Child Safety Tips & Resources: How To Raise Awareness For Child Safety Protection Month

Raising Awareness for Child Safety Protection Month

Did you know November is Child Safety and Protection Month? It was created to raise awareness about the potential dangers children face daily. Statistics from the CDC’s Child Injury Report highlight the importance of this issue. Annually, an estimated 9.2 million children had an initial emergency department visit for an unintentional injury. Furthermore, on average, 12,175 kids aged 0 to 19 die each year in the United States from an unintentional and often preventable injury.

Safety Starts at Home

Before exploring ways to promote National Child Safety Protection Month in our communities, we must learn to promote safety and protection in our homes.

Household Safety

Each year, thousands of children are treated or hospitalized due to accidental poisonings at home. The CDC found that those aged 1 to 4 had the highest poisoning rates. These tips from the Health Resources and Services Administration can help make your home safe.

Keep cleaning supplies, medicines, garden chemicals, and toxic art supplies locked away or on a high shelf. Put these items away immediately after use.
Purchase over-the-counter and prescription medicines with childproof caps. Keep them on a high shelf or locked cabinet, not your bedside table.
Keep vitamins and minerals like iron out of reach, as they can be hazardous, even fatal, to children.
Never use food containers to store nonfood substances.
Save the Poison Control contact number in your phone for accidental poisoning cases.

Infant Safety

For children under one year, two-thirds of injury deaths are due to suffocation. It’s crucial to place your baby on their back to sleep, remembering “back is best” and “face up to wake up.” Don’t allow infants to sleep with blankets, stuffed animals, or other items before age 1. According to Safe Kids Worldwide, these are the Top 5 Tips to Protect Your Baby:

All you need for your baby’s crib is a firm mattress and fitted sheet. To prevent injury, remove all blankets and toys.
Use this basic safety checklist to help correctly use your child’s car seat, booster seat, and seat belt in your vehicle.
Ensure you have a working smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm on every level of your home and in all sleeping areas. Test them to ensure they work.
Place your baby’s crib and furniture away from windows and blinds. Your baby is safer without reachable strings or cords to prevent choking hazards.
Set your water heater to 120°F to avoid scalds.

Outdoor Safety

Playing outside is important, and kids love it! However, keeping children safe outdoors requires special precautions. Here are tips for outdoor safety and injury prevention:

Never leave children alone outside.
Ensure children of all ages wear helmets on tricycles, bicycles, skateboards, roller skates, and ride-on toys to prevent head injuries.
Always use safety straps to secure children in strollers, and don’t put those who can’t sit up well in low-sided wagons.
Teach children not to play near the street.
Explain that children must ask for help if toys roll into the street or driveway.
Ensure all outdoor play areas are fenced, especially near a street, parking lot, pond, well, or railroad tracks. Keep gates closed and install childproof latches. Ensure all storage sheds, barns, and garages remain locked.
Routinely check the outdoor play area. Remove all trash, sharp objects (including branches or foliage), tools, lawn equipment, and animal feces to prevent injury.
Surround electrical appliances in the play area, like air conditioners, with fences to keep children away. Also, remove gas grills from outdoor play areas.
Ensure the equipment is dry and cool when playing at a park or playground.

Water Safety

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, drowning is the leading cause of injury or death for children 1 to 4 years of age. It is essential to follow these safety guidelines to prevent accidental injury whenever your young child is around water.

