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Recommendations of Accidents to children in the home

You can save yourself a lot of stress by child-proofing your home before it becomes a danger to growing children. This allows them to explore with more freedom without you having to say no all the time:

• Check locks on windows. Windows, especially in children’s bedrooms, should have child locks on to stop them opening any wider than 10cm/4 inches.
• Put latches on low cupboards and put a guard in front of the fire. Also make sure electrical sockets are covered and leads are tucked out of the way.
• Fit child safety gates at the top and bottom of the stairs.
• Move furniture such as beds, sofas and chairs away from windows to prevent children climbing up and falling out. Don’t encourage your children to wave from the windows, as they might try to climb up when you’re out of the room.
• Small children can squeeze their bodies through a gap as small as 10cm / 4in wide (smaller than the length of a teaspoon) but they may get their heads trapped. Check the width between railings, banisters and balconies and board them up if necessary.
• Move cleaning products and other chemical based solutions out of low (child-height) cupboards or put safety locks on the cupboards.
• Don’t leave medicines or pills lying around where children and toddlers can get at them.
• If you can, make sure everything breakable or dangerous is out of toddler reach. You can buy corner guards to cover the sharp edges of furniture.
• Keep knives, razors, sewing kits and DIY tools locked away.
• Make sure your garden is safe. Put a fence around a pond or pool, lock away garden tools, make sure there aren’t any gaps in the fence your child could squeeze through, and teach them the importance of not putting berries and poisonous plants in their mouth.

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