Preventing Accidents in the Home
Back to Family and Human Development Page June is National Home Safety Month. Preventing accidents in the home is the job of every family member. Special care needs to be taken if young children are a part of the household. Here are some tips to help keep your family safe.
- Conduct routine safety checks in the home to prevent accidents e.g. make sure throw rugs are secure.
- Install child safety locks on cabinets if there are young children living in the home or visiting regularly.
- Keep medicines and potentially dangerous products out of reach of young children. Use child resistant caps, and never refer to medicine as candy.
- Keep all household products and cleaners in their original containers. If the labels become hard to read, re-label containers. Do not store cleaners in cups, soda bottles or any other containers which children associate with food.
- Pay attention to children while you're using electrical appliances, sharp objects, power tools, or chemicals.
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Never leave young children unsupervised near or in a bathtub, swimming pool, hot tub, or any other container with water.
- Clean up spills as soon as they occur.
- Turn pot handles away from the outside edge of a stove and never leave sharp items, e.g. knives, where children can reach them.
- Keep the Poison Control Center number handy, 1-800-222-1222
- Be aware of cleaners and potentially poisonous substances that look like food, e.g. pine sol and apple juice.
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