Whether they are coming for an afternoon or a week, taking some steps before your grandchildren arrive can help keep them safe during their visit. Adopt any of the following precautions from this grandparents guide to child-proofing that are appropriate for your young visitors’ ages and abilities.
Be prepared
- Gather essential telephone numbers ahead of time. These should include the numbers of the children’s parents, their pediatrician, and your area’s poison-control center.
- If you have a gun, make sure it’s not loaded. Keep it locked up and store the ammunition in a separate place.
Living areas
- Keep small and sharp objects off the floor and out of reach.
- Put safety plugs in wall sockets.
- Don’t let electric cords dangle where children can reach them.
- Lock doors that go outside, to stairs or to garages.
- Don’t leave children alone in a room with a burning fireplace or plugged-in space heater.
- Make certain curtain and blind drawstrings are secured and out-of-reach.
Kitchen
- Use your stove’s back burners and keep pot handles turned to the back of the stove.
- Keep hot foods and drinks away from the edges of tables and counters.
- Don’t allow children under 10 to use a microwave oven.
- Don’t leave a baby alone in a highchair. Always use the safety straps.
- Don’t use tablecloths. Children can pull down plates, hot foods and liquids on themselves.
- Keep cleaning products, knives, matches, and plastic bags out of reach.
Bathroom
- Don’t leave children in the tub or shower. Small children can drown in two inches of water within seconds.
- Keep medicines, vitamins, and soap where they can’t be reached. Buy medicines with child-safety caps.
- Always check the bath-water temperature with your hand before putting children into the tub.
- Ask your doctor or pharmacist about the best way to dispose of old medications. Do not toss them in the wastebasket.
Your bedroom
- Don’t keep any medications, vitamins, or other medicines on or in your bedside table. Children often swallow pills because they look like candy.
A baby’s bedroom
- Keep the crib away from window blinds and drapery cords.
- Put the baby to sleep on his or her back in a crib with a flat, firm mattress with no soft bedding underneath. Doing so reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
- In case of emergency, take the following steps if a grandchild swallows something dangerous or is burned or injured in any other way.
- Call 911 or your community’s emergency medical response number.
- Call the child’s parents.
- Call the child’s pediatrician.
Source: Stanford Children’s Health
