If you crawl around your home, or walk around on your knees, you will get the same perspective of your house as your young children.  It’s an eye opener!  Counters are over your head, coffee tables are at eye level, and there are all sorts of fun things in cabinets and under the couch!

Your children encounter things in your house differently than adults.  To keep them safe at home, you need to look at it from their different perspective.  Some of the most common home injuries for children include burns, poisonings, drowning, animal bites, choking, and falls, quite often from climbing on things and exploring.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that:

• Younger children are at higher risk of burns from scalding hot liquids or steam.
• Older children are more often burned directly from flames.
• Each day 374 children under age 19 are treated at an emergency room.
• Two children die each day from poisoning.

Many of these accidents are preventable with careful home child-proofing. To protect the youngest members of your family, follow these Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines:

1. Safety latches and locks for cabinets and drawers in kitchens, bathrooms, and other areas, to help prevent poisonings and other injuries.
2. Safety gates, door knob covers and door locks to help prevent falls down stairs and to keep children from entering rooms and other areas with potential dangers.
3. Anti-scald devices for faucets and shower heads. Set your water heater temperature to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to help prevent burns from hot water.
4. Smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside each bedroom, and in outside sleeping areas, to alert you to fires, and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms near sleeping areas to help prevent CO poisoning.
5. Window guards and safety netting to help prevent falls from windows, balconies, decks, and landings.
6. Corner and edge bumpers to help prevent injuries from falls against sharp edges of furniture and fireplaces.
7. Outlet covers and plates to help prevent electrocution.
8. Tassels on each window blind cord and inner cord stops on mini blinds to help prevent strangulation.
9. Anchors to avoid furniture and appliances from tipping over.
10. Layers of protection on pools and spas including fencing with locked gates, pool covers and alarms to prevent drowning.

Tags: accident prevention, michigan personal injury