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Safety Tips

Babyproofing Your Home
The key to making your home safe for your babies is to see the world through your child’s eyes.  Get down on your hands and knees and crawl around!  Sure, some people may think you’re crazy, but other people will realize you’re a genius!

safety4Small items - your baby will experience the world through their mouths first. Clear the tables and floors of coins, paper clips, or anything else that could be easily lodged in your babies’ throat.

Electrical items - babies love to explore electrical outlets, and can easily be hurt by uncovered outlets. Be mindful of cords, fans, and lamps as well.

safetyDrawers/Cabinets - little ones are fascinated by the action of opening and closing drawers and cabinets.If they can reach it, they will try to open it. Be mindful of drawers/cabinets containing cleaning supplies, medicine, or other hazardous chemicals.

Stairs- if you have a multi-level home does your child have access to stairs and doorways?

safetyLarge items (Stove, Refrigerator, Bookshelves, Dressers, etc.)  Make sure these items are anchored down.  Babies love to climb, and climbing makes them feel “bigger”.  Be sure to purchase anchors and anchor these items to the wall.  This can be a lifesaver.

Blind Cords – Make sure any cords from window blinds are put up high.  These dangling cords are extremely interesting to little eyes.  It is possible for babies to become wrapped up in them.

Why Baby Proof?

safety

"My kiddos like so many others really love to explore the kitchen. For the longest time, they left the cabinets alone. But once they discovered them, that was it!

They loved to open the doors and look at all of the goodies. I immediately sorted out what I thought to be the most dangerous things. I went and bought the child proof latches, and told DH he needed to put them on. A couple of weeks went by with no latches, so I opened the box and put them all out on the counter. Amazingly, a couple more weeks went by with no latches. So, one day I tried to put them on. I smashed my thumb - no latches. Darn!!!

safetyOne day, Chase opened up the cabinet door. He was looking at the bottom shelf... and mind you, this was a "safe" cabinet where I had taken out the "dangerous" stuff. Well, he spied the formula can.....the VERY large - over 3lbs from Sam's Club - and very FULL can of formula. He pulled it out with one hand.... and went BAM onto the pointer finger of his little hand.

He screamed and cried and dripped blood for an hour. We finally got him calm and the blood finally stopped. But it kept bleeding over the next 24 hours so we had to take him to Urgent Care (of course this was on a weekend!). The doctor assured us he hadn't broken anything, but he did have a terrible bruise in the nail and on the pad of his finger. Then he lost the ENTIRE nail.

Moral of the story - buy the latches and USE them ... before the babies go looking through the cabinets!!"
One Step Ahead, child proofing products www.onestepahead.com
US Consumer Product Safety Commission http://www.cpsc.gov/
- Schmoopie

safety

"Cut the tags off all the toys!! My daughter loves those lamaze stuffed animals, she is constantly flailing them around. One day she had a red spot on her eye that would not go away, when we took her to the DR they said that she cut her eye and said that it is very common in babies. I went home and the paper tags of all of thier animals and toys."
-LaFrance76

