Is Your Home Safe?(Are You Sure?)

Last Updated on October 21, 2019 by Marie Bautista

The home is the one place where you and your family should feel safest, but your home isn’t always a haven.  Statistics show that mad dashes to the  Emergency Room are majorly caused by at-home injuries.

HOME Danger No. 1:  Falling

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• Install safety gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. A lot of us think the danger is only at the top, but a baby can quickly crawl up and tumble down that would warrant urgent care deer park gates that mount to the wall are good and won’t give way if your child or an adult leans on them.
• Add padding. You can lessen the blow of a fall, by carpeting your stairs and putting a mat at the bottom.
• Fix loose boards. A lot of times, the stairs’ stringers or boards on the side of the stairs will pull away from the stairs due to wear and tear.  Look for a carpenter to fix it immediately by using rods joined by a turnbuckle which will bring the stairs’ stringers together until they are re-straightened and re-supported.
• Kidproof your windows. Install window guards on all your windows.  Also make sure that at least one window guard in each room has a release button that adults and older kids can release in case of an emergency.

HOME Danger No. 2:  Swallowing a Household Poison

• Do a poison patrol.  We usually keep household cleaning products under the sink, which can be very accessible to kids.  Find a place where it is safe and lock them away.  Children can also overdose on medicine, especially if they were made to taste like candy or sweet juice.  Keep them locked away and explain to them that they need to drink only what the doctor told and they are to be given only by mom or dad.
• Don’t confuse! Don’t ever store anything inedible in your pantry or refrigerator since anybody can accidentally ingest it!  I have seen rat killers that looked like pink candies kept in a mayonnaise jar!

HOME Danger No. 3: Getting scalded.  

• Exercise caution in the kitchen.  Keep skillets and pots that contain hot liquid or grease on your stove’s rear burners.  Remember to turn pan handles inward so curious hands can’t reach them. Little hands can grab the handles and pour boiling hot liquid or grease on themselves.
• Have a faucet and shower guard.  Little hands can accidentally turn them on and scald themselves.

HOME Danger No. 4: Choking

• Chop their food in tiny pieces.    Always serve food in tiny little pieces for kids under 6.  Never even attempt to give them hard candy, gum or popcorn.
• Don’t let them play with rubber balloons.  You may not realize it,but rubber balloons are a choking hazard.  They break into little pieces when they burst and little children can choke on them.
• Choose the toys you buy.  If a toy is small enough to fit inside a toilet paper roll, chuck it out.  Be sure toys your child play with have no tiny pieces that he can choke on.  And since toddlers put toys in their mouth, make sure the toys he play with are not made of any hazardous materials like lead.