4 Things Everyone Should Do to Make Their Homes Safer

Each year, National Injury Prevention Day (Nov. 18) reminds me how grateful I am for my experience in child injury prevention. After working in the field for nearly nine years, I know so much more about how to keep kids safer. Here are my top four tips for making your home a safe space for children:

1. Anchor your furniture. Most people don’t think of furniture and TVs as dangerous, but tip-overs can cause serious injuries. Kids often use dressers and shelves as climbing toys, leading to tip-overs. When those dressers have large TVs on top of them, the risk of serious injury increases.
   • Prevent tip-overs by securing furniture like dressers, shelves, and desks to the wall.
   • Avoid putting tempting items, like toys or remotes, on top of furniture. If your child can see it, they’ll want to climb for it.
   • Wall mount flat screen TVs whenever possible. If you have an older, bulky TV, consider recycling it. If wall mounting isn’t an option, use a TV stand (not a shelf or dresser) that is the right size for the size and type of TV you have. Secure the TV and its stand to the wall.
2. Store potentially dangerous items safely. This includes obvious things like medications, cleaning supplies, and laundry detergent as well as less-obvious things like personal care products, firearms/ammunition, and marijuana edibles.
   • Keep products in their original containers. Most medications, many cleaning supplies, and some marijuana edibles come in child-resistant containers. Resist the urge to repackage things.
   • Store dangerous items up, away, and out of sight – in a locked cabinet is best. If you must put cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink or medication in a low drawer or cabinet, add a safety latch so it will be harder for a child to open. Otherwise, store these items in a high cabinet or shelf.
   • Treat marijuana edibles like any other medicine and store them up, away, and out of sight – in a locked cabinet is best. Because these often look like regular food and drinks, store edibles out of the kitchen to minimize confusion. Learn more about marijuana edibles.
   • The best way to prevent gun-related injuries to children is to remove guns from the home. However, if you choose to keep a gun in the house, make sure it is unloaded and locked, with ammunition stored and locked in a separate location. Learn more about gun safety.
3. Install and check smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and have a home fire escape plan. We all think “It will never happen to me,” but most children who die or are injured in a house fire are in a home without working smoke alarms. Install a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm on every level of your home, even the basement, and outside every sleeping area. For the best protection, install a smoke alarm inside each bedroom as well.
   • Click here for instructions on how and where to install smoke alarms and be sure to check them (and change batteries) regularly.
   • Once a fire has started, you have about two minutes to escape. Taking a few minutes today to create and practice an escape plan with your family will help make sure everyone knows how to get outside quickly and safely if you ever do have a fire. Learn more in this blog post.
4. Prevent burns and scalds. Young children have thinner skin than older children and adults, so their skin burns more deeply and at lower temperatures. Hot bath water causes more than half of all scalds in children.
   • Set the water heater thermostat to no more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
   • Install anti-scald devices on water faucets to stop the flow of water if it gets too hot.

You may think “my child would never…” and maybe you’re right, but you can’t control every situation. A friend who doesn’t follow rules might come over, a babysitter might miss a detail, or a pet might create unexpected chaos. Safety is about layers of protection. By taking these steps, you can add extra layers of safety for those you love.