NEW CHILD MOVES NJ DAD TO BECOME CHILD SAFETY EXPERT

After his son nearly choked to death, and the spate of child abductions all over the news last summer, A new father decided to do something to help other new parents learn the skills and safety techniques to keep their children safe at home and on the road.

Maplewood, NJ - 1.30.03 - Although there are lots of services out there offering instruction in child-centered auto safety, home safety, spotting care provider abuse and ways to alleviate all the other modern day mom and dad worries, Michael and Amy Janay had no luck getting instructions in child safety skills before their own child was born.

The waiting lists for various classes and experts were too long, the times available didn't work if you went to work yourself, and "new baby" classes at the hospital left them feeling unprepared on aspects of safety.

After baby Brian came last year - same story. When they finally found an available car seat installation expert at a police station, it turned out he was only "on" beginning at midnight (although he made a super effort, and did agree to see the couple early one evening).

This combination of expectant parent joy and dread, and a real life near disaster when Brian almost choked to death on a cookie, led Maplewoodian, Michael Janay, to decide to do it himself and become a registered agent for Child Shield USA - identification and recovery system, a certified Red Cross instructor in infant, child, and adult CPR, First Aid, and an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) instructor / supplier - as well as a NHTSA Child Passenger Safety Technician certified to install car seats, to boot.

He started Child Protection Network, Inc. which now offers these skills and more to parents who are going through the same self-education process that he and Amy did. Classes, products, and services are out there, he says, but it's too difficult to get it together, "So I decided to do it myself and make it convenient for other working parents. It's important!"

But Mike explains that while parents know it's important, they can't take the day off to get their car seats installed. Add the fact that most parents feel they are able to put the seats in correctly themselves and the problem is revealed. According to the National Highway Safety Administration [NHTSA] Child Passenger Safety Technicians and experts, up to 95% of car seats are improperly installed and are used incorrectly. They estimate that 30,500 children under age 5 were injured in motor vehicle collisions during 1997 and 604 passengers under age 5 were killed.

That doesn't have to happen," says Mike, who has been know to install car seats on a moments notice for a family leaving on an emergency trip, and to have gone to hospital parking lots to install newborns seats before they come home.

With the zeal of an evangalist and child safety stars in his eyes, Mike is not only out there installing car seats, he's doing home safety assessments – in a past life he was a home inspector - designing custom baby gates and other babyproofing olutions, teaching CPR, and extolling the virtues of automated external defibrillators.

And now he's planning to take his show on the road to talk to parent groups whenever he has the chance. He's even talking to a hotel chain about what they can do to plan for child safety when families are on the road.

Though all areas of child safety are important to him - closest to his heart is his six-hour seminar on family self-defense. A former practitioner of Kung Fu with many years of training behind him - he now studies Judo and Jujitsu - nothing is going to happen to your child if he has anything to do with it.

Designed in conjunction with law enforcement personnel, teachers and highly experienced martial artists, Mike says his family self-defense seminars are especially relevant today, because Martial Arts training as it is currently taught gives parents and kids a false sense of security.

"Eight-year-olds get a little black belt and parents let them have more freedom than they should," he says. "Kids are allowed to go unsupervised at a very young age because they feel they can defend themselves. But the reality is that they can't defend themselves against an adult," he says. "Martial arts for children as popularly practiced is a sport - something for kids to work off energy. It shouldn't be relied upon in dangerous situations. Our seminars teach families to be aware of their surroundings, of their space and of their personal safety. Most important, we teach techniques to escape and to stay out of dangerous situations in the first place."

What's the best method for a kid to fight off an attacker? "You're not Rambo," he said. "If you weigh 80 pounds and the attacker is a 200 pound adult, the best thing to do if you can, is 'scream and run'. The next best thing - take our seminar to learn proper caution and assessment skills. Even with Martial Arts training, kids are still kids, parents are still parents, and the world is and always will be a wonderful but dangerous place."

Michael Janay is a Red Cross Certified First Aid/CPR/AED instructor, NHTSA Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, a member of The National Safety Council. A graduate of the American Home Inspectors Training Institute, A member of the AED Instructors foundation. A member of the International Association of Electrical Inspectors.