Dec 16, 2011

How to Make Your Home Safe for Children

There are a few easy steps you can take to make your home safe for children. If you are expecting a new baby, or have reached the toddler stage, it is time that you child-proofed your home. Many accidents occur in the home, most of these being children. You can also help keep your children safe at home by having the right alarm systems, a security alarm to protect against intruders, as well as smoke alarms in case of a house fire.

Safety around water

If you have a swimming pool then you are required by law to have a proper safety fence around the perimeter. You should also have a proper child-proof gate. You should always supervise children when they are in and around the water and you should never take your eyes off them for a second. A child can drown in less then thirty seconds. You also need to always watch young children when they are in the bath because it is possible for a child to drown in a few inches of water. You can stop children from hurting themselves in the bath by having a non-slip mat stuck on the bottom and avoid them slipping on the bathroom floor tiles by having a bath mat to soak up any spilt water.

Lock up poisons
You need to lock up all poisons in your home. This also includes regular household cleaners, any chemicals and all medications. These items need to be on a shelf that is out of reach of young children or else they need to be locked away.

Avoid burns
Children can very easily burn themselves on exposed heaters, open fire places and also on hot water. You need to have proper guards on all your heaters and a fire guard around any open fire place. You should also make sure that your hot water system is not set too high. Your water should not be so hot that you can't put your hand under it. All new houses that are recently built have the hot water system set at a lower temperature. Look out for older homes and go and turn the temperature on your thermostat down. You need to also be careful of hot drinks and make sure that children can not pull them off a table or bench and onto themselves. Many children receive very bad burns from something as simple as a cup of tea. Always put hot drinks out of reach and don't drink them while holding small children or babies.

Stairs
If your home has stairs you need to stop your children from being able to fall down them. You can put a child-proof gate at the top of your stairs and also at the bottom so they can't climb up and tumble back down. Rather than spending all your time worrying about it you are better off blocking the stairs off so young children can't get to them. If you have any single steps or a couple of stairs throughout your house you also need to watch toddlers as they are already unsteady on their feet. You should also not have young babies in walkers if there are stairs in your house.

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