Accidents in the Home

New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 18

Accidents in the Home

This is the text of a talk on health, broad-

cast recently from National and Commercial

stations of the NZBS by DR

H. B.

TURBOTT

Deputy-Director-General of Health

ROM time to time local authorities, stirred up by street traffic accidents, run safety weeks to draw attention to the killings and maimings that happen so often from carelessness or alcohol-in-duced over-confidence. They are beginning to include home and farm safety in these efforts. At long last it is being appreciated that our homes and our farms are accident breeders, more important as far as children are concerned than our roads. According to our statistics our homes kill and maim more children than the infectious diseases, including polio. Almost all of these deaths and cripplings or permanent disfigurements following home accidents could be prevented by a little more care and a modicum of forethought. A young child has no knowledge of danger, no appreciation of safety. Safety is you! Through baby and toddler days you, and you only, can protect and guide. If you are not thinking ahead and practising safety in your home, how can you expect your children to be safety minded? Children are copycats. They will follow your good example of safe habits, if you will but os safety thinking into your everyday e. Safety thinking changes as the child grows up. About the third month baby begins to roll over, hence you won’t put him on any high unprotected surLT se ene

face. Pop him on the table only for a minute. He can roll while your back is turned. In the first and second years falls are our third largest cause of death and damage. Armchairs or beds are not as safe as many mothers think. Poisonings, believe it or not, are the second highest cause of death and suffering of our babes and toddlers. In the danger line the ranking is petroleum products first, various household preparations second, drugs third. Burns are the top killer in the first and second years-and right through to five years, as a matter of fact. New Zealand mothers and fathers have been slow in adopting proper fireguards over open fires and electrical appliances, But in baby days steam and hot water are killers-tipped over kettles and pots, baths run with hot water first and not tested with elbow, hot water bottles in prams or cots loosely corked or insufficiently covered, sitting at the table for a meal with baby on your knee so that he can grab and pull over the hot cup or teapot. In the second year baby, from crawling, begins to toddle and walk. He has

the whole home world to explore, and he gets around, falling, poking, probing, popping everything possible into his mouth, If you can’t get a noise out of it, or pull it to pieces, at least you can see what it tastes like! And here in his propensities is the key to the forethought required, Burns and scalds, the biggest killers! Right-fireguards preferably fixed to the wall on either side of the fireplace and over all electrical fires. Matches, cigarette lighters, and all inflammable liquids out of reach. He has seen you use all these and is sure to have a go when you are absent. No flexes hanging down or trailing! You can get safety plugs for those open electric sockets, so why not in your home? Do stove pot handles need to stick out so that toddlers can pull them over, or teapots and hot liquids need to be anywhere but in the middle of the table? Toddlers are especially curious about anything higher than their eye level. If you have stairs a gate may save falls, or the playpen will keep him in when you aren’t about. On the other hand it is quite easy to teach a crawler or toddler to crawl safely backwards down stairs! As he will put practically everything into his mouth all household cleaning and poisonous ‘substances and medicines should be in cupboards he can’t open or places he cannot get at. If you leave pins, needles, buttons or other small things about, you can’t grumble when they are swallowed, and you have to take him for an X-ray and give yourself a lot of worry. Two-year-olds love to climb into things, so be watchful against falls, and lock your motor-car doors. No water about your place is safe, A baby can drown in one inch and a toddler in two inches of water. Creeks, ponds, troughs, or tubs of water are irresistible. A three-year-old will climb more vigorously to drawers and on to tables, and burns, falls and poisonings is now the order of trouble. But now he can understand the reason for the safety precautions you take, so you begin explaining why toys must be picked up and put away. and why both of you stop at the footpath kerb and look both ways before crossing the street. And why he must never sample pills although he may see them taken, There were nearly 200 child poisonings from parents’ sleeping pills in a recent year. So take forethought according to a child’s stage of development, and try to dodge all serious accidents in your home,