Child Care Safety

With a baby or young child in your family, you know there is nothing more important than safety. Whether you're a parent or a child caregiver, there are steps you can take to keep babies and children safe. Follow these general safety rules.

• Use safe playgrounds.
• Use gates on stairs.
• Always supervise children in or near water.
• Buckle up.
• Never keep guns in any childcare setting.
• Call the poison control center if you think a child has been poisoned.
• Post emergency numbers next to your telephone.

Take an American Red Cross course in first aid and infant/child CPR. Make sure that others caring for your children are certified as well.

Protect Your Child from Dangerous Falls

Many injuries that happen at home are the result of falls. Because little children are naturally curious and often amazingly good climbers, they find their way to the tops of tables, bookcases, chairs, staircases, and other high places.

• Be sure not to leave infants or children alone where they are in danger of falling.
• Put baby gates at the top and bottom of staircases. Be sure they do not have spaces in which a child’s head or fingers could be trapped or pinched.
• The bars or slate on baby gates should be less than 4 /14” apart and on cribs, less than 2 3/8” apart.

Teach your children Kitchen Safety
The kitchen can be the most dangerous room in the house.

• Always supervise young children in the kitchen.
• Keep sharp objects out of children’s reach.
• Always turn the handles of pots and pans on the stove inward so that children cannot reach them.
• Be careful not to leave cups or other containers of hot fluids where children can reach them.
• Keep the temperature of hot water below 120°F (49°C) by turning down the temperature of your hot water heater.

• A baby should always sleep face up. Make sure that everyone who comes into contact with your infant -- you, grandparents and other relatives, childcare providers, babysitters -- know to always place an infant on his or her back at night or naptime.
• Use a firm mattress in a safety-approved crib or bassinet. Do not use a crib with a mattress that allows you to fit two fingers between it and the sides of the crib.
• Never put an infant on a waterbed, beanbag, or anything soft enough to cover the face.
• Do not place a crib within reach of window blind or curtain cords.
• Test the batteries in your smoke detectors on the first day of every month. Change the batteries twice a year.
• Plan and practice a fire escape route with your family.

Teach Your Children to Use Tools Safely
Children need to be allowed to take part in work and play so that they can develop skills they can use and enjoy. Introduce real tools at an appropriate age, and teach children their purpose and the correct way to use them.

• Make sure dangerous tools are kept out of the reach of small children.
• Make sure older children learn to respect tools and to use them properly.
• Children should only use tools with adult supervision.
• Remind children that not only can the sharp edges on certain tools cut them, but so can broken glass, broken china, and can lids.

Safe Toys for Children
Small children put things in their mouths. Objects small enough to go in a child’s mouth are often a cause of choking.

• Keep objects such as small toys or deflated balloons out of children’s reach.
• Do not give infants and young children foods like nuts, grapes, popcorn, and raw vegetables.
• Any toy that is small enough to fit through this circle is unsafe for small children.

For more information on Child Care Safety contact 920-468-8535.