Home: Is Your Child Safe?

Home Safety Tips
Fire Safety
Emergency Preparedness Tips
Farm Safety
Important Numbers
Creating a Safe Home Environment

Home Safety Tips

Cribs
Baby walkers
Safety gates
Prevent choking and strangulation
Get that out of your mouth!
Most homes have 250 poisons! What about yours?
Bathtub safety

Cribs

Product Safety: Cribs

Baby walkers

• Falls down stairs in baby walkers can cause head injuries. Remove the wheels, then throw out baby walkers. They can be dangerous!
  CHIRPP Data Report

Safety gates

• Do your safety gates meet current safety standards?
• Check your safety gates. Are they installed properly according to the instructions?
• Use spring-loaded gates at the bottom of stairs.
• At the top of the stairs, use gates that fasten to the wall.
• Falls are the #1 reason for a hospital stay.
• Check your used equipment. It should meet current safety standards.

CHIRPP Data Report

Prevent choking and strangulation

• If it fits in the mouth, your child could choke.

Product Safety: Blind cords

Get that out of your mouth!

• Toys get unwrapped and scattered before you know it. Make sure that small children don't get into toys meant only for older children.Children under 3 can choke on small parts, batteries, wrapping paper, packing pellets, broken balloons and just about anything else that's small and potentially tasty.
• Bowls filled with candies and nuts are great when entertaining but small children can choke on their contents.
• Young children put everything in their mouths.
• Keep all small objects out of reach. Show family and friends safe foods and toys to give to your child.
• Children under four can easily choke on candy, nuts, seeds, popcorn, chips, and hot dogs.
• Grate or cut hard and round foods into thin strips.
• Children should sit up while eating, and eat slowly.
• Learn the signs of choking and know what to do.

Product Safety: Toys

Most homes have 250 poisons! What about yours? Keeping poisons safely away:

• Keep cleaners and other poisons away from young hands when stored and when in use.
• Show children the hazard symbols. They all mean don't touch!
• Child-resistant caps are not child proof.
• Keep all cleaners in their original containers.
• Cosmetics, nail polish, and perfume, although lovely holiday gifts, are poisonous if ingested.
• Clean up party leftovers: cigarette butts and leftover food, beer, wine and other drinks can be poisonous to a small child even if consumed in small quantities.
• Keep all medicines in a locked cupboard, drawer or box.
  Teach your children that all medicines, including vitamins, are not candy.
• Christmas ornaments look like big candies to infants and young children. Hang them out of your childrens' reach or they might try a taste test. Not only can your child be cut by a broken ornament, older ornaments may contain lead and are poisonous.
• Holly and mistletoe are poisonous! Hang mistletoe above the doorway out of the reach of children, and pucker up, you'll have to kiss whomever you meet while passing under it.

Bathtub safety

• A child can drown quietly within seconds in only a few centimetres (1 inch) of water.
• Share bathtime fun! Always stay with your child.
• Teach your child to always sit in the bathtub.
• If you must leave the bathroom, even for a second, take your child with you.
• Hot tap water can burn in seconds! Test the temperature with your elbow before putting a child in the water.
• A child's skin burns in 1/4 of the time it takes an adult's skin to burn.
• Always start and end with cold water when running a bath.
  CHIRPP Data Report

Fire Safety

Fire safety means having a plan
Lighters or matches
Fires in the kitchen

Fire safety means having a plan

• Think fire safety. Have a plan and know when, where and how to go.
• Make sure your home is well-equipped with working smoke alarms and in the fall and spring, clean smoke detector and replace batteries.
• Battery-operated smoke detectors are good for only about 10 years. How old are yours?
• Develop and practise a fire escape plan together and praise children for fire-safe behaviour.
• One hundred children are killed and another 250 are injured each year due to fires in Canada.
• Stop, drop and roll if clothes are on fire.
• Crawl low under smoke.

Lighters or matches

• Keep lighters or matches out of sight and out of reach of children.
• Supervise your children, especially when near an open flame.
• Make sure children never play with lighters and matches. Never use them as toys or pacifiers!
• Child-resistant lighters are not childproof.

