Young children rely upon parents and caregivers to provide for them, including food, shelter, comfort, play and a safe place in which to grow, learn, and experience in. A safe home requires parents and caregivers to investigate their homes for risks as well as provide adequate supervision of children.
Children are naturally curious and learn by hearing, touching, and tasting the things around them. Children do not understand that they can be seriously injured by some things in their environment, such as touching a hot stove burner or tasting the cleaning agent that looks and smells like orange juice. Creating a safe home environment is important to ensure that children can explore and experience the world around them without risk of injury.
To determine where potential hazards are, look at the space from a child’s point of view. Get down on your hands and knees and crawl around. Remove anything that is breakable and anything that children can pull down on themselves. Parents and caregivers need to balance keeping the home hazard-free with allowing children to explore, play, and learn.
To help parents remember important steps to keep their kids safe, Safe Kids and Tide developed an interactive graphic focusing on a range of risks in the home. This 360-degree graphic takes you inside a toddler’s home to show some of the issues parents may have missed when trying to make their home safer for young children, including proper storage of laundry packets.
360° Interactive Graphic from www.safekids.org.
Parents and caregivers must provide adequate supervision of children while they are in the home. Injuries often happen when caregivers are not directly supervising young children.
Direct supervision means that a caregiver is within arm’s reach and is watching what the child is doing. The younger and/or more impulsive the child, the more important it is to stay within reach of the child so the caregiver can move quickly to stop behaviours that might result in an injury.
Caregivers who are attuned to their children’s skills and abilities will know when it is safe to give more freedom. A child who is three years old requires very different supervision than a child who is eight. Supervision can change depending on the child’s developmental stage and individual needs. Effective supervision means the right combination of physical closeness to the child and attention to what the child is doing.
For more information, visit Injury Prevention throughout Ages and Stages.
Children with special needs may be at an increased risk of home injuries including falls, burns, poisoning, and choking. They may also require additional safety precautions due to their physical or cognitive abilities. Creating a safe environment for a child with special needs is an important step to ensuring their continued well-being.
Follow the link below to view videos that have been produced by Safe Kids USA. These videos outline important home safety topics for families and in particular for families with children with special needs.
Family, friends, and other adults in the home can impact children’s safety. To learn about child abuse and intentional injures, visit www.skprevention.ca/safety/intentional-injury/.
Presentation description:
“Preventing Childhood Injuries in the Home” is a recorded presentation that describes the risks to children’s safety in the home, along with provincial statistics and evidence-based prevention tips. Additionally, information about accessible, hands-on learning activities relating to falls, breathing emergencies, and poisoning is provided. This information will assist service providers in engaging parents, caregivers, and children in conversations about safety, as well as help with answering questions that families may ask.
How to use this presentation:
Service providers may view this presentation individually or with other professionals. There are several prompts to pause the video and engage in activities through journalling or discussion.
The following resources and activities are available as supplemental teaching materials with this presentation.
Frequently asked questions resource for service providers:
For answers to frequently asked questions and additional information about the topics discussed in Preventing Childhood Injuries in the Home, click here.
Home Safety Booklets
Booklet, Revised 2022
All children depend on the adults around them to provide safe, healthy environments to learn, grow, and develop new skills. This booklet will support caregivers in preparing for each stage of child development, to better predict and prevent injuries to children from birth to 1 year of age.
Safety tips are included on the following topics: safe sleep, coping with crying, burns, scalds, drowning, falls, choking, and car seats.
Booklet, Revised 2023
All children depend on the adults around them to provide safe, healthy environments to learn, grow, and develop new skills. This booklet will support caregivers in preparing for each stage of child development, to better predict and prevent injuries to children from 1 to 4 years of age.
Safety tips are organized by activity, and address the following topics: safe sleep, drowning, burns, scalds, choking, poisoning, bike and wheel safety, car seats, and pedestrian safety.
Booklet, Revised 2023
All children depend on the adults around them to provide safe, healthy environments to learn, grow, and develop new skills. This booklet will support caregivers in preparing for each stage of child development, to better predict and prevent injuries to children from 5 to 9 years of age.
Safety tips are included for at home and in the community and address the following topics: falls, playgrounds, trampolines, choking, poisoning, bike and wheel safety, pedestrian safety, drowning, and car seats.
Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet, Revised 2024
This fact sheet defines what vaping products are and how they can be harmful to the health of children and youth. This resource outlines tips for parents to avoid injury or accidental poisoning from vaping products and devices. Vaping devices are also sometimes referred to as vape pens, vapes, electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes.
Fact Sheet, Revised 2024
Contains information on how to prevent poisoning and a checklist for poison-proofing your home.
Fact Sheet, Revised 2021
This fact sheet provides information about what button batteries are, how they can be harmful to the health of children, safety tips, and what to do if a child swallows a button battery.
Resources
Informational Door Hanger, 2022
This resource outlines the importance of closing bedroom doors before going to sleep to reduce the risks associated with fire and smoke. It is intended to be used as a door hanger for children’s bedrooms.
Fact Sheet, 2021
This summary provides information about unintentional poisoning-related hospitalizations for Saskatchewan children under the age of 10, between 2004 and 2013. Information about how to prevent unintentional poisonings in children is also provided.
Fact Sheet, 2018
This summary provides information about fire and burn-related hospitalizations for Saskatchewan children under the age of 10, between 2004 and 2013. Information about how to prevent fire and burn-related injuries in children is also provided.
Fact Sheet, 2018
This summary provides information about fall-related hospitalizations for Saskatchewan children under the age of 10, between 2004 and 2013. Information about how to prevent fall-related injuries in children is also provided.
Poster, Revised 2011
This resource provides home safety information for parents and caregivers in the form of a children’s growth chart. The growth chart reaches a maximum height of 90 cm (36 inches or 3 feet) and is intended for children between birth and 2 years of age.
