Tips for Keeping Kids Safe around Water in the House

Making the home a water-safe place for children is of the utmost importance. There are obvious hazards in the forms of pools and spas, but there are also less obvious threats to children that can lurk around the home.

Below are some tips to help avoid accidents around the house involving children and water.

Facts about Children and Water

It’s always good to be armed with facts when it comes to the safety of children. Anywhere there is water, children can drown or slip and injure themselves, so keeping a watchful eye is very important. Not only are infants and small children at risk for drowning, but older age children are as well. The most important fact to note is that most drownings are preventable.

Statistics on Children and Water Safety

The statistics on children and water safety are frightening, but they’re important to know so that you can be adequately prepared to keep your child safe.

Every year over eight hundred children under the age of fourteen drown. Drowning is the second cause of accidental death in children. For those children under the age of one, drowning is the third leading cause of death. Around an average of almost four thousand children a year are sent to the hospital with injuries related to near drowning accidents.

Bathtubs pose the highest risk for infants, whereas older children are at most risk in a swimming pool. More than half of the drowning related to infants occurs in the bathtub, making it essential to never leave an infant unattended in the tub.

In addition, it is almost certain that a child will not be heard if an accident happens. Oftentimes drowning is silent. If a child survives a near drowning, the effects have long-term health consequences that could include brain injury.

Keep an Eye Out for Even Small Amounts of Water

Even the smallest amount of water can pose a risk to a child. Children can drown in seconds, and in total silence in very little water. This includes everything from buckets to toilets to basins to the bathtub.

That’s why it’s important to never leave a child unattended in the bathtub, even for a short moment. When the bath is finished, always drain the tub, as standing water poses a risk of drowning.

Also, it’s best to avoid bath seats with young children. These types of seats are not safety equipment, and a baby can slip out of a bath seat or tip sideways or forward, becoming completely covered in water in seconds.

Regulate Water Temperature

The temperature of the water is something that is also important to note, as scalding injuries are quite prevalent. Hot water in the bathtub is extremely dangerous; water can scald a child quickly and is a common cause of fatality for young children and infants.

You want to be sure to always run cold water before adding hot water and then run the cold water again. Test the temperature of the bathtub water with the elbow before putting any child in the tub.

This can also be important to note around appliances such as kettles and anything that uses hot water. Any scalding injuries with these appliances can be shattering.

Look Out for Water Damage

If there is water damage in the home, even a small amount of damage could cause mold to occur. Mold can cause a myriad of health problems, especially for children. This is especially true if there are preexisting conditions present.

Mitigating mold in the home is extremely important to keeping children safe. If there has been water damage in the home, even from a minor fridge leak, you want to employ a company that uses state of the art equipment to get rid of the mold quickly and safely for the whole family’s health.

Additional Precautions to Take

Anything from buckets, to mop buckets, to toilets, and basins, and anything where water can collect and be accessed by children need to be monitored. Taking the necessary precautions to eliminate accidents is essential. This can also include putting latches on toilets and emptying buckets, mop buckets, and basins when the water is done being used. Overall, it’s best to keep all of these out of reach of little hands and to close doors to bathrooms and laundry rooms at all times.