Fires in the kitchen

• Never leave oil on high heat. Always watch the pan!
• High heat can make oil burst into flames.
• Heat oil slowly while watching the pan.
• Teach your children to play away from cooking areas.
• Grease fires spread when you add water. Be ready with a lid to smother flames.
• Instead of a saucepan, use electric deep fat fryers.
• Move anything that could catch fire away from the stove.
• Turn pan handles in.

Emergency Preparedness Tips

Are you prepared for an emergency?
Prepare a home emergency kit

Are you prepared for an emergency?

Emergencies can happen so be prepared! The following is a list of tips to help keep your family safe in the case of an emergency.

• Store emergency supplies in a safe place.
• Teach children to find an adult when there is an emergency.
• Only use lights, heaters or stoves that are approved for indoor use and in good working order, in a well-ventilated area.
• Install battery-operated smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
• Store fuels in approved, labelled containers away from heat and children.
• Remember, children need to be watched at all times.
• In a disaster, listen to your local radio station for instructions that could save your life!
• In an emergency, throw out thawed frozen foods that can't be cooked right away.

Prepare a home emergency kit that includes:

• first-aid supplies
• flashlight, with batteries
• candles, matches and/or lighter
• radio, with batteries
• spare batteries
• whistle
• blankets
• games and activities to keep children safely occupied
• 3-day supply of non-perishable food, bottled water and pet food
• toilet paper
• personal supplies

To find out more on how to prepare your family, call the Public Health Agency of Canada at (613) 957-7728 for the free pamphlet "Are you prepared in case of disaster?", your local Canadian Red Cross, or your local St. John Ambulance office or dial 1-888-373-0000.

Farm Safety

A farm is more than an industrial work site, it's a home.
Fence off an area near the house where children can play safely.

• Teach your kids which areas are safe, and which are not.
• Make sure firearms are stored: unloaded, secured with a trigger lock, separate from ammunition, and locked in a cabinet.
• Plan a safety walk around the farm with your children or grandchildren every spring and fall.
• Spring weather brings thin ice and strong currents to ditches, creeks and rivers. Warn children of the dangers and supervise their play.
• Many children are killed each year by farm machinery, especially by tractors. Keep tractors and machinery off limits to young children.
• Store animal medicines and farm chemicals locked away from kids.
• Together, choose a chore that's right for your child's age. Teach him or her how to do the task safely.
• Cows are as heavy as cars! Keep a safe distance.
• Keep poison control and other emergency numbers next to every phone.
• Soft toes need hard boots!

For more information, call the Canadian Federation of Agriculture at (613) 236-3633, or the Canadian Firearms Centre at 1-800-731-4000.

Important Numbers

Safety resource numbers for you and your family

General Safety
Product Safety
Water Safety
Boating Safety
Fire Safety and Prevention
Safe Travel
Farm Safety
Playground Safety

General Safety

• Safe Kids Canada - 1-888-SAFE-TIPS
• Infant and Toddler Safety Association - (519) 570-0181
• St. John Ambulance - 1-888-373-0000
• Think First Foundation -1-800-335-6076
• Your local Canadian Red Cross
• Your local Public Health Unit
• Your Provincial Safety Councils/Leagues
• Block Parent Program - 1-800-663-1134

Product Safety

• Product Safety Bureau (613) 957-4467
• Canadian Standards Association (416) 747-4000

Water Safety

• Your local office of the Lifesaving Society
• Your local Canadian Red Cross

Boating Safety

• Canadian Coast Guard's Office of Boating Safety - 1-800-267-6687

Fire Safety and Prevention

• Fire Prevention Canada - 1-800-668-2955
• Your local Fire Department

Safe Travel

• Active and Safe Routes to School Program
• Go for Green at (613) 562-5340 or 1-888-UB-ACTIV


• By Car
• Transport Canada - 1-800-333-0371
• Your local CAA office


• By Snowmobile
• Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations - (705) 725-1121.


• By Train
• Operation Lifesaver - (613) 564-8100
• Your Provincial Safety Councils/Leagues

Farm Safety

• Canadian Federation of Agriculture - (613) 236-3633

Playground Safety

• Canadian Parks/Recreation Association (613) 523-5315
  

Creating a Safe Home Environment

Other Resources

Indoor Tobacco

Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) Home Report