As a parent, keeping your children safe from all forms of harm should be your number one priority. But it can be difficult, if not impossible to always keep a watchful eye over children, what with work, school, and the myriad of activities that take up the day. However, there are a few things you can do to make sure your children are safe, whether you are there or not.
Identifying risk to children at home
There are dozens of things that can cause hurt and injury to a child in the house, and it is your responsibility as a parent to identify these risks, and come up with ways to prevent or minimise them.
As children grow, they tend to become curious, this inquisitive nature will lead them to different parts of the house, and cause them to open things. You should therefore always be on the alert to new hazards, and constantly strive towards creating a safe environment for your child to grow.
To get you started on the right track, this article contains a few essential rules for child safety in the house.
- Do not leave your children alone in the water
Growing kids love to splash about in water, whether it is an indoor, outdoor swimming pool, a bathtub, or a regular bathroom shower. However, this fun time can quickly escalate into an accident if proper care is not taken. For this reason, you should never leave your children in water alone without the supervision of a grown up.
At the same time, you should make sure that the water level does not go higher than the waistline of your child, so that he or she does not get submerged without you knowing.
At the end of every session that has to do with water, be it bathing or swimming, make sure that the area properly cleaned up and any spilled liquid mopped up. Spilled liquid is one of the common causes of slips and falls in the house, and keeping a dry floor area will prevent it from happening.
- Cover up electrical outlets and wires
As important as electricity is, it is also one of the major causes of household fatalities. This is especially true for households with growing children. A crawling child can unintentionally crawl up to an exposed socket or wire, and get electrocuted.
As a parent, you should take proper steps to make your home electricity safe. This includes covering up all electric outlets, hiding exposed wires, and repairing faulty appliances. You will find smart plastic covers for electric outlets in almost any electrical or hardware store and you can use these to cover up any unused outlet.
At the same time, you should consider throwing away any damaged gadget, as this can result in electrocution or electric fire accident if handled wrongly.
- Dangerous items must be kept away
You may be surprised to know that children are in just as much danger indoors as they are out of the house. There are dozens of items that can hurt your child even indoors. To avoid household accidents, you should take care to properly keep sharp and dangerous objects like kitchen and eating utensils, tools and hardware, and especially fuel, matches and firearms.
All kitchen and eating utensils should be kept in a cabinet out of the reach of children; tools should be kept in the storage shed, while firearms should definitely be kept under lock and key. In fact, firearms should never be kept loaded in a house with children, no matter how far out of their reach it is. Firearms should be kept separate from the bullets, but close enough that an adult can quickly load it when the need arises.
Doors, windows, and other points of entry and egress should be shut properly in a house with little children. You should also consider installing a door or gate at the mouth of stairways to prevent a small child falling down one while exploring the house.
Take care to never leave a small child unattended in the house if your house has places where a small child can fall from or get injured.
- Teach them how to operate the security system
As your child grows, you should begin to teach them safety and security procedures; so that they will be safe in the house should you need to rush somewhere. You should also teach them how to operate the home security system. However, be sure to stress the importance of keeping the security information a secret, so that they don’t reveal it to a stranger.
Conclusion
Finally, teach your children the importance of the emergency number and the conditions under which they can use it. This knowledge will be very useful in the event something goes wrong and there is no grown up present.
