State seeks to cut child deaths

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

CARSON CITY - A state panel hoping to find ways to reduce child deaths is examining dozens of recommendations including licensing of lay midwives and tightening rules governing mopeds.

Preliminary figures show that during the first three months of this year 41 children 17 and younger died in Nevada, 27 of them in Clark County and 14 in Washoe County.

Eighteen deaths were from natural causes, 11 were classified as accidental, three were homicides, three were suicides and six were from undetermined causes.

A 2004 report by the state Child and Family Services Division showed 407 child and adolescent deaths in Nevada that year, up from 318 in 2003 and 327 in 2002. Figures for 2005 were not available.

The panel, headed by Michael Capello of the Washoe County Social Services Department, is considering nearly 70 recommendations aimed at lowering those numbers.

The greatest number of child deaths in 2004 involved children under the age of 1, a finding that has prompted a proposal calling for regulation of lay midwives.

Cynthia Huth, a state Health Division nurse, said the Board of Medical Examiners and the Health Division have made more than a dozen efforts in the past decade to license lay midwives, whose only training in some cases comes from other unregulated lay midwives.

Lay midwives serve low-income families, sometimes with poor results, officials said. Midwife representatives oppose any licensing or certification, Huth said.

The panel's effort to reduce accidental deaths among youths has prompted, among other things, a review of mopeds and go-peds. Under current law, operators of the small, motorized vehicles do not need a license, registration or insurance. Some parents buy the vehicles for children as young as 7, the panel was told.

One recommendation before the panel would create a licensing law and allow police to file charges of child endangerment against parents who allow children to drive the vehicles on public streets.

The committee, however, initially balked at that suggestion.

Panelist David Jones of the state Public Safety Department said that proposal should be brought to the attention of the Department of Motor Vehicles for possible action.

"We can't be the solution to every problem," Jones said. "We should not be one shop to fix all problems."

The recommendation also drew opposition from Huth, who questioned whether parents should always be held responsible for their children's actions.

"You can't always control your 15- or 16-year-old," she said.

The panel also is considering proposals such as making counseling available to boyfriends or girlfriends of teens who commit suicide; providing more education and training to diabetic children and their families; and requesting that contractors building near schools install safety devices to prevent accidents involving students.