Why We Parents Need Reminding of the Dangers at Home

This week is 2013’s Child Safety Week, which is run by the Child Accident Prevention Trust. The national campaign sees activities and events around the country raising awareness of common accidents that happen to children and the ways in which parents and carers can help to prevent them.

Tim Black lambasted the campaign for being patronising to parents, stating the obvious and generally promoting a culture of needless worry and mollycoddling. Yes of course it sounds obvious to always strap your child into a highchair or buggy – perversely more obvious to a non-parent I imagine. I say so because as a parent there are silly risks that you end up taking as a result of being distracted, cutting corners or just to appease a strong willed child. I know of parents who don’t use the strap on their highchair because their child hates being restrained. They’re not right to have caved in, but their decision is understandable to anyone who has faced a daily tantrum and physical struggle with a child over a simple task. It’s simply less stressful to take the path of less resistance at times – that is of course until it leads to an accident.

Many of us take all the necessary safety precautions only after a near miss or a visit to the hospital. It’s human nature quite often to think that it won’t happen to you – your child has never taken an interest in playing in your cupboards, therefore you can’t imagine they would ever try to eat a dishwasher tablet or drink some detergent. And then something does happen – to you or to a family that you know – and then you fix the safety catches on all the doors. For this reason, campaigns such as Child Safety Week serve as an important reminder not to let our attitude to safety waiver. It isn’t a case of scaremongering or of wrapping your child in cotton wool, just a means of preventing totally preventable accidents that happen to families all too often. Nobody is saying that you should remove the climbing frames from your garden or stop your child from running around - these activities are too beneficial for children. But breaking a leg falling from the balcony or doing untold damage to their internal organs through drinking toilet bleach are not beneficial for anybody, and both are easily preventable.

For a lot of parents, certain risks just creep up on them. Whilst a newborn baby lies in your arms, unable to find even their own thumb it seems inconceivable that they will ever stick their fingers in the plug sockets or pull your fresh cup of coffee from the table. Before you know it they are more than capable of adventurous activity and sometimes it is the event of an accident that draws your attention to their newfound abilities to crawl, walk, climb or explore.

So if you need a bit of a reminder as to why you should get on top of your safety measures at home, read the information below relating to the most common accidents in the home that affect 0-4 year olds according to the Home Accident Surveillance System (HASS).

And whilst you're reading through these, download this new Baby and Child First Aid app from the British Red Cross, it's free and could come in very handy when you need some on the spot advice.

Trips & Falls

Facts:                  

• Most common type of injury in the home for all ages – accounting for 44% of all children’s injuries

Examples:            

• Rolling from raised surfaces (babies)
• Toddlers climbing furniture
• Falls on or from stairs

Safety Check:   

• Never leave babies unattended on any raised surface e.g. changing table
• Always secure highchair, buggy or bouncer straps when your baby is in there
• Never leave baby seats or car seats on a raised surface, always have them on the floor
• Remove means of climbing on to windows/balconies such as chairs and tables
• Lock windows that can’t be restricted to a 10cm opening
• Board up banisters or railings on stairs/balconies if there is room for a child to fit through them
• Leave stairs free of clutter
• Fit stair gates
• Teach your baby to descend the stairs safely (preferably on their tummy) from the moment they can crawl and always descend ahead of them                               

Strikes to the head or body

Facts:                  

• The 2nd most common type of injury in the home for young children

Examples:          

• Pulling items from raised surfaces down on top of them
• Pulling furniture such as chairs or shelves down on top of them

Safety Check:   

• Assess what is in reach of your baby or toddler , in a toddler’s case account for the fact that they might climb or get themselves a step in order to reach something
• Secure furniture to the wall that could be toppled over
• Make sure that items stored above head height are done so safely with no risk of falling and landing on anybody

Burns

Facts:                  

• Burns in young children are most commonly caused by hot drinks but severe and fatal cases are most commonly caused by hot bath water

Examples:          

• Hot drinks
• Hot bath water
• House fires
• Open fires
• Hot surfaces of cookers, irons and other appliances                        

Safety Check:   

