Child safety in your home

If you have young children living in your home or visiting your home, you need to know what to do to make it safe for them. Children are curious by nature, they will explore and plunder at any given opportunity. You want to ensure that there are no hidden dangers in your home.

Let's look at some of the major causes of injury to children and what parents can to do to protect their children from harm.

Falls

There are many instances in the home where a child or baby can be hurt in a fall. Children have been injured by falling off of beds or furniture, slipping on floors, falling down stairs and out of windows, and many falls occur in the bathroom.

How can you prevent falls?

1. Never leave babies or small children alone on beds, changing tables or furniture.

2. Make sure the cover is fastened securely on the high chair and always use the safety belt.

3. Many falls occur on slippery floors or rugs. If you have throw rugs in your home, make sure to secure them with a rubber mat which can be found in many department stores or home decor stores.

4. Children like to play on stairs, as a result, many home injuries occur on stairs each year. Never leave kids unattended near a stairway.

5. Always use safety gates to block off access to stairs if you have babies or toddlers in the home.

6. Keep all items picked up from the stairs. Toys and other items left on stairs cause many trip and fall accidents.

7. Never leave children unattended near open windows. Screens will not prevent a child from falling out. Keep windows closed and locked if they are within the reach of children.8. Never leave a child of any age unattended in the bathroom. Simply trying to stand up in the bathtub could cause serious injuries. Use a slip proof bath mat to prevent slips.

Fires and burns

1. Most fires and burns occur in the kitchen. To decrease your child's chances of a burn, never allow them to play in or near the kitchen.

2. Candles have become increasing popular as home decorating items. If you have candles in your home, keep the candles and matches out of children's reach.

3. When cooking, turn the handles of your pots toward the back of the stove, so that they do not hang over the front edge where small hands can reach up and grab them.

4. Be cautious when opening the oven door that a small child is not standing nearby.

5. Install plate covers on all electrical outlets to prevent burns or electrocution.

6. Keep hot food or beverages away from the edges of the counter tops so that small children cannot reach up to pull them off.

7. Make sure that your home is properly equipped with smoke alarms.

Drowning

The majority of home drownings occur in the bathtub and in pools.

1. Never leave children unattended in the bathtub or the bathroom. Small children have even drowned in toilets.

2. If you have a pool, lake, river or body of water near your home, take extra precautions to ensure that children cannot get outside without your permission.

3. Install safety gates around pools.

Suffocation and Choking

1. Small children often put things that they find on the floor into their mouths. Keep all small items off the floor and out of a child's reach.

2. Small, hard candy is also responsible for many choking incidences. Try to refrain from giving hard candy to small children. If you do give it to them, try breaking it into bite size pieces to lessen the chance of it getting lodged in their throats.

3. Cords can easily strangle small children. Keep phone cords and cords from window blinds out of a child's reach.

Firearms

The statistics of children being killed or injured by firearms is very frightening. If you choose to keep firearms, especially hand guns in a home where children live, make sure that they are educated about its dangers.

1. Never keep a loaded gun where a child of any age, including teens, can get their hands on it.

2. Keep all guns and ammunition in separate locked cabinets. Don't store them together.

3. Have safety locks installed on any guns in your possession.

4. Almost half of all firearm injuries happen in a friend's home. Make sure your child is aware of the dangers of guns and knows to tell an adult if they see a gun or if any of their friends show them a gun.

Poisoning

Children are naturally curious and automatically put things they find into their mouths. They may easily mistake pills or insecticide tablets for candy or a poisonous liquid for juice.

To help prevent accidental poisoning:

1. Never refer to medications as "candy", children may think other medications are candy and try to sneak some when an adult is not looking

2. Ask your pharmacist to put child-resistant caps on all of your prescriptions.

3. If you carry any medications in your purse, even aspirin, never leave your purse where a small child can get into.

4. When discard old medicine bottles, dispose of any pills or liquid left in the bottle by flushing them down the toilet or down the sink.

5. Store medicine and other poisonous substances in your top cabinets where children cannot reach them. If your children are old enough to climb onto the counters, install safety latches.

Always use extra precautions when child-proofing your home. Get down on the child's level to see what looks interesting or what they may be able to reach. Children have a way of getting into things that you might think they couldn't get into. You can never do too much child proofing: in all instances, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Source : http://www.essortment.com