trapped.

Slides:

— Make sure metal slides are cool to prevent legs from being burned on a hot day and that platforms higher than 30 inches above the ground have guardrails or barriers to prevent falls.

— Plastic slides are better because they do not get as hot as metal, but should still be checked.

— Teach your children to never to walk in front of, or behind, a swing when someone else is on it.

— Never climb up the sliding surface. Instead, use the ladder.

— Always go down feet first to avoid head injuries.

— Move away from the bottom of the slide as soon as your child reaches it so they do not collide with the next child coming down.

— Finally, don’t allow children under age four to climb equipment taller than they are without close supervision.

Hopefully, tips like these will slide down easily the next time you’re worried about your child getting injured on the playground.

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Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.