Steps to safety
CURIOSITY is often at its peak during the early years of life. Everything, quite literally, can pique the interest of a toddler, but the novelty of his environment — however safe — can lead to unintentional injuries and accidents.
Nonprofit organization Safe Kids Worldwide estimates that around a million children across the globe die of preventable injuries each year — including drownings, falls, burns, and poisonings. Data from its Web site, SafeKids.org, states that over 60,000 children die annually due to accidental poisoning while drowning takes the most lives in children ages 1 to 4.
To prevent such incidents, most safety professionals recommend childproofing the home to make the environment safer for young children.
“I do consider childproofing a necessity,” International Association for Child Safety, Inc. (IAFCS) Executive Director Colleen Driscoll told BusinessWorld in an e-mail. “For infants and toddlers, many items in a home are new, and their curiosity can lead them to danger. We all want to keep our children safe but children can be quick and very curious. For example, a toddler might be curious about opening the front door after watching his or her parents do it but he or she will not have an understanding of dangers (cars, etc.) [it entails].”
According to Ms. Driscoll, childproofing often starts by assessing the home and looking for possible hazards. She said a professional childproofer can help families identify these hazards, but there are also resources online that can help the family understand potentially dangerous items.
She pointed out, though, that it’s equally important to use reliable resources.
“They are many parent ‘ hacks’ and tips on social media and the Internet. Some are clever, but not safe.”
The next step involves rearranging and modifying the home to foster a safer environment, like moving a glass coffee table to an inaccessible storage area, discarding old cleaners and medications that are no longer used, and moving poisonous liquids (like cleaners, medicines) to cabinets that are locked and out of the reach of children.
Some parents might express concerns with the difficulty of childproofing devices, but she said the goal is that they are installed correctly and are user-friendly to parents, not young children.
“We teach parents that it’s important to create new habits — opening and closing a gate at the top of the stairway becomes a new habit and second nature for parents when they use the stairs,” she said.
But even after identifying hazards and modifying the home, Ms. Driscoll said the parents still need to regularly reassess the child’s environment.
“Children change quickly and we want to be ahead of them. When you childproof early, it helps you stay one step ahead of your little explorer. A crawling child likely can’t reach dangerous medicines on a counter top. However, a walking toddler can drag a chair or reach up high to grab hazards. A parent might not be able to predict when their child can reach some of these hazards,” she explained.
She emphasized that supervision is also an important part of home safety, and added that parents still need to teach their children about the dangers around them as they grow older.