Lindsey Townsend
Is your home sweet home also your home "safe" home? Probably not, unless you've done a little work ahead of time.
According to the National Safety Council, more than 20,000 accidental deaths and approximately 25 million accidental injuries occur annually to those under 25 years of age, and most of them occur in the home. The leading causes of injuries to children at home include burns, drowning, poisoning, cuts, and falls.
Safety experts maintain that the majority of these accidents can be prevented with a little foresight and planning. "The two biggest areas of injury are the kitchen and the bathroom," says Dr. Gregory Sonnen, a pediatrician and child safety expert with Baylor Family Health Center in Mesquite, Texas. "For example, many parents think that only toddlers get burned, but even school-aged children will sometimes get curious and touch a hot pot on the stove. Another big problem we see is when children are able to gain access to toxic substances such as cleaning fluids and prescription medications. A bottle of blue fluid like Windex may look like Kool-aid to them, so they'll drink it."
Here, you'll find a room-by-room guide to making your home safer for your child.
Kitchen
• Post the numbers of the doctor, hospital, emergency service, and poison-control center on or near your phone.
• Always pick up broken glass with wet paper towels, then wrap it in newspaper to avoid cutting someone later.
• Teach children never to run with cutting implements or to toss them to someone else.
• Store knives in slotted racks, trays attached to the wall, or in a secured drawer.
• Don't store snacks over the kitchen range where children might be tempted to try to reach them.
• Remove stove knobs or put covers on them when stove is not in use.
• Use a stove shield to prevent grease from splattering and burning those nearby.
• Never transfer household products to a container that once held food. Use original containers.
• Always buy the least hazardous products possible, and keep toxins out of sight, out of reach, and under lock and key.
Bathroom
• More than 3,000 kids a year are scalded by too-hot tap water. To prevent scald burns, set the temperature on your hot-water heater to a maximum of 120 degrees F.
• When not in use unplug electrical appliances such as hair dryers and store them in a locked cabinet or drawer.
• Put nonslip decals or a rubberized mat in the tub or shower stall, and place a padded spout cover on the faucet.
• More than a million children are poisoned at home every year, and 70 percent of those cases involve substances used commonly in most homes such as lotions, shampoos and detergents. Install safety locks on the medicine chest to prevent children from reaching prescriptions, vitamins, soaps, and other toxic substances. And remember that child-resistant does not mean child-proof.
Children's Rooms
• Each year, an estimated 4,700 children are injured falling out of a window. To prevent injury, keep unopened windows locked, and move furniture away from windows. Consider putting guards even on ground-floor windows; screens offer the illusion of safety, but they're not strong enough to keep a kid from falling out.
• Tie drapery cords at the top of window coverings so children can't climb up them. Children under ten can sometimes wriggle through an opening of just five inches.
• Make sure toy boxes are lidless. If one does have a lid, it should have a feature that prevents it from closing on a child's head or fingers.
• If your home or apartment was built before 1978, your child could be at risk for lead poisoning. For more information, contact the National Lead Information Center at 800-424-LEAD.
Living Room
• Place a protective screen around the fireplace, and never leave children unsupervised when in use.
• Because many common plants such as English ivy are poisonous, make sure that all houseplants are out of a child's reach.
• Cover unused outlets with safety plugs.
• Put breakables such as vases and crystals out of reach.
• Pad sharp coffee tables, and remove glass tables, if possible.
• Pad corners on a raised hearth or cover edges with heat-resistant padding.
Hallway and Stairs
• Install a smoke detector that has been certified by a testing lab in every level of your home as well as in the hallways outside of sleeping areas. Test each detector monthly, and change the batteries at least once a year.
• Use a carbon monoxide detector outside each sleeping area and near fuel-burning appliances, and test and change batteries as indicated on the product information.
• Teach children to use the handrail on all stairways and to walk, not run, on the steps.
• Keep stairways clear of all objects
Garage
• Petroleum products and other poisonous substances should be stored up high, in appropriate containers, and locked.
• Install garage doors with electric openers that have an automatic reversing mechanism that prevents the door from closing on a child.
• Mount the control device for the opener high on a wall. Lock the remote in the glove compartment of your car.
Yard
• Inspect all trees for rotting or loose branches regularly, and remove them promptly.
• Check to see if any plants in the yard are poisonous, and remove them or isolate them with fencing.
• Padlock the lid of the septic tank if it's at ground level.
• Inspect gates and fences regularly to be sure they're free of rusty nails and splintered wood.
Finally, remember that when it comes to keeping your child safe, an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure. "There's just no substitute for common sense," says Carol Huybrecht, executive director of the National Safety Council. "Children of all ages need constant supervision. That's easy to say and hard to do. One minute they can be fine, and the next they can be in trouble."
Lindsey Townsend is an award-winning health writer with a special interest in children's issues. She writes regularly for a number of publications including Child, American Baby, and parenthood.com.
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