How to make your home child-friendly

Accidents can happen so easily, and sometimes unfortunately the results can be tragic. That’s why it’s worth taking the time to install a few simple measures in your home to keep your little ones – and any little visitors – safe and sound.

Prevent falls at home

Kids have a way of finding danger in your home when you least expect it; stairs, windows and baby walkers are some of the dangers you need to look out for. In fact, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has found that falls caused the greatest proportion of recent injuries for children (61 per cent).

Australia’s leading child injury prevention and education organisation Kidsafe has released a fact sheet detailing the simple ways that you can reduce the occurrence of child fall accidents.

What’s more, there are new mandatory standards for baby walkers, as well as windows in NSW strata buildings, that further aim to prevent injuries.

How can I prevent child falls?

Some simple ways you can prevent child falls include the following:

• Install child safety gates at the top and bottom of stairs, and keep them well-lit and clutter-free.
• Remove objects placed near furniture and changing tables that children may use to climb upon.
• In apartments, install window locks on all windows so they can open no more than 12.5 cm.
• Think twice before using a baby walker.

Curtail collisions

After fall accidents, collisions were the next most common cause of injury for children (17 per cent) in 2001, according to the ABS.

As with falls, sports and leisure activities were the most common activities being undertaken at the time of the collision.

Some tips on preventing collisions are as follows:

• Simple household rules like ‘no running’ can have a marked impact on reducing the risk of collisions.
• Always supervise children when they are playing in the home or the yard.
• Limit the number of children playing simultaneously on trampolines and other jumping equipment as appropriate.

Drowning: Don’t risk it

For children under five years of age, drowning was the most commonly reported death. You can prevent drowning by:

• ensuring pools are properly fenced
• never leaving children unattended near any kind of water (even a shallow pale has the potential to be life-threatening)
• removing any furniture, pot plants and anything that can be perceived by a child as climbing apparatus from the proximity of the pool fence.

With these simple and practical measures, you can ensure that your home is much more child-friendly. And remember that the best type of child injury prevention is constant adult supervision.