Interview with Henrietta Bond - CHild Safety Expert
Henrietta has extensive experience of communicating safety messages through national and local media.
gurgle: What are the most common accidents you see children experiencing?
Henrietta: The most common accidents are probably falls in the home – this usually happens when children are finding their feet. 45 babies and toddlers go to hospital every day because of falls; such falls can cause damage to their brains and bodies. Burns are also very common; 6 young children in the UK every day end up in hospital because they have got burnt very badly. Burns often occur from hot drinks, hot bath water or even hair straighteners – children step on them, pick them up or even sometimes put them in their mouths!
gurgle What are the 3 most important things that parents can actively do to help prevent accidents happening?
Henrietta: Firstly I would say that parents must be very cautious around hot drinks. Hot drinks stay hot enough to scald a child for 15 minutes, so adults should always make sure that drinks are kept out of reach of children and drinks must never be passed over the top of a child’s head. Many burns happen in the bathroom as well, so children must always be supervised.
Secondly, it’s important that adults put hair straighteners away after they are used – it’s not enough to unplug them.
Thirdly, as poisoning from cleaning products is fairly common – 11 babies and toddlers a day are admitted to hospital because it's thought that they've swallowed something harmful – I would advise that parents look for products with ‘Bitrex’ in them. This is an incredibly bitter-tasting product, which makes things taste so vile, that if your child were to put any in their mouth they would spit it out immediately.
Extra precautions that parents can take are to fit safety catches on windows and to keep furniture away from windows. The key thing is for parents to always be one-step ahead and anticipate that the child who starts to crawl or shuffle may very soon be pulling themselves up onto furniture and learning to climb. And to recognise that toddlers can start to drag furniture about in order to reach things – so an open window can be very dangerous.
Stair gates should always be fitted at the bottom of stairs – to stop children climbing up and tumbling backwards, and close to but not directly at the top of stairs to prevent children getting too close to the stairs.
gurgle How can we get safety messages across to younger children (age of children from gurgle mums is 0-4)
Henrietta: I would say that it’s all about building up gradual awareness and sending out a consistent message. Parents have to set good examples to their children. Children are very curious, so it’s never enough to say “Don’t do that!” It’s important to stress that there’s a difference between what’s naughty and what’s dangerous. Parents should be very strict and clear when outlining what is dangerous.
gurgle: What accidents mostly occur in the following age ranges:
0-1, 1-2, 3-4
Henrietta: Falls are the main cause of hospital admissions for all of these age groups. For 0 – 1 year olds the next most common accident is ‘struck or strikings’. This covers a whole range of incidents, such as an object falling on a child, or the child bumping into something. It also includes crushing - which is things like finger trapping or the child getting stuck between two objects. Then the most common accident would be burns followed by poison or suspected poisoning.
For one year olds the pattern is the same except poison or suspected poisoning is more common than burns. For two year olds the most common accidents are falls, poison or suspected poisoning, colliding with things like walls and furniture and then burns. For three year olds falls are again the most common accident, followed by poison or suspected poisoning, running into things and then burns.
gurgle: What exactly happens in Child safety week? How can children and parents benefit from it?
Henrietta: The point of Child Safety Week is to create awareness. It’s a national event that is a focal point for local communities. Many agencies work together running activities and providing hints, tips, ideas and quizzes. It’s an incredibly helpful week for parents to become more aware about things that they previously didn’t realise were hazards. Children can also learn through having discussions about safety and then taking part in quizzes. In some areas across the country a kitchen is set up with hazards that the children then have to identify.
gurgle What is the most vital safety message parents should know?
Henrietta: I would say that the most important thing for parents to learn is that you only need a couple of minutes to make changes in your home that can keep your child safer. It’s about taking simple steps and being aware. It’s not about wrapping children up in cotton wool, it’s about preventing serious accidents. Parents can pledge as little as 30 seconds of their day during Child Safety Week to do something about child safety – this is enough time to check that the smoke alarm is working, for example. To pledge time and find out all the things that you can do to keep your child safer, visit www.childsafety.org.uk/PLEDGE which has plenty of helpful hints and tips on how to keep your child safe at home.
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Mothercare
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