Gas Fireplace Safety
I never thought I would be writing this.  Gas fireplaces are safe, right?  They are much safer than regular fireplaces.  Wrong.
For months, my twin girls had been crawling and pulling themselves up and never bothered the gas fireplace.  Of course, at the time it was too warm to use it, so we never even thought about blocking it off.  However, we didn’t think about blocking it off for winter, either.
One day, I was in the kitchen which is connected to the family room.  I had our gas fireplace going for a while, and it was nice and toasty in the house.  The girls were playing with some toys in the family room and were just fine.  I wasn’t watching their every move, as no parent can, when I heard one of my daughters scream.  I ran over to see what had happened.  I picked up my distraught daughter and she didn’t stop crying like she usually did after being picked up.  Thankfully, I had the sense the put my other daughter in her Exersaucer so she wouldn’t get hurt as well.
My daughter continued to scream, and I figured she must have touched the front of the fireplace.  I looked at her hands, and they were red and starting to blister.  This was all just within a couple minutes of her touching the front of the fireplace.  I could even see the imprint of the mesh in front of the glass appearing on her hands.  I quickly got a towel wet with cold water and held it on her hands.  Then, I got the girls in the car and headed to the ER.
My poor daughter was crying and screaming the entire way to the ER.  I had her there within 30-45 minutes of the accident.  Once we got inside, she was examined by a doctor.  By this time her right palm, which was the worst, was one giant blister.  She had blisters on both thumbs and a couple good sized blisters on her left palm as well.  Thankfully, her fingers were not burned at all.  The doctor told us that the burns all looked to be second degree, which is not the worst type, but it is the most painful.  She was given a shot of morphine for the pain, which helped calm her down so they could dress her wounds.  Later that day, we were given an appointment to go to a burn clinic to have her burns checked by a burn specialist.
At the burn clinic, she had to have the dead skin removed from the burns (debridement).  They dressed the wounds, and taught us how to do it twice a day to keep the wounds covered, clean and dry.  Over the next week, her burns progressed and looked really sore and ugly.  A week after her accident, her left hand was good enough to just put in an elastic stocking dressing with no ointment.  But her right hand still looked pretty bad, and the burn doctor wasn’t sure whether it would begin to heal on its own or whether she would need a skin graft.  Even though her burns were only second degree, they were very deep.  Thankfully, the next week, her right hand looked much better and she was put in an elastic stocking dressing.
Now, three weeks later, her left hand looks great, and doesn’t look like it will scar at all.  Her right hand is looking good, but there is still an area in the middle of her palm that has not healed all the way.  At night, she has to wear a special splint on her right hand to hold it open.  As burns heal, the skin is pulled very tightly, and that is especially bad inside a hand.  We are still going to the burn clinic for a few weeks, but we are now hoping for a good prognosis.
Before my daughter’s burns, I had no idea how hot the glass fronts of gas fireplaces could get.  According to one source I found, the glass temperature reaches 200* 6.5 minutes after ignition, and 245* after 14 minutes.  Some fireplace manufacturers reported that the glass panel can reach temperatures of up to 350*.  After our experience with our daughter’s burns, I will not be using my gas fireplace until I have a fireplace screen, or some other means of blocking the fireplace off.  I urge everyone who has a gas fireplace to use extreme caution with your babies and small children around your fireplace.  Don’t even use your fireplace unless your babies or children cannot get to it in any way.  Their little hands can burn so quickly.  I’m just sorry that my daughter had to find that out the hard way. -2littlelovebugs

 


Car Seat Safety Tips

car seat

 

It is estimated that over 80% of all car seats are installed improperly. I cannot stress how important it is to make absolutely sure your car seats are in correctly.
Here is a link that might convince you to get your seats checked
It is very important that the seat be strapped in as tight as humanly possible.

It often takes 2 people to get it in as tight as it should be. Your children should be rear facing as long as possible. The law is 20lbs and 1yr but the longer the better. Some countries require them to be rear facing much longer. There are some seats on the market in the US that go rear facing to 35lbs, most are 30-33lbs. I recommend you keep them rear facing until they nearly reach the rear facing limits of your seat even if they are 2 years old! I have had people say to me "But they could break their legs" but the alternative is much worse. When they are strapped into the car seat the clip that goes across their chest should be armpit level. Too often I see children strapped in with the clip way down by their belly buttons and that offers very little protection. In a collision of even 15-20 MPH the force could throw the child up out of the top, their whole body could go out through the opening in the shoulder straps. They should have a 5 point harness as long as possible, not just to 3 years old as many laws require. It offers way better protection than a booster seat. As long as the harness fits them and is approved for their height and weight they should use it. Here are 2 great links about car seat safety. The first is a place where you can find out where to get your car seats checked and/or installed by someone who is certified in car seat safety for free! http://www.seatcheck.org/ Often the places that do the checks will have car seats to replace any unsafe or expired (yes car seats expire!) car seats that people show up with. The second link is to a forum that has some certified car seat safety specialists as well as regular people who advocate for and give advice on all aspects of car seats, from installation to choosing the best car seat for your particular vehicle http://www.car-seat.org
One argument I hear quite often is "We never used seat belts or car seats when we were little and we are fine" but many of us are fortunate to have not been in an accident. If I am one of the unlucky people to have an automobile accident I certainly don't want to be like the parents in the first link above thinking "If only..."
When you are in the market for a seat the ones that were recommended to me by the specialists were Evenflo or Britax. Britax being the best, Evenflo coming in a close second but with a much more affordable price tag. One of the Evenflo seats is actually the highest rated on the Consumer Reports website this year but keep in mind that cost plays a part in their ratings so while it is an excellent seat the Britax seats are actually a little better safetywise. The biggest problem with car seats is they are too difficult for the average person to install correctly. Many other seats are very safe as well as long as they are in right so don't panic if you don't have a highly rated seat, just be sure to have it checked by a professional to make sure it is in right, afterall, ease of use is one of the things they are rated on.
The CarSeat Lady
-Sarabella