Information center: Child Safety Around the Home
General Safety
Providing a safe environment for your children is a blow-by-blow experience and a constant challenge to your imagination. For the first few years they grow at an incredible rate, both in physical and mental capabilities. During these first years they look to you for all their needs, including protection from themselves and your environment.
Ordinary household items can be very hazardous to young children. Even with the best supervision, their ability to get themselves into trouble is uncanny. Once a child is up and moving around, his world expands rapidly. Your task is to be aware of what potentially dangerous situations he could get into long before they can happen. If this is not your first child, do not assume that he will not do one thing or another just because other children did not. This can actually put an experienced parent at a disadvantage. Lucky once will not necessarily make you lucky twice.
Accident prevention and safety awareness are skills that need practice, sort of like a sixth sense for danger.
The Childrens Room
- Position your child's crib away from all drapery, electrical cords, and windows.
- Make sure the crib meets national safety standards.
- Make sure the mattress fits snugly.
- Be sure the crib sheet fits snugly.
- If you use a crib bumper, make sure it's firm (not fluffy) and secured tightly with a least six ties.
- Never use an electric blanket in the bed or crib of a small child or infant.
- Place night-lights at least three feet away from the crib, bedding, and draperies to prevent fires.
- Be vigilant about choking hazards.
- Use side railings for children just getting used to "big kid" beds.
- If bedrooms are on second or third stories, be sure to have a fire-escape ladder in each room.
Bathrooms
- Put a lock on all medicine cabinets.
- To prevent poisoning, lock away all vitamins and medicines.
- Install toilet-lid locks to prevent drowning.
- Lower the household water temperature.
- Always test the water first before bathing a child.
- Make sure bathtubs and showers aren't slippery.
- Use electrical appliances carefully.
- Install ground-fault circuit interrupters on outlets near sinks and bathtubs.
- Never leave a young child alone in the bathroom.
The Kitchen
- Keep knives, cleaning supplies, and plastic bags out of children's reach.
- To avoid fires and burns, never leave cooking food unattended.
- If stove knobs are easily accessible to children, use protective covers to prevent kids from turning them.
- Teach your kids how to respond to fire.
- When they're not in use, unplug electrical appliances.
- Replace any frayed cords and wires.
- Keep chairs and step stools away from counters and the stove.
- Beware of foods that children can choke on.
Preventing Burns
Scalding is the number one burn problem with small children and can occur from several areas. Turn down the hot water heater to 120 degrees. Most are set at 140. This is far too hot and will cause third-degree burns in seconds.
Use the back burners first and try to keep the child out of the kitchen when preparing meals. Children are quick and will be under foot just when you lift that hot pot from the stove.
Turn on the oven light when it is hot. Teach the child that light means hot. Turn it off when the oven is cool. If knobs are in front, take them off and place them in the drawer. Use one to turn on the stove and replace it in the drawer when through. Never leave an iron or ironing board set up with the iron on it. Be sure to keep the cords of all electrical heating pots out of reach so the child cannot pull them off.
Fires
Make sure your smoke detectors are working properly. Before a fire, develop an escape plan. There are five basic points:
- Draw up a floor plan with all windows, doors, and stairways.
- Determine two ways to get outside from each room.
- Practice your plan, even at night. Impress on everyone to get out as fast as they can.
- Determine help needed for the young or elderly.
- Assign someone to help each person needing assistance.
In many localities, the Fire Department will provide decals that can be placed in the window to indicate where special help is needed. Agree on a meeting place outside the house.