Be aware of all bodies of water, big and small. Swimming pools, bathtubs, ponds, ditches, fountains, watering cans, kiddie pools, and large buckets can be dangerous for children when left unattended. Empty containers of all sizes when you’re done using them.
Always enforce safety rules with your kids, like no running near the pool or pushing or holding others underwater.
Ensure the deep and shallow ends of your child’s pool are clearly marked. Never allow your child to dive into the shallow end to avoid serious head injury.
When swimming, children should always be supervised by an adult (preferably CPR-trained). The adult should be within arm’s length of older children and fully touching infants, toddlers, or young ones in or around water. This is important in deep pools and kiddie pools. After use, empty and store kiddie pools.
Your child should always wear a life jacket when swimming or boating. A properly fitted one can’t be lifted over your child’s head after fastening. Children under five, especially non-swimmers, should have a flotation collar to keep the head upright and face out of the water. Don’t let your child rely on inflatable toys, pool noodles, or loungers instead of a life jacket. These may deflate suddenly, or your child may slip off of it into deeper water.
If you have a backyard pool or a large, inflatable above-ground one, surround it with at least a 4-foot (1.2 meters) high fence that separates it from the house. The fence should have a self-closing, self-latching gate that opens away from the pool, with the latch at least 54 inches high and out of the child’s reach. Check the gate often to ensure it is in good working order. Keep it closed and locked. Make sure your child can’t manipulate the lock or climb the fence. Openings under the fence or between uprights should be at most 4 inches (10 cm). Keep toys out of the pool area to avoid tempting kids to get through. If your pool has a cover, remove it before swimming, and don’t let small children walk on it. A pool cover isn’t a substitute for a fence.
Spas and hot tubs are dangerous for young children, who can easily drown or overheat. Please don’t allow them to use these facilities.
If possible, have a phone in the pool area with emergency numbers marked. Keep a safety ring with a rope beside the pool at all times.
Eliminate distractions while children are in the water. Phone calls, computer work, and other tasks should wait until they are out. Adults shouldn’t drink alcohol while swimming, as it endangers them and any kids they supervise.

Awareness Activities at Home

In honor of Child Safety Protection Month, print out the safety tips we’ve just shared. Then, review them with your adult family members and children and post them in your home. You can also print out other resources from Safe Kids Worldwide to display at home or give to family and friends. By keeping these injury prevention tips in mind, you can create a safe environment for all kids.

Safe Kids Worldwide has fun online activities for kids that you can print and complete at home to teach them about safety! Reading protection-themed books to your kids is also a great way to teach them about safety. If you don’t already have a safety plan and emergency preparedness kit with your family, take this opportunity to create them. Keep them visible and accessible at all times.

Raising Community Awareness

It takes a village to raise a child, and keeping them safe is a team effort! Here are ways to raise awareness of safety and protection in your community.

Share Resources

Every parent, caregiver, educator, childcare provider, and community member should review the tips and tools provided to keep our children safe! You and your family can help spread awareness by printing and sharing the tip sheets and resources! Distribute or post them at community activities, schools, child care centers, laundry rooms, apartment buildings, recreation centers, churches, or wherever parents gather.

Find or Become a Car Seat Technician

Car seat safety awareness is a huge issue in our communities! Child Passenger Safety Technicians are trained individuals who can give parents personalized instruction on properly using and installing a child safety seat, as well as seat belt guidelines, child restraints, and booster seat recommendations. You can host a car seat event, find a local technician for instruction, or become trained on child safety seat installation! Imagine the tremendous benefit to your neighborhood! You can find more information regarding National Child Passenger Safety Technicians here.

Create a Cleaner, Safer Neighborhood

Start at home, ensuring your indoor and outdoor space is clean and clutter-free. Then, continue the commitment and awareness for Child Safety Protection Month by initiating a Community Clean-Up Day! Invite your family, friends, and neighbors to help keep your community clean and safe so kids can learn and play by removing litter and hazards.

A well-cared-for neighborhood with mowed lawns, flowers, and freshly painted homes can deter crime and positively affect child development. A well-kept yard provides fewer hiding spots for suspicious persons. If an open lot or abandoned home is nearby, work together to clean up the weeds, plant trees, and fix the exterior. A little help goes a long way.

Improving your street or apartment complex lighting is crucial for child safety. One way to do this is by advocating for more streetlights, but you can also ask your neighbors to turn on their porch lights at night or install motion-sensor lights at the back or side of their houses. This helps keep kids visible outside at night and deters intruders.

Get To Know Your Neighbors

To promote community safety, get to know your neighbors. They can sometimes be your best protection. Walking with them, working in your yard, and letting your kids play safely with local kids helps you learn each other’s strengths and needs.

Do you live next to an elderly couple who sometimes need help? Is there a local teenager learning to drive? Are there small children playing outside that drivers and neighbors should watch for? Are there safe individuals for your kids to carpool with or a responsible young person to babysit in a pinch? Do you have each other’s phone numbers for neighborhood emergencies? This is one way to reach neighbors if they’re gone and something is wrong—it can be a tremendous asset.

Organizing a cookout, block party, or safety event can encourage people to get to know each other and feel comfortable in the neighborhood. Child Safety and Protection Month is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness at home and in your community.