Accident prevention

One of the most common reasons that young children fall is that their rapid development takes parents and carers by surprise. Staying alert and making some simple adjustments to your home and your routines can keep your children safe.

• Change your baby on the floor. If you use a raised changing table, watch your child closely as they can roll, sometimes from a very early age.
• Keep bouncy chairs and car seats on the floor. The seat can move as your child wiggles.
• Always strap your child into highchairs, buggies and car seats.
• Hold onto the banister when carrying your baby up and downstairs.
• Fit safety gates to your stairs before your baby starts crawling and make sure you keep stairs clear from clutter.
• Teach your child to come down the stairs backwards.
• Fit safety locks to windows.
• Never leave chairs, large plant pots or furniture near windows, work surfaces, balconies or anywhere dangerous a baby or child could climb onto.

Young children can very easily burn themselves because their skin is more delicate than an adult's. 95 per cent of childhood burns and scalds happen at home. Most are caused in the day-to-day situations that many parents don't anticipate, like children reaching a hot drink or grabbing hair straighteners.

• • Don't drink hot drinks while holding a baby and never pass hot drinks over anyone's head or leave them within reach of your child.

• • Use the back rings of the cooker, turn pan handles away from the edge.

• • Be very careful of irons, hair straighteners and other hot implements and keep them and their flexes well out of reach. Remember how long they take to cool.

• • Microwaves cook unevenly. Get rid of hot spots when heating bottles or food by shaking or stirring thoroughly. Test the temperature before giving food to children or feeding a baby.

• • Run cold water into the bath first to stop the bottom overheating. Use a bath thermometer as well as checking the temperature yourself before bathing babies. Ideally fit a thermostat or temperature regulator to bath taps.

Babies learn about the world by touching and putting things in their mouth so are at risk of inhaling or choking on items such as small toys, peanuts and marbles.

• • Choose toys appropriate to the age of the child. Toys are sold with an age range warning.

• • Make sure that small objects such as marbles and peanuts and small toys are kept out of reach of children under three. Older children might need to be reminded to keep their toys away from their younger playmates.

• • Keep nappy sacks out of the reach of babies and young children, don't store these in or around the cot or pram.

• • Small food such as grapes, cherry tomatoes, blackberries and other soft fruits should cut into quarters to prevent choking.

There are a growing number of cases of children catching themselves on blind cords or other loops, often when they're climbing. If your child gets tangled in one of these cords, they can strangle themselves quite quickly. Babies are quite weak but they can still squirm and wiggle and get into situations they then cannot get out of, risking suffocation.

Babies need a safe place to sleep. Baby should always sleep on their back with their feet at the foot of their cot. Tuck the blanket in across their chest and under their arms and keep the cot free from bumpers, pillows and soft toys. Make sure there are no cords, ribbons or strings hanging down into the cot.

• Don't use duvets and pillows for babies under 12 months.
• If your baby has a dummy, keep any cord or string shorter than 150mm or six inches.
• Keep pull cords on curtains and blinds short and out of reach.
• Keep animals, especially cats, out of the bedroom and use a net on a pram.
• Make sure young children cannot get hold of plastic bags.
• Follow the TICKS advice when using a sling:
  • Keep your baby tight.
  • In view.
  • Close enough to kiss.
  • Keep their chin off their chest.
  • Supported back.

Most poisoning accidents involve medicines, household products and cosmetics. Young children may not be able to tell you that they've swallowed something, signs to look out for include stomach pain, nausea or vomiting. They may not be able to keep down fluids. You may suspect a stomach bug or appendicitis. Act quickly if you're worried, take them straight to A&E or phone 999 for an ambulance.

• Keep all potentially harmful substances out of reach of small children, ideally in a locked cupboard. This includes dishwasher tablets, medicines, alcohol, cosmetics, DIY supplies, cleaning and gardening products, magnets, e-cigarette refills, button batteries and potentially poisonous plants.
• Get a carbon monoxide alarm fitted in your home - ideally one in every room with a fuel-burning appliance.

A drowning child isn't able to call for help or splash about - scarily they just quietly slip below the water. It only takes a couple of minutes to drown.

Younger children are most likely to drown in the bath or a garden pond. Children can drown in less than five cm of water. They should be under constant supervision when in or near any water.

• Supervise children in the bath at all times.
• Never leave uncovered bowls or buckets of water around the home.
• Paddling pools should be emptied and stored away when not in use.
• Garden ponds should be filled in while children are small or securely fenced off. Take special care when visiting other people's gardens. Think about your neighbours' gardens too - young children can wander off into them and drown in garden ponds, even if you don't think they have access.