Professional Home Referrals-Childsafe Your Home

SPRINGBORO, OH, February 24, 2011 (Press-News.org) Install safety latches on all of your base cabinetry and drawers. Many of us keep household cleaners and chemicals under the sink. These should be moved to a safer location out of the reach of children.

When cooking, use the back burners if possible. This will keep the handles of pots and pans out of reach where only you can get to them.

Keep kitchen utensils and small appliances away from the edge of counters where a child may be able to grab and pull a knife or blender off of the counter possibly causing serious injury including anything with a cord.

It is good practice to install safety latches on bathroom cabinets and drawers as well. Again, any hazardous chemicals should be placed out of the reach of small children.

Toilet locks should be placed on toilet sesats. It takes less than 1-inch of water for a small child to drown. Small children are also top heavy allowing them to fall into an open toilet very easily.

Anti scold devices should be installed to prevent burns. Water heater temperatures can be turned down to protect young children from being scalded. 120-125 degrees should be sufficient.

Curling and flat irons should be unplugged after each use and never left unattended while on. Children could pull these items off of counters causing serious burns.

Outlets around the home should have some sort of protective device installed to prevent children from playing with outlets and putting things into them. There are many types on the market. Kitchen and bath outlets should be equipped with GFCI protection to prevent items being plugged in and coming in contact with water. The circuit will immediately trip the breaker if this occurs preventing shock.

Gates should be placed at the tops and bottoms of staircases to prevent small children from falling.

Door knob covers can be utilized to keep small children from entering rooms or places such as pools that could pose a danger to them.

Keep furniture away from windows where children could climb the furniture and access the window or sill such as a bay window.

Protect sharp edges of furniture or fire place hearths with protective covers to prevent head injuries.

Remove free falling lids from toy boxes to prevent the lid falling and causing injury to head and fingers.

Keep mini blind cords out of reach. Children love to play with strings and could become tangled up and cause injury to themselves.

Secure book cases, shelving, and furniture that could easily tip onto the child.

It sounds odd but you should get down on your hands and knees and see what it's like to see at that level. This will give you a good indication of items or dangers within reach. Creating a list for these hazards you find will help you determine the proper fix now and in the future. They may not be able to reach something now, but at some point they will. You should update your list often, seeking out new dangers. Obviously you can not child safe your home 100% but taking the precautions to take of the obvious dangers will provide your child with a safe home experience. Any protective measures you install should allow other family members to live with it as well.

Thank you for joining us for another informative article helping you with things around the home. Have you been putting that special project off forever? Contact us today to find that qualified service provider you have been looking for. Visit us online at http://www.prohomereferrals.com or email us at inf0@prohomereferrals.com for more information.