- Check every room in the house: First take a note book and a pen with you to take notes as you go through your home for this inspection.You never know if you will need to remember a few things as you inspect your home for safety.From bottom to top of your home check ALL smoke detectors.Make sure the batteries are working and the alarms work.Usually you can hit a test button on your smoke alarms.Always have back-up batteries on hand for your smoke detectors.If you don't have a safe exit plan with your family in case of a fire please write one up and go over it with the family.Always have a meet up spot in case of a fire about a block away from your house to make sure everyone is safe.Always have electric outlet protectors placed so the kids can't electrocute themselves from playing in a electric socket.
- Schedule Professional Inspections: If your like me,you don't have a clue about inspecting furnaces and boilers.All appliances need checked on a regular schedule.Hire a professional inspector if needed to check your appliances,fire place,vents,etc.to make sure nothing is leaking or broke.
- Kichen: Make sure all your cleaning & household products are put up high so the kids can't get to them.They can easily mistake different cleaning products as drinks.Use child safety locks on your cabinets to keep the kids safe from these products.Safety latches will not keep children out of cabinets and drawers, but they will slow children down. Make sure all products are stored up high in secured or locked cabinets.Keep all knifes and sharps items put up as well.Please make sure a fire extinguisher is on hand in the kitchen in case of a cooking fire.When cooking always keep an eye on the stove in case the kids climb up on it to see whats cooking.Always turn your cooking pot handles away from reach towards the back of the stove top in case your child reaches for a pan or pot to pull off the top of stove.
- Living Room & Dinning Room- If you have space heaters,check to make sure the cords are cool and not hot.Always have them placed on a floor flat and level.Try not to place them on rugs and carpets,keep them far away from bedding,curtains,clothes,toys,etc. It's so dangerous to use a gasoline space heater.Always turn off the space heater when you leave the room it's in or if you leave your house.Make sure you have a up to date space heater,retailers now have Safety Certified heaters with a mark of certification.It's located on the top of the space heaters as a sticker.If you have curtains,make sure they have hook protectors from choking.
- If you have tables or furniture with sharp,pointy edges put something that's padded on the sharp edges to prevent children from running into them.
- Bed Rooms-Check all your electric sockets to make sure no clothes are near them,don't leave on an iron after ironing clothes or leave on curling irons.Your child could get burned touching these things.Cosmetic and personal care products are the leading cause of accidental poisonings by children under age 6. Make sure to treat your cosmetics and personal care products as potential poisons and store them in a secure location.Other dangers in the bedroom include medicines, such as sleeping pills or vitamins, left on night stands or in unlocked suitcases.
- Play Room- Your child's playroom is probably the area they play in the most.Know the safety recalls for toys.Daily reports are made recalling tons of different toys along with kids furniture such as :strollers,cribs,play pens,high chairs,baby monitors,etc. To keep up with the recalls on these items refer to the Consumer Product Safety Commission .You can sign up for Safety News and Re-call emails here.
- Bathroom- Make sure you clean out your medicine cabinet on a regular basis.All medicines should have child resistant caps and be locked away from children. Even though a product has a child safety cap, remember -- It is only child resistant, not childproof! Children can and do manage to open these caps.At all times keep the sink and tub water handles tight so your toddler can't turn the water on.Child proof the toilet lid,a child can drown in a teaspoon size of water.. Even though a product has a child safety cap, remember -- It is only child resistant, not childproof! Children can and do manage to open these caps to open these caps.
Attic- Make sure no lead is in your house.It's known that exposure to lead, even in tiny amounts, causes loss of intelligence and other nasty problems in children.It was only relatively recently (2008) with the passage of Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that they finally set limits on the amount of lead in consumer items, particularly kids toys. As of June 2010, the legal limit for lead in kid's toys is 300 ppm (parts per million) and will drop to 100 ppm by August 2011.
- Basement- Test your water heater,it's always good to have it set as 120-125.Children burn faster then adults because their skin is thinner.Burns are the 2ND.leading cause of death for young children 0-5. Make sure there's no paper or clothing around the furnace and water heater to cause a fire.
- BackYard-If you have a back yard pool make sure you have a pool protection cover over it when it's not in use to prevent any drowning.Keep any clothing lines/ropes up high where a child can't hang on them.Check play sets for loose screws.Make sure you don't store any appliances out back in your yard,a child could get into a refrigerator or dryer that is outback for the trash and suffocate.
Places to call: Keep a list of places to call in case of an emergency!Make sure the list is near the phone.
- 911-Teach your kids how to dial 911 in case of any emergency for ambulance or police
- Poison Control- 1-800-222-1222 in case of any chemicals or medicine accidents,they are available 24-hrs a day,With Specially trained personal to respond to emergency calls about poisonings and provide educational information.
- Consumer Product Safety Commission-Info about any toy recalls or product related inquiry & to report any unsafe products.Or call 1-800-638-2772
I hope these tips and info.will help with keeping your home safe for your kids!
Who is Ken Levinson:
Ken Levinson is a Chicago Child Safety Injury Attorney & Child Advocate who prevents child injury by promoting child safety.
Website- The Safest Line
Follow on Twitter- @TheSafestLine
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The Safest Line Newsletter - Subscribe to Ken's e-Newsletter for monthly child injury and safety news.
.Preventing Child Injury by Promoting Child Safety
3 comments:
Wow.. Very useful article. Many thanks for sharing the wonderful article.
Gate Opener,
Thanks for taking the time to read my post! Safety for our children is such a important issue these days.
Shannon
Hi Shannon,
What an informative post! We check the house whenever our tiny nephew visits, but we've never done anything intensive as the tips you listed. Thank you for that.
By the way, I've followed you back to your site after noticing your comment about Comment Luv.... I just wanted to say that I'm a recent user of the plug-in and that yes, it's working quite well with Blogger.
The makers made the plug-in unavailable for quite some time to do some fixes. The new Comment Luv is now integrated with Intense Debate. You might want to reinstall it. :)
Mine doesn't come with the captcha code... and as with the usual Google comment moderation form, I have the option to moderate all comments before making any of them visible on the site.
teecup
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