We all want to keep our kids safe. But part of being a kid is exploring and trying new things, which can sometimes lead to unintentional injuries.
That’s why preparedness and thinking ahead are key. We can’t protect them from everything, but we can do our best to keep accidents and injuries to a minimum.
Here are our top 5 tips to protect children from unintentional injuries.
1. Protect Them in the Car With Child Safety Seats
The car is one of the most important areas to make sure your child stays protected. In fact, many states have laws against letting children ride in standard seats until they reach a certain age or a certain height.
Seatbelts simply don’t work effectively for children and even in a minor collision they could be seriously injured. That’s why you not only want to make sure you invest in a good car seat for your kids, but you choose one that is the appropriate size for your child’s current age and you also learn how to install it properly.
Many parents struggle with properly installing car seats and this can make them less effective at protecting your child from unintentional injury.
2. Supervise New Activities
It’s always fun to take your kids to the park or a new play space, but because you can’t make sure that everything they touch is completely safe, the best thing to do is always supervise new activities.
Whether it’s the first time on a new slide, or their first visit to the trampoline park, make sure you or another responsible adult is there and able to watch them while they play.
This will serve two purposes: 1. They’ll be there to step in if the child is doing something dangerous, 2. You’ll be able to monitor how your child behaves to see if they engage in reckless behavior.
3. Invest in Childproofing
Keeping kids safe around the house is a main priority. Whether you have toddlers or young children, you need to keep them safe from certain things around the house to prevent unintentional injury.
Small things like remembering to secure heavy furniture, putting child safety locks on cabinets with cleaning chemicals and other items and keeping knives and other sharp objects secured and out of reach will go a long way in protecting your child’s safety.
You may even choose to invest in things like baby gates to keep the little ones out of dangerous areas or away from staircases, outlet covers to prevent electrocutions, and safety devices for toilets and other things. A little bit of prevention can go a long way.
4. Wear Proper Safety Equipment
We all know kids need to wear a helmet when riding a bike or skateboard, but to truly minimize injury, it’s important to take safety equipment seriously.
Many people think just getting a helmet is enough, but making sure that you not only get a helmet, but one that is properly graded for the activity your child is performing and that fits properly, is the key to protecting them.
It doesn’t hurt to invest in other protective gear as well, elbow and knee pads, shin guards if they play sports, the right type of shoes for the activity.
Keeping all these different aspects in mind will keep your child protected from injury.
5. Stay Age Appropriate
It can be tempting to let the younger kids play with older kids, particularly if they are siblings, and sometimes this is perfectly ok. However, not all activities are ok for the same age group and if a younger child is part of an activity they aren’t old enough for, they could be injured.
Certain sports and hobbies are great for older kids but probably not suited for younger ones. For example, paintball and airsoft are popular among teens, but a small child is much more likely to be seriously injured while playing.
Conclusion
While these tips won’t prevent all injuries, keeping in mind some of the tips from this post will drastically decrease the number of unintentional injuries that your child gets and reduce the risks of getting hurt on a day to day basis.
