About 2-1/2 million children are injured or killed by hazards in the home each year. The good news is that many of these incidents can be prevented - by using simple child safety devices on the market today. Any safety device you buy should be sturdy enough to prevent injury to your child, yet easy for you to use. It’s important to follow installation instructions carefully. In addition, if you have older children in the house, be sure they re-secure safety devices. Remember, too, that no device is completely childproof; determined youngsters have been known to disable them.

Here are some child safety devices that can help prevent many injuries to young children.

SAFETY LATCHES and LOCKS
Safety latches and locks on cabinets and drawers can help prevent children from gaining access to medicines and household cleaners, as well as knives and other sharp objects.

Look for safety latches and locks that adults can easily install and use, but are sturdy enough to withstand pulls and tugs from children. Safety latches are not a guarantee of protection, but they can make it more difficult for children to reach dangerous substances. Even products with child-resistant packaging should he locked away, out of reach; this packaging is not childproof.

SAFETY GATES
Safety gates can help keep children away from stairs or rooms that have hazards in them. Look for safety gates that children cannot dislodge easily, but that adults can open and close without difficulty. For the top of stairs, gates that screw to the wall are more secure than pressure gates.”

New safety gates that meet safety standards display a certification seal from the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA). If you have an older safety gate, he sure it doesn’t have “V” shapes that are large enough for a child’s head and neck to fit into.

DOOR KNOB COVERS and DOOR LOCKS
Door knob covers and door locks can help keep children away from places with hazards, including swimming pools. Be sure the door knob cover is sturdy enough not to break, but allows a door to be opened quickly by an adult in case of emergency. By restricting access to potentially hazardous rooms in the home, door knob covers could help prevent many kinds of injuries.

To prevent access to swimming pools, door locks should be placed high out of reach of young children. Locks should be used in addition to fences and door alarms. Sliding glass doors, with locks that must be re-secured after each use, are often not an effective barrier to pools.

ANTI-SCALD DEVICES
Anti-scald devices for regulating water temperature can help prevent burns. Consider using anti-scald devices for faucets and showerheads. A plumber may need to install these. In addition, if you live in your own home, set water heater temperature to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to help prevent burns from hot water.

SMOKE DETECTORS
Smoke detectors are essential safety devices for protection against fire deaths and injuries. Check smoke detectors once a month to make sure they’re working. If detectors are battery-operated, change batteries at least once a year or consider using 10-year batteries.

WINDOW GUARDS and SAFETY NETTING
Window guards for balconies and decks can help prevent serious falls. Check these safety devices frequently to make sure they are secure and properly installed and maintained. There should be no more than four inches between the bars of the window guard. If you have window guards, be sure at least one window in each room can be easily used for escape in a fire. Window screens are not effective for preventing children from falling out of windows.

CORNER and EDGE BUMPERS
Corner and edge bumpers can be used with furniture and fireplace hearths to help prevent injuries from falls or to soften falls against sharp or rough edges. Be sure to look for bumpers that stay securely on furniture or hearth edges.

OUTLET COVERS and OUTLET PLATES
Outlet covers can help protect children from electrical shock and possible electrocution. Be sure the outlet protectors cannot be easily removed by children and are large enough so that children cannot choke on them.

CARBON MONOXIDE (C0) DETECTOR
Co detectors can help prevent CO poisoning. Consumers should install CO detectors near sleeping areas in their homes. Households that should use CO detectors include those with gas or oil heat or with attached garages.

WINDOW BLIND CORD SAFETY TASSELS
Mini Blind safety covers on miniblinds and tension devices on vertical blinds and drapery cords can help prevent deaths and injuries from strangulation in the loops of cords. For older miniblinds, cut the card loop, remove the buckle, and put safety tassels on each cord. Be sure that older vertical blinds and drapery cords have tension or tie-down devices to hold the cords tight. When buying new miniblinds, verticals, and draperies, ask for safety features to prevent child strangulation.