• Keep hot drinks out of reach of children – this includes not holding one whilst you are holding a child
• Be vigilant about putting away small appliances such as irons and hair straighteners as soon as you have finished using them
• Only use the front hob rings if necessary and push the handles out of reach of small hands.
• Make a no-go area in your kitchen if you can – particularly if you have a low level oven within reach of very young children
• Test the bath water every time you run one for your child and teach them to do the same as they get older

Poisoning

Facts:                  

• Accounts for around 10% of accidents in the home for 0-4 year olds

Examples:          

• Consuming cleaning products, cosmetics or medicines
• Consuming plants or fungi

Safety Check:   

• Fit safety catches on kitchen cupboards, particularly where cleaning products or dangerous items are kept
• Keep bathroom cleaning products out of reach or in a locked cupboard
• Do not leave cosmetics out where children can find and ‘play’ with them
• Do not assume child safety caps are always childproof
• Teach your children to always ask you before eating items that they find in the garden or outside. It is easy for children to make serious mistakes when they are allowed to eat the salad vegetables that you are growing and then they find fungi in the same garden.   

Pinched or crushed limbs

Facts:

• Because pinched fingers are common and often result in very minor injuries, parents can become blasé about such injuries when in fact some can be quite serious

Examples:          

• Fingers or hands trapped in doors and drawers
• Children deliberately slamming doors

Safety Check:   

• Fit door jammers on doors where this might be an issue
• Discourage games that involve slamming doors and teach  your children to be mindful of trapped fingers

Cuts

Facts:

• Most parents are careful about keeping kitchen knives out of reach but there are many other ways in which babies and toddlers cut themselves in and around the home

Examples:

• Misuse/accidental use or contact with sharp knives or scissors
• Broken glass from doors or windows

Safety Check:   

• Keep all knives and scissors well out of reach from young children (this includes scissors that you might have outside of the kitchen such as in a study)
• Assess all low glass in windows, doors and tables to ensure that it is safety glass. Non-safety glass can be made safe with a specially designed sticky film that you can place over it.
• If your greenhouse does not have safety glass then make sure your child cannot get to it or in it unaccompanied.

Drowning

Facts:

• Babies and children can drown in a very short depth of water and should never be left unattended where there is water around

Causes:

• Unattended babies and children in baths
• Ponds and fish tanks
• Swimming pools & paddling pools

Safety Check:   

• If you have to leave the bathroom whilst bathing your child, always lift them out of the bath first, never risk leaving them unattended
• Fill in ponds and swimming pools or have them covered with a strong protective cover
• Fit safety covers to fish tanks that children cannot remove
• Turn flower pots and other containers in the garden upside down so that they do not accumulate rain water
• Never leave your child unattended in the garden with a paddling pool

Choking

Facts:

• Each day around 40 under-5s are rushed to hospital after choking on something, or swallowing something dangerous.

Examples:

• Food & drink
• Small household items such as toys or jewellery

Safety Check:   

• Never prop your baby up with a bottle, always supervise their feed so that you can pull the bottle away should they choke
• Assume that anything that can fit through the tube of a toilet roll is a choking hazard for young children
• Never leave a young baby alone with an older sibling, accidents can happen even with the greatest intentions by older children
• Avoid giving nuts such as peanuts that can be easily choked upon to young children and be mindful that everyday foodstuffs such as lollies or ice cubes in drinks also prevent choking hazards

Suffocation

Facts:

• According to the Child Accident Prevention Trust, Asphyxia (which also includes choking and strangulation) is the third most common cause of child accident deaths in the UK and most of these accidents happen to children under 5.

Examples:                               

• Bedding (babies)
• Getting faces trapped in nooks & crannies such as on sofas or in cots where the mattress doesn’t fit properly (babies)
• Plastic bags & plastic sheets

Safety Check:   

• Ensure that babies are covered only with appropriate sleeping bags and lightweight blankets at night, and always sleep them with their feet at the foot of their cot
• Never leave a baby on a sofa or anywhere that they could wriggle about on and get their faces trapped in a gap – babies are not strong enough to deliberately push themselves away
• Keep plastic bags locked away and tie the handles together to prevent children from getting in to them
• Discard plastic wrapping that comes with anything you buy as soon as possible

About the author

Siobhan Thomas

Siobhan left the corporate world behind when she had her first daughter in 2010. After that she got involved in Mum.co.uk and became Senior Editor in 2012. She now has two little girls and loves being a mum.

Click here to read my full biography.