The Ultimate Guide to Child Safety at Home

You know All-Safe Pool is the child safety expert when it comes to kids while swimming, but kid safety extends beyond the pool area into the entire home. Especially if you’re the “swimming pool” house, your home can become a popular place for friends and family to gather for fun, and that often means kids in your home. That means even if you don’t currently have children living in your home, it’s important to understand how to create a home that is child safe. The benefits of a safer home extend beyond children, however, to help protect other adults and pets that may enter your house from common hazards.

A Dedication To Protection

Keeping children safe is more than a one-time activity. As your life evolves, with new hobbies, furniture, appliances, and activities, you need to consider when and how they may represent a danger to others. Get down on your smaller visitors’ level and take a look around from their point of view. When you create a safer space, you’re giving your guests a place they can have fun without being in danger. 

Starting With the Swimming Pool Area

Safer swimming pools are our passion, so it’s natural for us to start our list with pool child safety tips. Thousands of lives are lost to accidental drownings, which remain one of the top causes of accidental deaths for children of all ages. When you have a swimming pool, it’s not just a convenient place to begin when kid-proofing your home but also your responsibility as a pool owner.

• Safety Barriers Save Lives – Removable pool fences, pool safety covers, and safety nets can all prevent unsupervised access to the swimming pool. 
  • Removable Pool Fencing – Made with minimal gaps and secured with a self-closing, self-latching gate, removable mesh pool fencing secures your entire pool area while also allowing you the flexibility of moving your fence aside when you need more space for entertaining. The mesh material deters climbing, while the well-anchored polls keep your fence strong and prevent small bodies from pushing underneath.
  • Pool Safety Covers – Safety covers anchor around the perimeter of your swimming pool or to rails secured along the decking. Sitting directly over the surface of the water, this strong material can hold the weight of a full-grown adult, making it excellent for keeping potential drowning victims out of the water until they can reach safety. 
  • Safety Nets.- Like safety covers, pool nets are secured around the pool’s edge, but they can also be anchored to surrounding structures and over permanent fixtures and elements that may make securing the pool with a safety cover difficult.
• Be Ready for a Rescue – Make sure you have the lifesaving tools you need nearby whenever the pool is in use. From emergency flotation devices to rescue hooks and first aid kits, all emergency equipment should be readily available, clearly marked, and kept stocked or in good repair.
• Install Alarms – Pool alarms help ensure your pool is protected, even when you’ve installed protective barriers. Gate and door alarms can alert you when your pool’s entry point has been opened when it’s supposed to be shut, and immersion alarms monitor your pool’s water under the surface for disturbances that indicate a person or pet has entered the water. Alarms can give you an audible alert sound heard throughout the home or send notifications to your connected smart device or computer when they’re triggered.

Kitchen Safety

The kitchen can be a dangerous place for small hands. From cooking equipment to appliances and common utensils, there are plenty of places you can upgrade your house’s safety in the “heart of the home.” 

• Keep Counters Clear – Clear counters are easier to clean, but they also offer fewer opportunities for accidents. Keep heavy items, such as cookers, countertop appliances, and mixing bowls, pushed back and away from the edge where they topple off. Knives would be kept far out of reach, as even the smallest paring knife can be dangerous to kids. 

• Install Safety Latches, Catches, And Straps – If there is any possibility unsupervised children may end up in your kitchen, such as during a child pool party, safety devices to help keep them out of trouble should be installed. These devices prevent cabinets from opening, keep kids out of the fridge, and prevent them from opening a potentially hot oven.

• Remove Objects From the Range – Your range top can be one of the most dangerous places in the kitchen. While a child may feel the heat through an oven door, a pot handle may be relatively cool, even with boiling liquid in the pot itself. For kids’ safety, only use the stovetop when you will be present the entire time. Choose the back burners, and keep handles turned inward to prevent them from being grabbed. Finally, keep anything not actively cooking off the stove and away from it, even when not preparing food. Using the stove as a catch-all is a good way to start a fire in your kitchen.

General Home Safety

Many of the principles of child pool safety extend to the entire house. Keeping areas secured and making sure you have the materials you may need to manage minor emergencies around the house are smart ideas, but you shouldn’t stop there.

• Save Them a Shock – Electrical hazards are common around the house. Between plentiful outlets at ground level, the ubiquity of connected and smart devices that have only increased the number of cords per household over the years, and existing appliances that are falling further and further behind modern safety standards, there are more dangers than ever to watch out for. Cover outlets that are not in use, invest in surge protectors, and replace any cords (even the flimsy phone charger ones) if there are any signs of damage to the outer coating or cover, especially if there are any exposed wires.

• Control Traffic – Part of creating a kid-friendly home is making sure you know where they are capable of getting to. Close doors to rooms children shouldn’t enter, locking when or if necessary. Set clear, polite boundaries with parents and children about areas they should consider off-limits. For entryways without doors or extended hallways that shouldn’t be entered, install child gates to prevent entry. This principle is especially important for child pool safety, even if you have a professionally installed pool fence.
• Get Trained – Take the time to make sure you have the education to put your emergency supplies to full use when they’re needed. Groups like the American Red Cross can teach you the child pool safety skills you need to save lives. From infant, child, and adult CPR to first aid training and water rescue, certification in these important techniques improves the safety of kids and adults who enter your home.

Expert Protection For Your Pool

Your local All-Safe Pool installer has the tools, materials, and experience you need for better child pool safety barriers that help keep kids out of the pool area when you aren’t around. They’ll take measurements, talk to you about your swimming protection needs, and put together a written estimate tailored for your pool. Schedule your free quote from All-Safe Pool today.