It has always been vitally important to make sure your home is safe for your little ones. Sharp corners, stairs without mini-gates, and pools without nets are all calls for tragedy if not attended to before an accident can occur. The following covers all the important steps you must take, to ensure that your home is safe for any small child!
Having furniture in the kitchen that is specifically for children will keep them playing and eating on it. There are tons of wonderful pieces of furniture by IKEA that have rounded corners and are sized perfectly for little ones.
Let your children eat and play on their specific tables with plastic plates, cups, knives, forks and spoons, so that it provides the greatest safety for them during play and eating time.
Also keep in mind not to keep knife sets in knife blocks on counters that are easily accessible to the kids. Rather keep your knife sets on very strong stainless steel magnetic knife bars that you can place very high up on the wall, so that they are completely out of reach of your children’s hands.
Young children are so curious. They will often touch hot water or hot stove plates just to experience the feeling of them. Anything that heats up is a danger to them – including hair straightening irons, clothing irons, heaters, microwaves, etc.
Food that’s too hot can burn their mouths, and hot drinks can really scald their tender tongues and lips. An important tip is to always turn the handles of frying pans away from your body, so that children can’t easily grab and pull on them.
It’s important to speak with your children about safety when it comes to hot objects. However, if they’re too young to really understand what you are saying, you need to take preventative measures consistently.
It’s important not to keep your children close by if you are eating or drinking something really hot. They might just tip it over and it could land up on them. Also, never just put your children in hot bath water. Always measure the temperature, making sure it’s never above 38 degrees Celsius. Dip them in slowly, and see how they react, making sure their skin doesn’t turn crimson – if it does, it’s too hot.
If your children ever lightly burn themselves on anything, you need to apply:
If the burn is very bad, you will need to rush your child to the emergency room.
As mentioned earlier, children are extremely curious. One of the things they love doing is sticking their little fingers in electrical sockets, so you really have to be careful about this and make sure you have them covered.
Call in an electrician to fix any loose wires lying around, and to also install safety switches. These will swiftly switch off any power, as to avoid electrocution.
Tools can cause a lot of damage in a plethora of ways. A hammer, or screwdriver, in a child’s hand is not only a danger unto themselves, but any other child or pet around them.
You need to be vigilant with your safety precautions regarding this, and place all your tools very high up on the wall on a heavy-duty magnetic tool bar that will hold them securely in place.
Make sure not to leave matches lying around. There is nothing more hypnotizing or magical to a child’s eye than a flame of fire. They naturally will want to see what they can burn with that flame out of pure and innocent curiosity.
It’s essential to keep smoke alarms installed on every level of your home. These need to be tested every few months, so do so.
You can also teach your children about fire when they’re a bit older, and let them know about the dangers of it.
The scary fact is that over 300 children between the ages of birth and 1.5 months, end up in hospital due to poisoning.
There is nothing more horrific than watching your baby die due to swallowing rat poison, medication or bleach that was carelessly left around in open cupboards.
You need to make sure that anything that can be a poisonous substance to your child is locked up safely, preferably in a high up cupboard. You must put child-safety latches and locks on all cupboards and drawers that hold poisonous substances within – and this includes alcohol.
It is a very scary thought to feed your child a meal, only to have them choke on one of the ingredients within. When it comes to small Italian tomatoes, as well as grapes, it is of the utmost importance to always cut them into halves or quarters. The same goes with eggs, as some children will literally place an entire egg in their mouth at once!
Plastic bags need to be kept away from kids, as they may place them over their heads, and all cushions, clothes and stuffed toys must be taken out of cots and prams.
Whether it’s the bath, pool, large water bucket, pond, or any other large body of water, you always need to keep a close eye on your children when they play in or around such things. There are almost 800 cases of child deaths caused by drowning every single year, and more than half fall under 5 years of age.
It’s important to also never let another child supervise your child when around water. The risk just isn’t worth it.
Do yourself a favor and go for a First Aid Course. This will give you many skills needed when, or if, your child hurts themselves or is in danger. You will learn how to properly apply CPR – it is different in comparison to the CPR given to an adult – as well as other things that will make you feel more secure in the knowledge that if something were to happen you could help out.
Redo this course every two years.
Keeping your home safe for children is a never-ending task. However, at the end of each day, you will be happier for it, knowing your children are safe(r) from harm. Follow the above tips, and if your children ever seriously harms themselves, call 911 or the emergency number in your area!
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