Home Safety for Children: A Guide

This assignment focuses on home safety for young children, emphasizing preventative measures against common dangers. It highlights potential hazards within the home, particularly those related to electrical appliances, food storage (refrigerators), choking risks, and accidental poisoning. The document provides practical advice on mitigating these risks to ensure a safe environment for children.

Safety in the Home

Safety in the Home
 It is very important to understand safety home and this can be effectively done by
identifying hazards at the first place (Kendrick et.al, 2013).
 After identifying dangers, it is necessary to eliminate them so that children’s safety is
maintained in the house.
 One can protect child from accidents and injuries near the fridge by adopting various
measures and precautions. There are some common accidents that usually happen in a house
where children of age 3-5 years live (Kang et.al, 2015).
 Falling is one of the most common accidents that are noticed in toddlers. Generally, it is
noticed that children move very quickly and due to lack of experience they can fall or injure
themselves physically. This issue can be resolved by building sliding gates at both the end of
staircases.
 There are many accidents which also takes place in kitchen especially near the fridge. Due
to lack of knowledge and experience, children below the age of 3-5 years are not aware of
electronic appliances which t are placed in homes (Gielen et.al, 2012).
 Fridge is also an electronic appliance that can be dangerous if not handled with care. If the
fridge is not placed above the height of the child then the toddler may get in contact with the
main switch and wire of the appliance.
 This may lead to electric shocks and sometimes death of a child.

 It is generally noticed that we also store medicines and other drugs so that physical or
chemical contamination do not take place (Yella et.al, 2016). But children are not aware of
that and may consume it accidently.
 For avoiding this condition, it is very necessary to keep the fridge locked so that these types
of incidents are avoided.
 Choking with everyday objects in children is very common. It is very necessary to supervise
their activity even if they are not able to ingest food independently. Children are unaware of
things which cause choking; hence, it is important to keep all those items out of reach of
children which can increase the chance of choking (Borrusso & Quinlan, 2013).
 Poisoning can also occur through household items. There are many things stored in the
refrigerator which is not to be consumed. As children are not aware of danger and hazards
associated with it they may consume it very easily (Martínez-Reyes, Castro & González-
Gurrola, 2014).
Illustration 1: Electrical safety tips for children
Source: (Kamal, 2013)
Illustration 2: Choking hazards
Source: (Briggs & Hunt, 2015)

 If poisoning has occurred it is very important to call emergency numbers so that they can
prevent from further harm.
 Smoke detectors should also be installed in the house so that it can prevent fire in
household. Children should be informed about the fire burn hazards so that they can prevent
injuries to themselves (McGovern & Devine, 2016). All the areas in home which can cause
burns should be removed or blocked to enhance children safety at home.
Two safety questions
 Are you aware of home safety rules and ways to safeguard children from injuries and
accidents?
 What do you understand by choking hazards?
Illustration 3: Poisoning
hazards
Source: (Daverio et.al,
2015)

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kendrick, D. et.al., (2013). Home safety education and provision of safety equipment for injury
prevention (Review). Evidence‐Based Child Health: A Cochrane Review Journal. 8(3).
pp.761-939.
Kang, H. J. et.al., (2015). Development of Safe Food Handling Guidelines for Korean Consumers.
Journal of Food Protection®. 78(8). pp. 1541-1546.
Gielen, A. C. et.al., (2012). Home safety and low-income urban housing quality. Pediatrics. 130(6).
1053-1059.
Yella, R. et.al., (2016). Food Safety in Domestic Refrigerators-A Mixed Methods Study to Identify
Key Messages for Promoting Safe Storage Practices among Households. The Indian Journal
of Nutrition and Dietetics. 53(1). pp. 1-14.
Borrusso, P., & Quinlan, J. J. (2013). Development and Piloting of a Food Safety Audit Tool for the
Domestic Environment. Foods. 2(4). pp.572-584.
Martínez-Reyes, F., Castro, L. A., & González-Gurrola, L. C. (2014). PChCT: A Tool to Monitor
Child Whereabouts. In Ambient Assisted Living and Daily Activities (pp. 171-178). Springer
International Publishing.
McGovern, F., & Devine, D. (2016). The care worlds of migrant children–Exploring inter-
generational dynamics of love, care and solidarity across home and school. Childhood. 23(1).
pp.37-52.
Kamal, N. N. (2013). Home unintentional non-fatal injury among children under 5 years of age in a
rural area, el Minia Governorate, Egypt. Journal of community health. 38(5). pp.873-879.
Briggs, F., & Hunt, S. (2015). Foster Care from a Historical Perspective. Children Australia. 40(04).
pp. 316-326.
Daverio, M. et.al., (2015). Failure mode and effective analysis ameliorate awareness of medical
errors: a 4‐year prospective observational study in critically ill children. Pediatric Anesthesia.
25(12). pp. 1227-1234.