Kids Safety in our Homes

[Julie-Ann]

If you are building or renovating your home there are several things you can do to make your home safer for your children and any little visitors.

Kitchen:
1. Try to avoid the kitchen being a major thoroughfare in the home.
2. Install a wall oven instead of an under bench oven.
3. Gas hotplates should have a flame- failure device to turn off the gas if it doesn't ignite.
4. Keep your microwave above the bench.
5. Keep knives out of reach of young children.

Laundry and Bathroom:
1. Use non slip flooring.
2. Keep poisons and medicines out of reach of young children. This may require using child safety locks on your cabinets.
3. Install a hot water system with a temperature control device and set below 50c.

Staircases:
1. Install stair lights or at least switches within easy reach of children and adults at both ends of the stairs.
2. Use balustrading that is either glass or vertical bars that are less than 100mm apart.

Power Points:
1. Use protective plugs in any power points.
2. Don't have cords dragged over the floors for someone to trip on.

I hope this helps some of our new parents and grandparents. But it is something to think about if you are likely to have any little visitors to your home.
If you can add to the list please do - it might help to prevent someone's little cherub having a nasty accident.

[avatargo07]

Great idea, Julie-Ann.

My additions...

1. Be conscious of stand alone furniture with a narrow centre of gravity. Where possible, fasten bookshelf units, cupboards etc to the wall. Remember that little people LOVE to climb. Furniture that can tip and fall could be disastrous.
2. Avoid positioning chairs and other low furniture directly below windows.
3. Where you have a freestanding television (rather than wall mounted), choose your stand / tv cabinet carefully, ensuring maximum stability of the tv unit.
4. Where possible, keep plugs located a distance away from the sinks, bath tubs etc. This helps to mitigate any drowingn risk.
5. In winter, avoid using heaters with exposed heat coils, if at all possible. Also avoid using electrical heaters in bathrooms!
6. Always position children's beds, cots etc away from windows. This safety precaution is twofold; it eliminates the obvious falling risk but also the suffocation / choking hazard that curtains, curtain cords etc present.

Hope this isn't OTT... but I'd much rather be safe than sorry!