We came across an interesting article about babyproofing a hotel room titled “Step by Step: Babyproofing a Hotel Room.”

As parents, we loved the recommendations since they follow a lot of our in-home evaluations.  While we have yet to find a hotel with babyproofed rooms, asking for a play yard or portable crib (like the Pack N Play) is a good idea. It gives you a chance to keep your little one in a safe zone while packing, unpacking or other activities.

Do you have other ideas or recommendations for travel and keeping baby safe?

Below are some critical statistics related to toddler-related injuries.

Household Accidents
Household accidents involving children are four times more serious than childhood diseases. Each year, more children die in home accidents than from all childhood diseases combined, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

According to SafeKids USA, approximately 2,300 children in the United States, ages 14 and under, died from accidental injuries in the home in 2004, and 3.4 million kids are treated in emergency rooms for accidental injuries occurring at home. Most fatal injuries at home are caused by suffocation, fire and burns, drowning, choking, falls, poisoning or firearms discharged unintentionally.

Pools
Among children ages 1 to 4 years, about 300 children a year in the U.S., drown in residential swimming pools (Brenner et al. 2001). Most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time (Present 1987).

Bathrooms
According to the National Safety Coun­cil, an estimated 200,000 injuries occur annually in the bathroom. The bathroom is the site of such tragedies as electrocutions, burns, falls, cuts, drownings and poison­ings.

Burns
Scalding causes approximately 160 deaths every year.

Drowning
Children under age one most often drown in bathtubs, buckets, or toilets (Brenner et al. 2001). A child can drown in just two inches of water. Although drowning rates have slowly declined (Branche 1999), fatal drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14 years (CDC 2005).

Fire
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 6,000 deaths from fires occur in homes each year. Most people die from the smoke and toxic gases rather than from the fire itself.

Automobile
In the U.S. 1,791 children younger than 15 years were killed and 282,000 were injured as passengers in motor vehicle crashes in 1997. Among 5- to 9-year-old passengers, 46% of those involved in fatal crashes were unrestrained, according to the US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration publication Traffic Safety Facts 1997.

Do you have other statistics to share that parents and caregivers should consider?

I came across a good article in the Seattle Times with some interesting tips around shopping. Based on a Consumer Reports investigation, the article not only reports some findings, but also gives good advice, which is timely for the holidays.

As the article points out, dollar and closeout stores are destinations for shoddy products. Manufacturers have sometimes cut corners on safety, trying to meet demand for rock-bottom prices.

Of the five things to avoid in dollar stores, three are of particular interest to the new parent. Make sure toys are labeled correctly. By law, toys with small parts or sharp edges must be labeled as inappropriate for children under 3. But some imported toys, particularly those made in China, might be mislabeled or unlabeled. The article’s tip: “To be safe, stick to toys with larger parts. How large? If any piece of the toy is small enough to pass through the tube of a toilet-paper roll, it could be unsafe for toddlers.”

Avoid soundalike brand names. For example, it was found that some Dinacell batteries were packed to look like Duracells. I think you get the picture on that one. By the way — a battery labeled around a dinosaur name might lead me to believe I was buying an extinct power supply.

During our new-parent trainings, we’re often asked about lead in toys — how can parents avoid purchasing tainted product? Avoiding dollar store toy purchases is one way. It turns out that several brands of soft, insulated lunch boxes have sometimes tested positive for lead. As the article reports, “Although several states have issued recalls for these lead-bearing products, CR has found them in dollar stores.”

You get what you pay for, so stick to age-appropriate product, major brand names, and just to be safe, check the national product recall list. It’s a lot of work for the parent or gift giver, but worth the peace of mind.

Safety For Toddlers attends the first Safe Kids Coalition, Treasure Valley meeting of 2008. We’ll be sure to pass on any news from this event.

Doug Metzgar will host a talk on Home Safety For Toddlers at Saint Alphonsus. It will be a room-by-room presentation to help parents identify hazards in the home that can cause injuries to their children.

This event is scheduled for March 25, 2008 at 10 a.m.

For more information about reservations, location and more, visit the Saint Alphonsus class schedule.

Customers asked for it: In addition to accepting cash and check for payment, Safety For Toddlers accepts Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Now you can use your card to pay for all Safety For Toddlers products and services.

Thank you to everyone who visited our table at the Eagle Country Christmas this weekend. We received a lot of entries and have randomly chosen a winner for our $150 Safety For Toddlers Gift Certificate. Please congratulate Ted B. of Boise, ID.

Give The Gift Of Safety — In Time For The Holidays
Safety For Toddlers Gift Certificates make great gifts for parents, grandparents and any caregivers you know.

Thank you to AA Logos for inviting Safety For Toddlers to be on hand for the event.

Be sure to check back for future promotions and events.

Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanza are wonderful wintertime celebrations. We like to deck out the house with candles, wreaths, trees and lights. What household hazards can we avoid to keep our babies and toddlers safe during our celebrations?

Holiday Tips

• Christmas tree safety is critical. Two years ago, my sister-in-law returned to her apartment to find the building closed off due to a careless neighbor whose Christmas tree burst into flames while they were out. The neighbor’s apartment was burned out – the rest of the building was spared. A quick read on Christmas Tree Safety can be found at Better Homes and Gardens.
• Think about the plants with which you like to decorate the house. Poinsettias and Mistletoe are classified as toxic or poisonous plants. Download the “Plants and Children – How to Choose Plants for Your Home” guide from the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center. Keep these plants well out of reach or substitute them with artificial plants that you can use year after year.
• Consider fire safety when decorating. Do not overload electrical outlets with holiday lighting or special effects, and do not block exit doors.
• Keep lit candles and matches out of reach. Decoration manufacturers offer battery-powered candles that are much safer.
• We love to spoil our kids with gifts. Make sure that the gifts you give are age-appropriate. If you have older children or teenagers, make sure they keep toys out of reach of their younger siblings. This applies to doors that might pinch, sharp-pointed or sharp-edged toys and projectiles and toy guns. The latter require adult supervision.
• We’ve recently received a lot of questions around toys with lead-based paint. How do you know if your toys’ paint contain lead? The first step is to review recalls.gov for the latest updates. The second step is to purchase toys that are guaranteed to be lead-free. One example is to purchase toys made in the U.S.A. HearthSong has an interesting collection of locally-made toys.

What other safety tips can you recommend for babies and toddlers during the holidays?

Thank you to everyone who came out to our table at the Saint Alphonsus NICU party. We received a lot of entries and have randomly chosen a winner for our $150 Safety For Toddlers Gift Certificate. Please congratulate Nancy L. of Boise, ID.

Give The Gift Of Safety — In Time For The Holidays
Safety For Toddlers Gift Certificates make great gifts for parents, grandparents and any caregivers you know.

Be sure to check back for future promotions and events.