Although home is considered one of the safest locations in the world for toddlers, unforeseeable and grievous accidents can occur at any time due to minor oversights. Many accidents have occurred at home involving toddlers. Let us examine some of the common hazards that toddlers face at home and the safety measures that could be taken to prevent these incidents.
Poisoning is one of the most common hazards. It is not that parents leave poison around for their toddlers to pick up. Common items such as medicines, pills, household cleaners and toilet items all contain toxic substances which are harmful to the toddlers if taken internally. Alcohol, tobacco, insect repellants, shampoos, lotions, perfumes, acids and many such items are dangerous and should kept safely out of the reach of children.
Toddlers are notorious for swallowing what ever small objects they get creating a potential danger of choking to death. Make sure that small objects such as shiny beads, screws, buttons or any other similar things do not lie around the house. Similarly, if their toys have any loose parts toddlers can remove these and try to make a meal out of them, which could get caught in their throats.
Burns and scalding are another danger common in households. Scalding can occur due to hot water bathing, eating or drinking very hot items, grabbing hot utensils, heaters, stoves, or even burning coal or firewood. Pour hot water into coldwater and then check with your elbow to find out if the hot water is tolerable to your child. And always keep the hot or burning items away from the kids. Food prepared in microwave ovens need to be stirred and cooled properly before serving to the child. This is to make sure that all the parts of the food in the oven are cooled. Otherwise, the oven may leave some parts of the food hot enough to cause dangerous scalding.
Cut injuries due to sharp objects or sharp pointed toys, suffocation due to plastic bags, drowning in bathtub or pools, strangulation from dangling cords, swings or curtain loops and so on are other dangers the toddlers face at home. Falling down stairs, jamming and crushing their fingers and toes between doors or windows are other common dangers. Keep doors either safely closed or fully open with proper latches so that toddlers will not swing them. Old iron gates and walls can crash. Get them repaired or replace these. With these small precautions, you can save your child from possible injury, disfigurement, handicaps or even death.
Posted on February 26th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Child Care, Skin Care, Toddler
The home itself has so many things that can be hazardous to small toddlers like appliances, electronics, fireplaces and blinds.
So keeping things in well organized way and placing them at unreachable locations is the first step that one should do. It will be good if they are not left unattended as places like bathroom can be more hazardous for them