Toddlers - keeping them safe
toddlers; safe; safety; falls; fire; car; road; traffic; burn; scald; home; burns; drowning; choking. ;
Contents
Toddlers need to have a safe environment. They are too young to know how or remember to behave safely. Telling them and teaching them about danger does not keep them safe. Keeping your toddler safe is your responsibility.
- Keep a first aid kit in the house and car.
- Keep emergency phone numbers in easy reach and where everyone knows where to look.
- Do a first aid course for children.
- Falls are the major cause of toddler injury. Toddlers have a large, heavy head, and they are not yet steady when they run. They often fall over on flat surfaces as well as falling off furniture, steps, play equipment etc.
- Use barrier gates or lock doors to stop your child going into dangerous places, such as stairs.
- Don’t use bunk beds with toddlers.
- Use straps in the high chair and pusher.
- Don’t leave young children alone on change tables, high chairs, playground equipment etc.
- Pad sharp corners of furniture or round them off.
- Teach your toddler how to climb down as she is learning to climb up.
- See the topic Home safety for more information.
Traffic safety
- Make fences and gates toddler-proof.
- Toddlers need to be held when they are near roads. They may begin to remember rules about crossing roads but they are unable to understand them, no matter how many times they are told.
- Your child must be in an approved child restraint in the car. Toddlers and other young children are not safe in adult seat belts.
- Do not allow a child to sit in the front passenger seat if the car has an air bag, even if the child is in a child car restraint.
- Make sure that there is nothing on the dashboard (even a box of tissues can do a lot of harm in an accident).
- Never put anything heavy in the back of a hatchback or station wagon unless it secured strongly.
- When you are moving the car at home, it is safest to have your child in the car, so she cannot be run over.
- Never leave children and babies alone in cars.
Burns and scalds
- Have a smoke detector fitted in your house and regularly check that it works.
- Keep hot things well back from the edge of tables. Use placemats instead of tablecloths.
- Turn saucepan handles away from the edge of the stove. Use a stove guard.
- Have short or curly electric cords that don’t hang over the side of benches.
- Be careful of hot irons and cords dangling when ironing.
- To help prevent scalding from hot water, make sure that the hot water for your bath, shower and basin comes out at 50 degrees Centigrade or less. You can attach a safety shut-off device directly to the tap, or your plumber can install a device which automatically mixes cold water with the hot, to limit the temperature. The water heater itself should maintain stored water at 60 degrees Centigrade minimum. (See the topic Scalds for more information.)
- Run cold water into the bath first.
- Remember that many toddlers can light matches and lighters, and unscrew the globes of the Christmas tree lights.
- Use fireguards for open fires, pot belly stoves and radiators.
- Have a fire extinguisher or fire blanket in the kitchen.
- If a child has a burn or scald, put the burnt area under running cold water for at least 20 minutes.
Poisoning
Toddlers explore everywhere they can reach, and they still put things into their mouths. They cannot understand poison signs.
- Keep kitchen and laundry detergents out of reach, best in a locked cupboard. Dishwasher powder is particularly dangerous.
- Use a child-proof medicine cupboard for all medicines (including oral contraceptives).
- Check that visitors don't leave bags with tablets in them in your child’s reach.
- Lock garden products away.
- Keep poisons in their original, labelled containers.
- Never put poisons into food or drink containers.
- Put locks on shed doors and keep them shut.
- Write the Poisons Information number next to your telephone, (13 11 26 in Australia).
- See the topic Poisoning for more information.
Choking and suffocating
- Check that there are no small objects or coins left lying around.
- Check toys for small parts before allowing a toddler to play with them.
- Don’t give your child hard pieces of food such as raw carrot to chew. Give soft cooked or grated vegetables.
- Toddlers should sit down when eating.
- Stay with your child when he is eating.
- Never give toddlers nuts.
- Don’t force your child to eat anything he does not want.
- Tie empty plastic bags with a knot in the middle so that they cannot be put over your child’s head.
- Cords or ribbons on toys, dummies and clothing should be short so they can’t go around your child's neck and choke your child.
- Cords on curtains and blinds need to be short or out of reach.
