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Safety Tips for Young Children

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  • Safety Tips for Young Children

    I recall being quite overwhelmed when my son was a toddler. When he was young he crawled around in his bedroom, found an electrical outlet and stuck a fork in the outlet and electrified himself. How he got a fork is beyond me. I recall my husband and I were sitting in the kitchen eating our meal and the lights dimmed for a moment and then we heard our son crying. He scared himself and luckily wasn't injured.

    I thought I'd start this thread so that we could share some safety tips for young children.

    I'll start this thread by offering this advice:

    1. Go out and buy those plastic things that cover the electrical outlets. Nowadays there might be something else available?
    2. Keep the door to the basement securely closed at all times.

    What advice do you have?

  • #2
    keep chemicals up and out of reach or better yet in a lockable cabinet.

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    • #3
      Not any specific advice just a warning.... when they start skuttling around, keep your eyes on them at all times. Mine put a peanut butter sandwich in the VCR lol! They get into everything. We got on our hands and knees to check out what the kidlet could get into and 'secured' it.

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      • #4
        Um...be paranoid.

        When my kids were toddlers, they both came down with infections that caused them to need antibiotics. Because they were kids, they were given banana flavoured liquid antibiotics. My kids like bananas. The liquid had to be stored in the fridge.

        We had a velcro lock on the fridge, and we put the containers far back. But never underestimate a cunning 3 year old. He got in an drank both containers of antibiotic, and we had to rush to the hospital, where he was fed liquid charcoal.

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        • #5
          Have your doors dead bolted up high where they can't reach. My cunning toddler ran out of the house to go play on my neighbor's swing set while I was taking a shower. Thank goodness my neighbor called me right away.

          Secure heavy furniture like bookshelves and media units to the wall. Kids like to climb. Heavy furniture can cause serious harm if it tips and the kids get pinned underneath.

          Keep long cords tucked away. Kids love to pull on them. They can be a choking hazard.

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          • #6
            I just revamped my first aid class a few weeks ago. The instructor asked us what the "worst choking hazard" for young children was.

            Believe it or not the number one thing kids choke on are the pieces of plastic milk bags. When we cut the tip of the milk bag the little triangular plastic piece tends to fall to the ground sometimes. Turns out it fits perfectly to block the airway.

            I'm always very careful that the piece goes straight n the garbage now.

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            • #7
              Here is a funy story My parents told me this one. I grew up on a farm of course potty training at this time so must of been in the 1980 I always watched my parents work outside from the bed room window of course no diaper on and right under the window was an electrical socket. and wouldnt you belive it I really had to go and got a good shock out of that one. Im not sure if even those electrical covers would stop that one LOL.

              I believe the story because at the end of the pencil I do see the scar.

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              • #8
                What is the standard for the use of car seats nowadays? Front seat or back seat? Do the seats have to be installed by a mechanic? How long does a child have to use a car seat? Is it a provincial regulation?

                When my son was around 2 or 3, I drove a corvette. Seats didn't even lock in position. I used to position a collapsible baby chair in the seat secured by a seat belt. When I had a passenger my son thought it was oh so fun to straddle the middle console. Looking back on that I shudder, although, had we been in an accident we likely wouldn't have survived as the car was pure fibreglass. I recall our next vehicle purchase was a gutless minivan. Quite a downer for me.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by arabian View Post
                  What is the standard for the use of car seats nowadays? Front seat or back seat? Do the seats have to be installed by a mechanic? How long does a child have to use a car seat? Is it a provincial regulation?

                  When my son was around 2 or 3, I drove a corvette. Seats didn't even lock in position. I used to position a collapsible baby chair in the seat secured by a seat belt. When I had a passenger my son thought it was oh so fun to straddle the middle console. Looking back on that I shudder, although, had we been in an accident we likely wouldn't have survived as the car was pure fibreglass. I recall our next vehicle purchase was a gutless minivan. Quite a downer for me.
                  The standard for car seats is in the rear seat, rear facing for babies, front facing for toddlers. I think the weight/age restrictions are by province. Air bags have made the period longer than it used to be, since an air bag can kill a child, and even causes injuries to smaller adults.

