Your Safety Tips

What a great resource Huggies Mums are, on all sorts of topics. Can you share any safety tips with us that you have picked up on your journey as a parent?

Here's one to get everyone started. Get down on the floor and see things through the eyes of your crawling baby, then work out what they can reach and if it might harm them.

Looking forward to hearing some of your safety tips.

Cheers
Lauraine

ok - never let child sleep in a bib, always make sure that cords for blinds are up high and can not be reached, and dont rely on bath chairs or rings to keep your child safe...

Whoa, got a spare five days to read about safety tips? The list goes on and on.......here goes:

*Keep household chemicals out of reach;
*Make sure power points are covered with safety
covers;
*Have guards in front of heaters and fireplaces;
*Take the phone off the hook or put your answering machine on when bathing your child;
*Keep all cords out of reach;
*Use a barrier for stairs, perhaps even for the kitchen;
* Keep hot drinks out of reach;
* Use door stops to keep doors open;

Those of you in Sydney, Westmead Childrens Hospital has a Kidsafe House which looks like a typical family home and shows you all the things that you need to be aware of to make your home kidsafe. I haven't been yet, but seeing bubs is starting to move around, i'm going soon.

ALWAYS buckle your kids in the car correctly, no matter how far you are going.. i am amazed at the amount of babies i see sitting on mums's knees here, it makes my blood boil.

One of the best tips I ever started was for when my son started walking, whenever we were in a crowded place with lots of people or on long trips on public transport, i would write my mobile number on his arm, if it was a long day I would use a black permanent marker (my son was impossible to keep pen on his arm). we usually go to carols in the domain every year and was quite chuffed a few years ago (we stay there from 6am in the morning until it is over) when the organisers who were coming around saw that both myself and my sister had written our numbers on the kids arms and within 15 minutes there was an announcement over the loudspeakers telling parents to do it!!!
It has already been used when he was 6 at the carols justa s they ended we turned around to check on the younger kids and jaycob decided to go and see the wiggles at the front stage. I got a phone call within 5 minutes! also it puts your mind at ease if they get lost because at least you know that your phone number is with them. I used to also do up business cards saying "My mum's name is Jane and she has gotten herself lost please call her on ......" as you can guess I had an escape artist and a wanderer

Something that was suggested to me recently, was that letting littlies play with saucepans was a bad idea because if for some reason they did get too close while they are hot, then they would not know that it was not to be touched.

While on the kitchen subject....

Use the back elements on the stove before the front ones and keep the handles facing in.

As said before, if you can, keep them out of the kitchen all together.

Make sure you have no coards or ropes or leashes hanging anywhere around the house.

Especially those ones that come with blinds. Also the verticle blinds should be removed when baby starts finding his movement. Those and hanging coards can be one of the biggest danger for a baby finding his movement.

makse sure all ropes and dog leashes are in a locked cupboard.

And Have your mobile phone or hand held/ cordless phone, either on you or within arms reach as much of the time as possible, even in and around the house.

I also jsut putjacobntyler's suggestion (the buesiness card with contact details) into toddlers safety tips, i didnt realsie it was here first, sorry smile

And in tune with that. NEVER write your child's name where it came be seen or place a tag on their shirts with their names on.

If you have a sewing room make sure the handle cannot be turned by your child (put one of the door knob covers on), and also have a bolt high up on the door. Unfortunately it is impossible to child safe the contents of the room, so you need to make sure the child can't get in in the first place.
When outside, empty the paddling pool once done for the day (both drowning and water contamination issues here).
Make sure child has a hat, and make it a rule if hat won't stay on, child goes back inside.
Check your garden for poisonous plants and remove if child can get to them.

lol thats cool...
Also another kitchen saftey tip even worls for toddlers is to always put the oven light on when the stove and/or oven is being used. I found with our first son that the oven was a freaky thing for him because sometimes it is cold and other times it is hot and there is no difference in the look of it but by making the oven light on when it is in use or hot there is a visable difference. works especially well when you are out visiting and it is not always easy to keep them away from the kitchen

Make it a habit to always take a hot drink with you when you leave a room and put it at the back of the kitchen bench so it is out of reach - even if you are leaving another adult in the room. We all know how quick babies and toddlers can be - I've heard that a lot of hot drink burns happen in front of an adult where they have an extra cup to watch. You can't safely put a hot drink down then get up and move quickly enough to stop a baby/toddler reaching another cup in time.