Holistic Childproofing for Your Home: By the Numbers and with your Gut

For all the attention that pill bottles and cigarette lighters receive, they're nowhere near the most common childhood accident in the home. On August 14, President George W. Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, in no uncertain terms an important piece of legislature for child safety, including among other things, requiring manufacturers to eliminate even trace amounts of lead in toys within the next three years. While our kids' toys stand to become safer than ever, our homes, in general, require constant diligence to continue the downward trend of unintentional injuries in the home.

Statistics and Emotional Intelligence
There is no shortage of statistics concerning child safety. Organizations, such as Safe Kids, are dedicated to raising public awareness and educating households about child safety. University Psychology Departments generate dozens of studies each year, about how personality inventories and environmental factors influence risk-related behavior. For parents, however, the key becomes where to look for these statistics, how to interpret them, and how to use them to inform your home improvements.

You can read, for example, on the Safe Kids' website that "Blacks living in rural areas have a fire death rate 3.5 times higher and rural Native Americans a rate more than two times higher than that for rural whites," or that "Window fall victims are more likely to be male children, under age 5 years and playing unsupervised at the time." The problem with statistics of this nature is that, while informative, they can easily produce the exact opposite effect from what they intend. Oh, well, that doesn't apply to me, so I don't need to worry. In general, statistics are renowned for being unpersuasive. That won't happen to my kid is a natural reaction to have. Nobody wants to think about harm coming to their kids.

First Step in Holistic Home Safety: Do a Self-Inspection
Likewise, a statistic that directly applies to you shouldn't be ignored, but it doesn't necessarily mean you need to resort to panic mode. Rather, what you should do is look around your home—slowly, thoughtfully—and ask yourself, what problem areas do I see? Broad statistics, such as the fact that drowning and falls are the two biggest dangers to children in the home definitely provide a starting point, but, unlike statistics, no area of your home should be miss this inspection. Use your intuition. Ask yourself, does this area of my home seem safe? Is there ANYWAY a child might be able to injure themselves?

Loose attic stairs, for example, can pose a threat (to both children and adults) even though they hardly show up in terms of child safety statistics. Loose attic stairs may fall open on their own, and even if they don't pose a risk of head injury, they can give children access to a potentially dangerous attic or create a falling hazard when the child attempts to come down from the attic. Moreover, by researching this topic, you'll learn that wood attic stairs are more susceptible to loosening than aluminum stairs due to humidity and warping.

Read the Label: Age-Appropriate Childproofing
Just like choosing a toy, the types, level, and relative importance of certain home improvements can change depending on the age of your children. The best example of this phenomenon is probably drowning and residential pools. (For children up to 14 years of age, drowning is the second-leading cause of death—next to motor vehicle collisions.) Naturally, children under 1 year of age are much more likely to drown inside the home than in pools. Nearly any standing water can potentially pose a threat: Along with bathtubs, buckets, toilets, sinks, and essentially any container that your one-year-old can fit into and hold as little as a single inch of water can be a hazard. As soon as a child passes the one-year mark, this statistic switches to swimming pools. Installing a secure, locked pool fence is the surest way to prevent a fatal or serious injury associated with drowning.

Of course, adolescents can be a different story. Pool fences that were perfectly safe and secure when your child was 10 may not be sufficient at 13, 14, or 15. In fact, some pool fences may pose a threat themselves, as thrill-seeking teenagers attempt to jump into the pool from a nearby fence. Needless to say, pools, trampolines, and teenage boys don't mix.

Top Home Improvements for Child Safety
Again, don't let this list convince you that these are the only things you need to do to your home, but if you haven't yet done these things, they're probably a good place to start.

1. Install pool fencing, if you own a pool.
2. Place mulch, artificial grass, or sand in your kids' outdoor play area.
3. Lock all cabinets with dangerous or poisonous materials.
4. Install slip-resistant covers on all stairs.
5. Secure windows with special locks or security bars.
6. Install security cameras to keep a better eye on your kids.

The Myth of Childproofing
Childproofing is one of the most absurd and insidious clichýs out there. When joking about how you can't operate your own childproof lighter, you might not be fully aware of the bigger problem with childproof labels in general: Almost nothing is truly childproof. You'll never be able to create a home that is 100 percent immune from unintentional injuries to your children. Plus, just as you can't watch your kids every single second of every single day and should take steps to create a generally safe home environment, you can't assume that just because you make these home improvements, you don't need to teach your kids about safety issues or that you don't need to monitor them.

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