20 Top Tips on Child Safety
by Natalia Moore
Each year children are burned, poisoned, knocked down by cars, or suffer from cuts and broken bones.
Often the parents are blamed. And no parent wants that burden or guilt of feeling responsible for any mishap to their kid.
If you want your children to be safe, happy and confident in a complicated world, what’s your rating?
Can you swim well and do you know how to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?
Are you a skillful and safe driver?
Are you seen to obey traffic lights and look for pedestrian crossings?
Are you prepared to spend time teaching your children to ride a bike or use an electric saw, a coffee percolator or the toaster?
If you can’t answer YES confidently then your children could be in danger.
Here are some tips, suggestions and facts about child safety
#1 Aspirin, vitamins and iron tablets in large doses can kill children.
Not only should they be guarded but you should not take medications in front of your children nor feed them chewy, lolly-flavoured vitamin supplements, or ever refer to medicine as something yummy.
#2 Far too many infants less than a year old are given doses of non-prescription medicines for minor infections, sleeplessness, colds and teething complaints.
Any child who needs such medication should be seen by a doctor. If it’s not that serious, and it rarely is, don’t administer.
#3 Tobacco is a lethal poison if swallowed. One cigarette can kill a one year old.
A large drink of neat whisky or other spirit can kill a toddler.
#4 Many children who potter about safely at home had end up being unsafe when on holiday or when left at someone else’s home.
Unfamiliar surroundings, stairs, grandma’s sleeping tablets left on a bedside table, all make for dangerous living.
Make an inspection tour before leaving your child anywhere, or settling in for a cup of tea.
#5 Resist pressures to buy more furniture, electrical goods and gadgets than you need.
A large number of children’s injuries come from over-crowded homes.
Kids fall through glass coffee tables, ride skateboards into television sets, get tangled in the cords and wires of countless bits of equipment, staple their fingers with electric staplers and lose fingers and toes to lawn mowers, chain saws, farm machinery and even food processors.
#6 If you decide to take up a family sport make sure you can devote the time to make each member a skillful participant.
Boats, ski equipment, trail bikes, and push-bikes all require expert tuition and practice.
Don’t succumb to a child’s pleadings for a horse or a motorcycle unless he or she can be taught to ride them and be supervised.
#7 Although jewellery may look sweet on tiny children, swallowed pins, earrings and even bracelets show up clearly in throats, stomachs and intestines on X-ray after X-ray.
Never put any on babies or children under five.
#8 If you are moving a small child from a cot to a bed, you may consider Japanese-style sleeping arrangements.
A mattress on the floor discourages jumping and even if there is some mild horseplay or a child rolls out in the night, no serious damage will be done.
#9 If you are renovating your home, do a daily check for dangerous equipment, nails, shaky piles of rubble or step ladders left temptingly against walls and fences.
#10 Adventure playgrounds, slippery dips, swings, roundabouts, wading pools, skateboards, roller-skates and bicycles are great fun with supervision and dangerous without it.
#11 Bouncing chairs figure largely in accidents.
Once your baby can bounce aggressively he is probably too big. Never place one on a table, bench top, in a pram or on a vibrating washing machine.
#12 Pull-along toys with long strings risks strangulation.
Be wary of hinged lids on toy boxes, brittle plastic toys, plastic eyes on stuffed toys and tiny plastic building blocks around small babies.
#13 Don’t give necessary medications in the dark to children. Check that you have the right bottle and dose in a well-lit room before approaching the child.
#14 The burns ward of any hospital tells a story too.
Parents who only turned their backs “for a second,” parents who didn’t think their child could reach the coffee pot.
Parents who didn’t realize their six year old would throw “metho” on the barbecue, just like they did. Only to hear the boom and see the flames.
Place hot drinks, kettles, coffee and tea pots, frying pans and sandwich toasters squarely in the center of bench or table top.
#15 Run cold water in the bath first and then add only enough hot water to bring it to a pleasantly warm temperature.
If a hot tap is a threat, wrap it in a face washer. Never leave a child alone in the bath. Infants can slip under the water easily, hit their heads on the enamel, or be playfully (or angrily) dealt with by an older child.
#16 Open fireplaces must have guards. Take your child with you if you must leave the room where an open fire is burning.
Don’t hang wet clothes in front of open fires or close to electric or gas fires where they may catch alight.
Dress all children in pyjamas with tight cuffs at wrist and ankle and made from fire-resistant material.
#17 A barbecue poses a real threat to young children.
Ensure that an adult is always stationed near the fire and never attempt to start or encourage a fire with methylated spirits.
#18 When entertaining, provide a box or garbage bag for empty bottles and tins. The ring tabs from beer and drink cans can cut children’s feet badly.
#19 Learn to recognize government seals of approval and look for labels from the Standards Association when you are buying toys, equipment or clothes.
##20 If your child is daring, never praise outrageous, risky behaviour.
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