Your child’s medical condition, medications, and treatments increase his/her risk for injury. Your child’s safety is one of the highest priorities at home. This handout provides you with important steps to protect your child and avoid injury.
Fall precaution
Follow these precautions to protect your child from falling down.
- Keep the floor free of harmful objects and toys at all times to avoid slipping and falling.
- Avoid loose slippers or shoes. Do not let your child walk barefoot.
- Make sure that the lights are on while your child is moving around the house. Keep a night light, or a lamp next to your child’s bed.
- Be careful while your child is climbing the stairs.
- Install window guards, especially on the upper-storey windows to avoid fall through it.
- Block a toddler's access to stairs with safety gates. If you're putting a safety gate at the top of a staircase, attach it to the wall.
Burn precaution
Take burn safety precautions to prevent injuries and dangerous situations. Reduce water temperature. Set the thermostat on your hot water heater to below 120 F (48.9 C). Always test the water temperature before your child gets in the tub.
Avoid hot spills:- Don't cook, drink or carry hot beverages or soup while holding a child.
- Keep hot foods and liquids away from table and counter edges.
- Don't use tablecloths or placemats, which young children can pull down.
- Turn the handles of your pots and pans toward the rear of the stove.
- Avoid leaving food cooking on the stove unattended.
- Block access to the stove and fireplace, and make space heaters and hot water heaters inaccessible.
- Store matches, lighters and flammable liquids in a locked cabinet or drawer.
Water precaution
- Install a safety latch or doorknob cover on the outside of the door.
- Never leave a child alone in the bathtub or in the care of another child. Drain water from the tub immediately after use.
- Consider installing childproof locks on toilet lids
- Use a rigid, motorized safety cover to block access to the pool when it's not in use.
Poisoning precaution
- Keep all poisonous liquids, such as cleaning chemicals, away from any space that is accessible to children.
- Store all of these liquids in high locked cupboards which are unreachable by children.
- Install child-safety latches. They make all of the cupboard doors practically locked while adults can still open them with a stronger push or a pull. Additionally, these latches are very useful for drawers as well, as they will keep your children’s fingers safe.
Electricity precautions
Safety switches: This device will turn off the electricity in your home if any kind of irregular activity in the electric system occurs.
Cords: Keep every single electricity cord in new condition, as they isolate the electricity. Sockets: The majority of electrocution injuries occur when a child inserts something that conducts electricity into a socket. To prevent this from happening, make sure that you use electrical socket covers. Make sure that you use the covers for all the sockets in your home, even for those which are found in rooms where your child does not usually spend time.Sun Exposure
- Avoid your child’s exposure to the sun.
- Apply the suitable sun protection before your child goes out of the house.
- Let your child wear sunglasses and a hat when in the sun.
References:
"Healthy and Safe Environment for Your Children." Healthy Lifestyle. N.p., Apr. 2014. Web."Healthy and Safe Environment for Your Children." Healthy Lifestyle. N.p., Apr. 2014. Web. Aug. 2016.
"Healthy and Safe Environment for Your Children." How to Create a Healthy and Safe Environment for Your Children. N.p., n.d. Web. Aug. 2016.