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Home >> Living >> Family >> Having a Safe Home for Your Grandchildren
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Having a Safe Home for Your Grandchildren

No matter the age of your grandchildren, as their grandparent you will want to provide a safe and loving environment for them. Making sure of this is normally not that easy because children enter new exploratory phases in life all the time and they come up with new ideas and they also achieve greater independence as they grow older. There are several steps you should follow as a grandparent in order to keep your grandchildren safe. You have spent many years decorating your house with furniture, personal treasures and trinkets you have collected, but with grandchildren, certain considerations must be taken.

You can lose or break many items when your grandchildren are at your house. Things like flower vases, coffee tables that have sharp edges, a cupboard full of cleaners that may be poisonous to the children will need to be moved or and cupboards locked. Another important thing to do is to move all medicines to somewhere the children will not be able to reach and also make sure the packaging is child resistant. Cabinets that have these medicines should also include strong latches and locks.

You are also supposed to make sure the children do not come into contact with sharp objects by moving all breakable objects in the house out of children's reach. This will include objects such as knives and other sharp objects. To make sure of this close and lock the dish washer and make sure that your trash can has a secure lid. All rooms that need not be left unlocked should be secured. Children often fall but it is important to avoid serious falls by putting up safety gates that stretch across the top and bottom of the stairs. These gates should be strong enough so that children are not able to push them open too easily because this could lead to some very serious accidents that could end up with hospitalization or worse.

It is also important to install window guards that attach to your window frame so that they don't fall out of the windows. These guards include metal bars that are normally spaced closely together and they keep the children safe especially when the windows are open. Window stops can also be a big help especially for windows that are more than four inches wide; in that no one can open the bottom section. It is important to keep one window unguarded in each room to be used as the fire escape and it should always be locked.

Water heaters are supposed to be turned down to 120 degrees to avoid the children from getting burns. You can also install anti-scald devices on all your faucets to avoid children from moving the tap. Shocks can also be avoided by covering all your electrical appliances and plugs and using duct tape to cover up all naked electrical wires; or better yet, get an electrician to fix them. Furniture should also be fitted with corner and edge bumpers. Other safety devices that you should have include smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors.


Published 30th Apr 2010

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