Child safety at Home
Introducing Child Accident Prevention as a topic
Safety at home is often forgotten as a topic, but unfortunately the home is also the place where accidents that result in injuries are most likely to occur. Every year around 3,000 people die in accidents in the home and nearly three million attend accident and emergency departments seeking treatment.
The most severe injuries are associated with heat-related accidents and falls from a height. Older children are more likely to sustain fractures than younger counterparts. Younger children have a higher percentage of burns and scalds as well as poisoning and ingestion accidents.
Falls are by far the most common causes of accidents in the home; they account for about 34 per cent of all children’s accidents;
- Fit safety gates at the top and bottom of stairs for children up to 24 months old.
- Never leave tripping hazards on the stairs.
-
Fit child resistant window restrictors but make sure you can get out easily in an emergency.
-
Do not put anything under the window that can be climbed on to prevent children reaching open windows.
- Secure furniture and televisions to the wall with easy to use anchor straps to prevent furniture tip overs.
Hot drinks cause most scalds to children under the age of five;
- Never hold a hot drink and a child at the same time.
-
Put hot drinks out of reach and away from the edges of tables and worktops.
Hot bath water is responsible for the highest number of fatal and severe scalding injuries among young children;
- When running a bath turn the cold water on first and always test the water temperature with your elbow before letting a child get into the bath or shower.
Children can also suffer burns after contact with open fires, a cooker, irons, curling tongs and hair straighteners, cigarettes, matches, cigarette lighters and many other hot surfaces;
- Always use rear cooker rings and turn the pan handles to the side so hands cannot reach up to them.
- Keep hot irons, curling tongs and hair straighteners out of reach even when cooling down and use heat protection pouches where possible.
Some simple ways to make a big difference:
- Secure furniture and televisions to prevent tip overs as they can be unstable and top heavy. This becomes more important when children start to explore climbing. If straps are not provided with the furniture make sure to purchase your own.
- Keep furniture away from windows to prevent children climbing up to access to open windows. Use window restrictors to keep windows from opening fully.
- Keep hot drinks away from counter edges, always push them to the back of the counter.
- Use cupboard locks to secure cupboards with chemicals or medicines in. Keep medicines locked away and out of reach of children.
- Tie up loose blind cord cables. Children can be strangled on these.
- Always use rear cooker rings and turn the pan handles to the side so hands cannot reach up to them.
- Keep hot irons, curling tongs and hair straighteners out of reach even when cooling down and use heat protection pouches to store them.
- When running a bath turn the cold water on first and always test the water temperature with your elbow before letting a child get into the bath or shower.
- Beware of magnetic toys which may contain super strong magnets. If these magnets are ingested, they can cause life threatening injuries.
- Keep button batteries in mind – even old ones. Keep them stored safely away from children. Be aware of toys that may use button batteries and ensure battery compartments are extremely secure. Button batteries if ingested can also cause exceptional injuries.