Safety Tips For Children

The school holidays are upon us! Here’s a timely reminder from a paediatrician about keeping kids safe at home, at play or while travelling.

- Dr Rakhee Yadav

Children do not understand danger. They are going to fall, tumble and slip. This is all part of being a child. The more mobile a child is, the more adventurous they are to explore their environment without heeding the dangers that may be lurking about. As parents, our biggest concern is the safety of our children. We want to ensure that our child is able to explore and be a child without having injuries or accidents.

Children are sometimes left at home with minimal adult supervision especially when both parents are at work. This can expose them to unnecessary dangers both at home and outdoors. Awareness of child safety can help prevent accidents or injuries from occurring and emphasize the importance of safety to children.

Safety varies depending on what a child is doing or where the child may be going. Supervision by an adult may be active or passive. Active supervision is when there is constant watching and listening to the child. This is the best way to prevent injuries as we are there to hopefully prevent a fall or limit a child’s wandering to a safe area. However, this is not always possible. A child can wander off in the blink of an eye and in a busy shopping mall, they may be hidden by racks of clothes or aisles of food. Hence, the best supervision is based on knowing what your child is capable of, setting up age appropriate toys or equipment to play with and exposing them to safety rules from an early age.

In your home, walk around every part of your house and ask yourself, “Can anything in this room pose a danger to my child?” If the answer is yes, remove the said item or block offthat particular area. You can even do this in your porch, garden or the surrounding areas of your house.

Here are some tips for keeping your child safe in different situations.

Home Safety

1 Block off dangerous zones (e.g. kitchen and staircase) with child safety gates.