With most accidents in the home happening in the summer months, here are ten top tips to keep you and your family safe, from Doctor Paul Heslin.
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Do a hazard review of your house: Walk around your home, inside and out, to look for possible risks. This is good health prevention as you are being proactive in preventing accidents and looking out for potential risks. This can be played as a game involving everyone in the family.
Prevent accidents in the main areas of risk: Falls on stairways inside and ladders outside the house are the most common source of accidents. Loose clothing and toys on the ground are also hazardous. Make sure storage boxes for toys and general items for the home are stored neatly and out of harm’s way.
Water: Look for slippery areas in kitchen, pantry, and bathrooms. Drowning can be prevented. If you have an outdoor pool use a perimeter fence. Garden ponds should be filled in until kids are old enough. Babies should never be left alone in a bath, even for a minute.
Hot surfaces: Hot liquids need to be respected whether from handles too close to the front edge of the cooker or from boiling water gushing out of a hot water tap or shower, unexpectedly and without warning. Mild burns can benefit from cold water but any dressings that might stick to burns will make the problem harder to deal with. Severe burns need immediate attention in hospital and pain relief.
Bleeding: Accidents can cause cuts and bleeding. The first priority with bleeding is to stop bleeding through direct pressure on the bleeding point or complete pressure around the limb just above the bleeding. Many kids will bump and cut their chins as a right of passage and these will mend on their own with minimal scarring. Cut lips do not always need to be stitched by a doctor, especially if the bleeding has stopped. All cuts need to be kept clean. Cuts to the head bleed more but also heal more quickly. The most likely time to notice an infection from a cut is two days afterwards. Sometimes an antibiotic is necessary here but most cuts begin to start noticeably healing by this time. If not, see your doctor.
Fires: Alarms that are connected to the mains are best, but battery powered alarms should be on every floor and checked weekly. Switch off all electrical items at night. Close doors even on warm nights to slow down the spread of fire. Have an escape plan that you practice with the little ones so that they can be easily found, because sometimes they hide from the fire in places where they are not found until it is too late. Smoke and delay is the real danger here. Smouldering cigarettes can also cause fires.
Poisons: Thirsty weather can lead to confusion between coloured drinks and dangerous poisons. Keep the drugs cabinet locked and the garden shed locked also. Assume all uncovered liquids will be taken by young minds and mouths. Store hazardous liquids in high presses and locked alcohol cabinets with door protectors at baby level are essential.
Choking: Plastic bags can suffocate children and blinds with long chords can hang playing kids. Less seriously, small beads can get stuck in noses, ears and even aspirated into the lung. Tell your doctor if you suspect this, as these may cause an infection.
Glass and dangerous instruments: Garden instruments left on the lawn and electric mowers can cause injury through cuts or electrical shock. Take glass out of any cut and assess if there is only one piece of glass. If there are many pieces of glass or dirt the doctor will need to see it. Be especially wary of cuts to hands and fingers, where there are important ligaments. Put pressure on bleeding with as clean a cloth as you can get and then call the doctor.
Falls: Last is never least. Falls are the most common cause of accidents in the home. Babies fall off changing surfaces, furniture can be pulled down, the unlocked balcony is trouble waiting. Restrictors to upstairs windows will stop small people falling. Gates on stairs for the very young are very helpful as well as banisters and bath supports for the elderly.
Tips provided by GP, Dr. Paul Heslin in association with health cash plan provider, HSF Health Plan
