National Child Safety & Protection Month Offers Tips to Keep Your Children Safe
Parents have had their minds busy and hands full making decisions to keep their children safe from the coronavirus this year with little time to think about some of the normal hazards children meet in their everyday environment. This month, recognized as National Child Safety & Protection Month, is a good reminder for parents, grandparents, child care providers, and other caregivers to review their children’s environments for potential dangers.
As parents, you know that you can’t safe proof your child from never getting hurt. Accidents happen. Children trip while running, fall off swings and get bumps and bruises every day. However, by doing an audit of your children’s living and play spaces and making any necessary changes and clean-ups, you can hopefully keep their injuries to ones that can be treated with a hug and a band-aid instead of a trip to the emergency room.
See our helpful tips below!
Around Your House:
Keep medicines, prescription, and over the counter, as well as vitamin and minerals out of reach of your young children and ensure that they all have childproof caps.
Never store nonfood items in your food storage containers. Children can confuse the contents with food and accidentally ingest it.
Are your cleaning supplies, garden chemicals, and toxic paint supplies stored on a high shelf or in a secure area your children cannot reach?
Choose household plants that are nontoxic as little ones love to stick everything in their mouth.
If you have stairs in your home, install safety gates at the top and bottom of the stairs to protect your babies and toddlers from falling.
Are you cautious of choking hazards? Be sure loose change is not lying around easy for small hands to grab. Check for other items like buttons, bottle tops, crayons, and anything else your child can fit in their mouth.
Check the temperature of your hot water heater. Keeping it no higher than 120 degrees F will help reduce the chance of scald burns.
Be sure to keep your baby’s sleep area free from all soft, fluffy, and loose bedding.
Store the Poison Control Center’s phone number (1-800-222-1222) on your mobile phone and in an easy-to-remember place at home.
Outdoor Safety:
First of all, never leave your child alone outside.
Teach your children to always wear a helmet when playing with tricycles, bikes, scooters, skateboards, and all other ride-on toys.
If your outside area is not fenced in, do not let your child play near or in the street and teach them to never follow a toy that rolls into the street. Explain that they must let an adult retrieve the toy.
Keep your car doors locked and teach children that your automobiles are not toys.
When playing in a park or playground, do a quick scan of the space to make sure there is no glass or other dangerous debris and that the equipment is not too hot, too wet or broken.
More Resources:
A Parent’s Checklist for Preventing Injuries During Coronavirus
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Child Safety and Injury Prevention
