My heart goes out to Danny Takemoto and those who have suffered similar tragedies. Earlier this week, Parent Wonder published 101 Child Safety and Childproofing Tips for Parents. It's definitely a great resource on what we can do to keep our children safe and sound. It's also an excellent reminder that child safety is an ongoing and never ending process.
Here's a quick list of some child safety resources:
101 Child Safety and Childproofing Tips for Parents
Child Proofing Our Communities
CPSC.gov - 12 Safety Devices to Protect Your Children
CPSC.gov - Infant/Child Product Recalls (not including toys)
CPSC.gov - Toy Hazard Recalls
Healthy Child, Healthy World
Poison.org - Toxic Plants to Children
International Association for Child Safety
Safe and Sound Children (Who we used for earthquake and childproofing)
DadBloggers.com - The Maginot Line of Child Proofing (By Newbie Dad)
3 comments:
As a consumer of information, I can definitively say, 101 things on a list are too much.
As a veteran parent (I can say that, right? I've got a 7 year old) I can say in retrospect that most of the expert advice we got served only to make us more paranoid. I cant imagine trying to even begin to remember 101 things about anything, even child safety tips.
Fortunately, most child safety tips are common sense. "Children must wear seat belts." Going thru a list and mentally checking off the obvious glaring problems in your not-yet-baby-proofed home is useful. Sell your razor-sharp-edged stainless steel coffee table on craigslist. Stop leaving knives out.
But most are crap, like the #2 tip from that list: "2. Remove window cranks from casement windows so that children can’t open them."
We dont even have a basement, if we did, what are the chances it would have casement windows, and even then, why is it so impoirtant that its 2nd on the list !?!?!?
and, most sadly, these lists give people a false sense of shame that, if they don't act on every single well-intentioned idea on the list they are baaaad parents.
No list could have helped avert the tragedy Danny Takemoto is going thru.
Definitely, Newbie Dad is right, keeping your child safe (and by extension, parenting) is an ongoing process. It's one that can be guided by lists, but cant be replaced by lists.
Thanks for the mention of 101 child safety tips.
thisislarry: Thanks for your comment. I agree that some of the tips are common sense. But the problem is are you doing it? Some parents take safety for granted. I even spotted a toddler sitting on her father's laps behind wheel!
The list serves only as a reminder to things that parents sometimes overlook. It's by no means to make parents paranoid. Of course, you're not a bad parent if you don't do everything on the list. Every home is different and you have to pick and choose what's best for your own.
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