As your baby grows and develops, she will become increasingly curious. She won’t see the hidden dangers in your home, so it is your responsibility to prevent any injury that could occur, including poisoning, burns, electrocution, and even drowning. It is important to child proof your home, and it isn’t difficult to do.
You may look at your house as home sweet home, but there could be hidden dangers in every room, especially if you have a baby. Babies don’t come with caution tags attached, of course, but you need to understand that they are full of boundless energy and an innate sense of curiosity. There are many steps that you must take in order to create a safe environment for your precious little one. Most of these steps are easy and inexpensive to do, but don’t disregard their extreme importance and necessity.
Statistics
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Safety Committee, about 2-2 ½ million children are injured or killed by hazards in the home. It is startling to note that a fatal injury in the home occurs every sixteen minutes in the United States. It is also estimated that nearly forty percent of children’s deaths and fifty percent of unintentional injuries occur in and around the home. These deaths and injuries could be prevented if parents spent as little as eight to ten hours child proofing their homes.
According to the Drug and Poison Center located in Cincinnati, Ohio, seventy-nine percent of all poison control center cases involve children, with sixty-four percent of those cases occurring in children under the age of five. During 2000, is estimated that 1.2 million children under the age of five were exposed to poisonous substances in the United States.
The Children’s Hospital of Boston has reported that approximately 88,000 children, ages fourteen and under, were treated at a hospital emergency room for burns. Fires kill more than 600 children and injure approximately 47,00 children each year. Even more surprising is the fact that hot tap water scald burns cause more hospitalizations and deaths than any other hot liquid burns.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that eighty-six percent of the reported electrocution injuries that were reported in 1997 occurred in children between one and four years of age. Also, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control reports that in 2001, 859 children aged zero to fourteen died from drowning.