- Replace dummies before they are worn.
- Some old or antique cots and high chairs are not safe for young children.
- Keep older children’s toys (marbles, building sets etc) away from toddlers.
- See the topics Choking and Safe sleep for more information.
Drowning
Most children who drown are under four years old. Drowning happens very quickly and quietly. Young children can drown in only a few centimetres of water. Teaching your toddler to swim will not prevent drowning.
- Stay with your child whenever he is near or in water, such as the bath, paddle pools, buckets or at the beach, creeks, rivers, swimming pools and dams.
- Keep a lid on nappy buckets and keep them out of reach.
- Rain water can collect in all sorts of things. Empty them!
- Make sure that the paddle pool is emptied after every use.
- All other pools should be fenced, with a self-locking gate.
- See the topic Water safety.
Toys and play
- Check toys and play equipment regularly for sharp edges, splinters and loose parts.
- The surface under climbing frames and swings needs to be soft.
- Toys for young children should not have small, loose parts that can be broken off and swallowed.
- Baby walkers often cause injuries and should not be used.
- See the topic Toy safety.
Electrocution
Use an earth leakage circuit breaker in your fuse box or switchboard. It will switch the power off if there is an electrical fault and so prevent injury. It needs to be installed by an electrician.
- Buy covers for powerpoints to stop toddlers poking things into them.
- Don’t use electric blankets for young children especially if there is a chance of bedwetting.
- Be careful of electrical appliances near water.
- Put all electrical appliances away after use.
- Use only wall-mounted heaters in bathrooms and install them up high.
Sun
- Whenever possible keep toddlers in the shade. Teach them to play in the shade.
- Make sure that their favourite play areas are shaded.
- Children can get sunburnt even on cold, cloudy summer days.
- Sunlight through the glass of car windows can burn the skin.
- In the sun use a hat and clothing that covers arms and legs, such as cover-up bathers.
- Sunscreen can be used in small amounts on young children on areas that are not covered by clothing. Some sunscreens irritate the eyes and sensitive skin. It needs to be re-applied often. Zinc cream is an effective sun block.
- See the topic Sun protection.
Shopping
- Never leave babies and young children alone in the car while you shop.
- Supermarket shopping carts can tip up even if you are using the safety seat, especially if a toddler pulls on them. Make sure children sit down when they are inside a trolley.
- Don’t let young children wander in the aisles while you shop.
Farm safety
- There are many safety issues for children on farms with dams, machinery, chemicals, workshops and sheds with equipment, animals and vehicles.
- See the topic Farm safety.
Passive smoking
- Avoid smoking in the house, in the car and around children, because when you smoke, children smoke too.
- Chemicals in cigarettes and tobacco smoke can affect children’s health.
- Children are more likely to smoke if they see you smoking.
Car safety
- Babies, toddlers and children must be kept safe in cars: use properly fitted and approved child restraints or child safety seats.
- Always stop the car when you need to turn around to attend to your child in the back seat. It is so easy to get distracted and have an accident.
- Never leave babies and children alone in cars.
- The temperature inside a care can rise to dangerous levels even on a day which is 'warm'.
- Children get bored and can explore the car’s knobs and buttons which can lead to dangers.
- Children can become distressed or may try to struggle free from their seatbelts and become injured.
- Children may be in danger of someone trying to steal the car with them in it, or trying to take them.
- See the topic Car safety restraints.
Reminders
- The most common cause of safety problems with toddlers is expecting them to be able to keep themselves safe. It is the parent's responsibility to keep toddlers safe, always!
Resources
South Australia
- Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia - 'Kidsafe'
- 'Toddlers A to Z' (booklet from Child and Youth Health)
- click here
- Parenting SA: www.parenting.sa.gov.au
- Poisons Information Centre - telephone 131 126
Written in partnership
Child and Youth Health & Parenting SA
Related Parent Easy Guide
(Parenting SA website - PDF format)
The information on this site should not be used as an alternative to professional care. If you have a particular problem, see a doctor, or ring the Parent Helpline on 1300 364 100 (local call cost from anywhere in South Australia).
This topic may use 'he' and 'she' in turn - please change to suit your
child's sex.