CONSTANT vigilance and continuous self-education are the most important criteria for parents to create a safe home environment to raise their children.
PRACTICAL: Olivia Ling demonstrating how a safety gate works.
Ask any parent about the mischief toddlers and young children can get up to and chances are you will be subjected to a myriad of heart-stopping tales of potentially ‘lethal misbehaviours.’ It’s enough to put anyone off raising any offspring or at least, make them think really, really carefully about procreating.
“Expect everything out of the ordinary,” was the succinct advice of Olivia Ling, mother of three young children and also the director of a retail company with outlets in Sibu and Kuching which specialises in care products for babies, young children, and mothers or mothers-to-be.
Her company sells a wide range of child safety products, including double drawer locks, corner guards, stove guards, fridge locks, baby monitors and toilet locks.
Listening to Olivia share her experience as a mother and watching her demonstrate some of the safety products available, it’s difficult not to feel a teensy bit paranoid about the things that can go wrong at home when children are involved. Their naïve propensity to get into trouble the moment one so much as blinks an eye is quite nerve-wracking.
Dr Tan Chai Eng from the Family Medicine Department, UKM told thesundaypost that from her experience, the most common accidents in the home often involve young toddlers or children swallowing foreign objects such as coins and plastic toy parts or placing small things into their nose or ear and getting them stuck there. The other accidents commonly involving children at home that she has come across are those resulting from falls.
Dr Tan Poh Tin who runs a private clinic at Green Heights, Kuching, has had similar experiences in her over 21 years as a pediatrician.
“Falls and bumps, falling on sharp things, swallowing of small toy parts and foreign objects — these are all things to watch out for,” she advised.
She also thinks home construction and furnishing designs have gotten more sophisticated over the years.
“Unfortunately, sometimes modern houses are designed more for beauty and aesthetic purposes specifically for adults rather than with children in mind — so children safety may get overlooked”
The ground up
Both Olivia and Poh Tin concur the best place for parents or care-givers to start from when making a home child-safe is getting down on the floor and trying to look at the surroundings from a child’s perspective.
“When you’re looking at the room at the child’s eye level, it’s easier to spot potential hazards such as power points, objects that stick out or have sharp points, furniture, breakable items, glass objects, staircases and spaces between stair railings,” Poh Tin said.
“Parents should start child-proofing the home as soon as the child is mobile — maybe around five to six months old — although this varies from child to child,” Olivia added.
Both advised parents to put child-safety first and forgo design aesthetics and certain home features and conveniences that pose danger to children.
“It’s mostly just commonsense and minimising chances of potential hazards. For example, if your child can’t stand properly or is learning to walk, drain your pool or don’t keep a fish pond until your child is old enough to understand they shouldn’t go near it unsupervised by adults,” Olivia said.
“Some stairways have spaces between the railings or steps where children can get stuck in. Think about installing nettings or extra bars to reduce the gaps,” Poh Tin advised.
“If possible, electrical outlets should be placed at a level where young children cannot reach them or install outlets that are child-tamper proof.”
For power outlets at ground level, Ling advocated investing in power strip covers to prevent children from sticking fingers or objects in them and getting electrocuted.
Poh Tin also advised parents and care-givers to ensure that floor surfaces are clean and kept free of anything which a child could pull off or pick up and put in their mouths. Vacuuming regularly can help with this. According to Chai Eng, children should not be left unattended when they are playing with objects with small parts.
“Older children should be told about the dangers of putting things into their mouth. And please do not give small hard food particles to young toddlers. Even jellies can be dangerous for toddlers who haven’t learnt how to chew,” she said.
Also, if anyone in the house drops anything potentially hazardous on the floor, such as beads, pins, buttons, and medicine tablets, the stray object should be located as soon as possible and any spillages should also be cleaned up immediately.
Poisonous chemicals such as washing detergents, cleaning solvents, bleaches, rat poison and insecticide should be removed from common storage areas such as under the sink or in bottom drawers, and stored in high cupboards out of reach of young children.
These cupboards should always be securely locked and the keys kept where children cannot reach them. This added precaution is necessary because young children are ingenious enough to climb on chairs, tables and counters to open cupboards with no locks, or which have been left unlocked.
Olivia advised adults not to transfer poisonous chemicals out of their original packaging or store them in recycled packaging such as plastic food containers or biscuit tins.
This is because young children often associate food with the packaging it comes in and will not be able to tell the difference between something poisonous versus their favourite beverage or snack. The same rule applies to storing DIY objects such as screws, nails and pins.