Safety for children (birth to 4 years)

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The text for this topic is copyright Women's and Children's Health Network Inc, Government of South Australia.

Parents have an important role in keeping children safe and helping them to learn new skills, have fun, take risks, and gain confidence in their abilities. Young children have a way of getting into things, and often do what you don’t expect. They have lots of energy and like to explore.They are still too young to be aware of danger and may not be able to keep themselves safe. Telling them and teaching them about danger is important, but it is not enough.You need to make sure they are in a safe place and are supervised. Childhood injuries are not usually ‘accidents’. Most injuries can be predicted, and therefore prevented.

Where injuries occur

Children under 4 years of age, especially those between 1-3 years, are most likely to be injured in the home and backyard. This is because the home is where they spend most of their time, and homes are designed for adults. They are also becoming more mobile and curious about the world around them.

The most common causes of injuries that lead to a stay in hospital are falls, accidental poisoning, burns/scalds, drowning and car accidents.

• Falls mostly occur from furniture, down stairs, from play equipment, or from being dropped.
• Accidental poisoning is most often from medicines (including tablets they find in bedside cupboards, handbags and on the kitchen bench top), alcohol, or household cleaning products.
• Burns/scalds are most often caused by hot fluids such as tea and coffee, hot liquid foods such as soup and noodles, or hot tap water.
• Drowning can happen in home swimming pools, bathtubs, rain water tanks (either with ladders up to an opening, or underground tanks with an opening that is easy to get to). Rivers, dams, fish ponds, even a container with only a few centimetres of water such as a nappy bucket, or an animal bowl are risks.
• Car accidents. More serious injuries and deaths occur when young children are not wearing proper child restraints in the car.

Young children living in the country are more likely to be admitted to hospital than those living in urban areas for injuries due to falls (1.5 times more often), and accidental poisoning (1.9 times more often).

More children die from injury in Australia than from cancer and diseases of the nervous system combined. In children 0-4 years of age, the main causes of death from injuries have been due to:

• Car accidents
• Drowning
• Falls from machinery, windows or balconies, or heavy objects falling on them
• Unsafe sleeping environments.

What parents can do

• Make your home and backyard as safe as possible. Remove things that can be unsafe to a young child.
• Use barriers to stop your child getting to unsafe areas.
• Get down to your child’s level and look around each room in the house and the backyard to see the ‘world’ from their view point. Make the needed changes.
• For example:
• • Use place mats rather than table cloths and put hot drinks in the middle of the table.
  • Pad the corners of tables.
  • Make sure the gate to the swimming pool is securely locked. Children must always be supervised by an adult when near the pool.
  • Store medication, alcohol, and other chemical hazards (including those in the shed, kitchen and laundry) out of reach, such as in a locked cupboard.
  • Make sure your child’s cot meets Australian Safety Standards and the mattress fits the cot snugly.
• Supervise your child. Young children are more likely to do unsafe things and get themselves into dangerous situations, when they aren’t constantly supervised. Supervision should always be by an adult, not other children. The best type of supervision is listening to and watching your child. It is important that parents still let their child learn and challenge themselves by taking ‘safe’ risks.
• Teach your child about safety from an early age, and in a way that they understand. For example, you can teach your child to safely get off a chair or bed by sliding down on their tummy feet first. If you have a tree that your child likes to climb, teach them how high to climb and how to get down safely. Have a rule that an adult always has to be with them when they climb the tree. You can teach them how to safely use a knife at meal times. Repetition is important.
• Be a role model. ‘Do’ the safety behaviour that you expect your child to do. For example, when riding a bike you should always wear a properly fitted bike helmet with the strap done up. When travelling in a car you should always wear a seat belt.

Supervision and removing hazards/or using barriers to prevent children getting to unsafe areas are the best approaches to child safety for children up to 2 years of age. From the age of 2, most children should start to follow safety rules that they have been taught. However, they still cannot be relied upon to follow the rules all the time, and they will need to be supervised by an adult.

Reminders

• Supervise your child.
• Childhood injuries are not usually ‘accidents’. Most injuries can be predicted, and therefore prevented. It is the responsibility of adults to keep young children safe.
• Expect the unexpected and plan for it by making your home and backyard as safe as possible.
• Get down to your child’s level and look around each room in the house and the backyard to see the ‘world’ from their view point and then make the necessary changes.
• Some parents think their young child knows what to do to be safe. Expecting a young child, especially less than 3 years of age, to act in a safe way all the time, is not realistic. They need to be supervised by an adult.
• Having an injury, even a serious one, does not teach a child not to do the same thing again.
• Tell your child what you are doing when you are keeping them safe, and why.
• As your child grows, teach them how to keep themselves safe.
• If you want a young child to act safely, they must see you acting safely – they do what you do, not just what you say.
• Some parents think that serious injuries happen to somebody else’s child, not theirs, but that is not the case.
• Mothers and fathers both need to take an active role in keeping their child safe. All carers need to agree on what to say and do about safety so their child does not get confused.

Contacts

• ACT Child and Family Centres (parenting information and support) 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Telephone: Gungahlin 6207 0120 Tuggeranong 6207 8228 West Belconnen 6205 2904
• healthdirect Australia (free health advice line, staffed by registered nurses) 24-hr 1800 022 222
• Kidsafe ACT (child safety information) 8am to 3pm Monday to Friday 6290 2244
• Maternal and Child Health 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday 6207 9977
• Parentline ACT 9am to 9pm Monday to Friday, except public holidays 6287 3833 
• Poisons Information Centre 24-hr 131 126

Websites

• Child, Youth Health (parenting and child health information) www.cyh.com
• Kidsafe (information on home safety, including safety checklists for parents and grandparents) www.kidsafe.com.au
• Raising Children Network (the complete Australian resource for parenting newborns to teens, covering a broad range of up-to-date parenting topics) www.raising.children.net.au
• Zero to Three (information on healthy development of babies and young children) www.zerotothree.com

ACT Govt Publication No 11/0808 July 2011 (content last revised February 2011)