                  My GF's 10 year old only rides in the back seat as she is very petite for her age.

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                  • #10
                    Provincial.

                    Provincial Legislation - Car Safety and Kids
                    Seat Belt - Car Safety and Kids

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by wantmyfreedom View Post
                      Have your doors dead bolted up high where they can't reach..
                      We had a wanderer almost every Saturday morning at 7am. I would wake up with the kidlet's bff in the house in pjs, with kidlet. Her mom or dad would call around 8am (when they woke up?) to make sure she was over with us. Lock your doors, bolts up high!
                      Start a discussion, not a fire. Post with kindness.

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                      • #12
                        Actually, I must admit...I'm not a huge fan of overbaby-proofing the house. I've gone to a couple houses (in fact one this last weekend) where you can't take a pee, open a cabinet, use a light switch, plug anything in, or open a door without a specialized instruction manual. I think makers of these devices will sell parents this stuff, making huge profits, until their whole houses are covered with bubble wrap and completely dysfunctional.

                        Obviously, most of the poster's advice here is very reasonable but I think you do walk a line between sensible babyproofing and getting kinda crazy.

                        I had a friend that installed a camera in the ceiling of her baby's room and got a SID monitor that was ridiculously expensive and the baby was perfectly healthy at birth and stayed that way.

                        I had two kids and the only babyproofing I did was to put a wooden gate over the stairs since their playroom was on our 3rd floor in the loft.

                        Otherwise, I just told them not to touch stuff and luckily they listened. (Of course, my kids are almost 10 years apart so I also didn't have a bunch of toddlers all running around at the same time so it was easier).

                        My mom had 5 children...babyproofing stuff didn't really even exist and me and my siblings are all still living.

                        I know I may get criticism for this but babyproofing should never be a replacement for discipline. Also, no matter what you do...kids are gonna hurt themselves...and sometimes that's ok. Its a learning experience. I spent 5 years of my life with skinned knees and elbows and a whole lot of bruises. I finally learned how to ride a bike properly and watch for traffic cause falling hurts.

                        If I do have one piece of advice, its to make sure you use the wall clips that are included for high furniture and especially flat screen TVs. I think those new TVs are ridiculously unstable if they're not wall-mounted. I have almost tipped a couple of mine over, numerous times.

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                        • #13
                          I recall someone telling me that when I dropped my son off at daycare I should grill the daycare about how often the communal toys were sterilized. I never did this because I didn't want to appear to be paranoid and I thought there could be potentially more risk associated with the cleaning product.

                          Leaving kids in cars is a big one. Every year we hear about kids being left in cars (while parents pop into the store). Car gets stolen.

                          Another serious hazard for those of us who live in cold climates is the 'command start' on our vehicles. Kids play with keys, accidentally start the car, kid's bedroom is above the garage.... not a good situation. So keep the car keys out-of-reach.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by arabian View Post
                            I recall someone telling me that when I dropped my son off at daycare I should grill the daycare about how often the communal toys were sterilized. I never did this because I didn't want to appear to be paranoid and I thought there could be potentially more risk associated with the cleaning product.
                            Your post reminded me of one of my neighbor's who was/is extremely neat. She disinfected her children's toys with bleach. About once a week she would wipe down everything in the toybox - being extremely vigilant with the hand washing - her home was/is spotless.

                            Needless to say her kids where always picking up every germ that was going around. She had them on antibiotics at the slightest sniffle. The kidlets suffered from recurring middle-ear infections as well.

                            I agree with Pursuing, there's only so much you can do to keep them out of harms way --- as my mother would say: small kids small problems, wait till they hit their teens.

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                            • #15
                              Interesting you should say that Janibel. I too have a friend who was a clean-freak (much more than I) and her kids always seemed to be on antibiotics for something. Now they are in their teens and my friend is still a worrier. I often joke with her that Alberta Health Services should go back to sending people yearly statements of all the times people use the health care services so they can see the costs involved if they didn't have health care coverage. AHC used to do this many years ago and it was a real eye-opener for consumers as well as the medical community. This process led to the opening of more family health clinics and stopped doctors from seeing patients at the hospitals for colds.

                              Comment

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