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Home › Articles › General Safety Issues › For Baby's Sake

For Baby's Sake

Safeguarding Your Home Room to Room

By Lisa A. Goldstein

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Kitchen

  • Use the back stove burners when possible.
  • Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove.
  • Don't carry hot food or drink and your child at the same time.
  • Don't hold children while cooking at the stove.
  • Keep hot dishes and liquids away from the edges of tables and counters.
  • Keep glassware, knives, sharp items, appliance cords, placemats and tablecloths out of reach.
  • Close and safety latch cabinet doors.
  • Store cleaning products according to label directions and keep away from children.

Expert tip: A list of emergency phone numbers and medications (along with a list that specifies who takes what) should be posted near telephones. "It's a good idea to include directions to the home, including cross streets, so that in case of an emergency, panic doesn't interfere with getting help to the correct location," says Greg Stockton, American Red Cross health and safety expert.

Bathroom

  • Place a rubber mat or slip-resistant stickers in tubs.
  • Use a hot tap cover for faucets.
  • Set the thermostat of your hot water heater no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce the chance of scald burns. It takes just three seconds for a child to sustain a third degree burn from water at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Safe Kids Campaign.
  • Always put cold water in the bath first.
  • Purchase medicine containers that have child-resistant caps.
  • Check dates on prescriptions and throw away those that have expired.
  • Lock medicine cabinets.
  • Install toilet locks. Unlike adults, children's weight is concentrated in the top half of their bodies. When they lean into a toilet bowl, they may lose their balance, fall forward and drown in as little as one inch of water, the National Safe Kids Campaign says.
  • Keep toiletries, sharp utensils (like razors and scissors) and appliances out of hildren's reach.

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