Some areas and objects in the house are more likely to cause injuries to children. Be aware of such possibilities to avoid accidents.
- Staircase: When your child starts crawling, install safety guards across entries to stairs and balconies.
- Balconies and parapet walls/grills: The parapet wall should be tall enough and wide enough to prevent the fall of a child trying to look down over it. Ensure that there are no objects near the parapet wall that a child can climb on to the parapet wall or the balcony grill. The grill design should not make it easy to climb (it should not have climbable horizontal members).
- Windows: When your child starts climbing, lock windows—particularly upper-story windows—restrict window openings or shield them with grills or nets having a widest opening of 4 inches.
- Furniture: It should be sturdy and stable—a child should not be able to pull it down or knock it. Any sharp projecting ends or corners should be rounded, padded, or covered with corner protectors. Children may run into drawers left pulled out and get injured. Install drawer guards, if available.
- Flat-screen televisions: These should be fixed to a clamp or to the wall.
- Glass: Install safety glass in windows and doors or apply shatter-resistant film to windows and doors.
- Tools and weapons: Lock away tools like saws and drills. Keep lawn mowers, chainsaws, and other sharp tools and guns or knives strictly out of reach of all children and adolescents.
- Baby cots: Cots or beds for small children should not have horizontal bars or footholds that your baby can use to climb out. The space between bars should be 5–9.5 cm (gaps wider than 9.5 cm could trap your child’s head or let your child fall out of the cot) and at least 60 cm tall. The lock must not be operable by the child. Check that the mattress is firm.
- Light: Leave a hall light on at night or use sensor lights.
- Floor: Whenever possible, avoid multiple levels or steps on the same floor. A non-slippery floor texture is desirable.
- Bathroom and kitchen: These are the most accident-prone areas in the house. Whenever they are not in use, please lock them. Train the child from a very early age to keep away from the kitchen platform.
Locks: All locks should be above the level of 4 feet so that a child does not accidentally lock someone in the bathroom or any room or open it by himself before he becomes self-reliant.