DOOR STOPS and DOOR HOLDERS
Door stops on doors and door hinges can help prevent small fingers and hands from being pinched or crushed in doors and door hinges. Be sure any safety device for doors is easy to use and is not likely to break into small parts, which could be a choking hazard for young children.

CORDLESS PHONES
Cordless phones help you watch your child continuously, without leaving the vicinity to answer a phone call. Cordless phones are especially helpful when children are in or near water, whether it’s the bathtub, the swimming pool, or the beach.
by Tan Jian Yong
About the Author: Get the Full eBooks at http://www.pickaebook.com/babyfirstyear

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Many parents do not realize that these are options that benefit the baby in many incalculable ways but also benefit the parents and the environment.This is an excellent primer if you are new to the concept of natural, instinctive, gentle or attachment parenting.

Although these methods are commonplace in the rest of the world throughout history they are new to modern American parents and this is a great place to get your feet wet.

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Most of them [poisonings] are preschoolers and occur before lunch and supper when children are hungry or thirsty. Most poisoning occur when products are being used, not while they are stored. Children do not have fully-developed taste buds like adults, so just because something doesn’t taste good, doesn’t keep children away. For child poison safety, if there is a toddler in the house, keep in mind that they have the ability to climb. kids-safety-club.com

Author: Carolyn Beale
The relatively serene days of your contented baby in the swing or playpen seem to end far too quickly, now that your little one is becoming more mobile. It’s time to ensure you’re providing a safe environment for active playing, growing and earning.

You’ve put up a baby gate to prevent falls, carefully covered your electrical outlets, padded the sharp corners on your coffee table, and buckled your tiny passenger into an approved infant carrier. You try to keep your home as bacteria and germ-free as possible, disinfecting thoroughly and then locking up household cleaners away from inquisitive hands and mouths.

Yet there are still an estimated 2.1 million accidental child poisonings each year, with dishwashing liquid the leading cause. Sadly, the damage caused by these products is often gruesome: burned mouth, scarred esophagus, repeated operations to rebuild the throat, sometimes even death. And no matter how diligent you are about keeping your cleaning products out of harm’s way, you may still be slowly and unwittingly poisoning your child, day after day. How?

If you use products with harsh and harmful chemicals that contain known carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) the toxic residues left behind on your floors, furniture and in the air find their way into your child’s body through her skin, mouth, and nose. And even your personal care products (soap, shampoo, conditioner, styling aids, deodorants, etc.) can contain dangerous chemicals as well.

Some of the signs to look for when poisonous chemicals are ingested are:

• dizziness
• strange behavior
• double or no vision
• rashes
• burns
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• rapid heart rate
• low blood pressure
• smell of chemicals in their mouth

First, call 911 and a Poison Control Center immediately. Do not wait and try to make your own assumptions. If not sure, call anyway. Better to be safe than sorry. Essortment.com

Your little one is like a sponge: developing cells in a child’s body are more susceptible than in adults, especially in his central nervous system. Even small doses of neurotoxins that could be harmless to an adult can alter his nervous system development. And until your child turns 13, his growing body has virtually no ability to fight biological and neurological damage from toxic chemicals. As much as we tend to think of skin as a protective barrier, in fact it’s highly permeable, as evidenced by the successful use of skin patches to deliver prescription medication.

Poisoning in children can be very difficult to detect, since most poisons when ingested can cause drowsiness and unconsciousness. Therefore, asking your child what they drank would only prove fruitless.

Your baby or toddler is most often down at floor level, crawling and exploring, and frequently sticking her hands into her mouth. And in fact, only 10% of health problems from chemicals are a result of ingestion, 90% are caused by inhalation and absorption.

Are you confused? How can your brand name household cleaning products and personal care products contain harmful toxins if they’re sold at grocery stores nationwide? The truth is that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does NOT regulate personal use products. The workplace and the outdoors are considered legal environments, while your home is not.

Did you know that indoor air quality is 3 to 70 times more polluted than the outdoor air in the worst polluted U.S. cities, according to an EPA study? And that women who work from the home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than those who work outside the home, according to a 17-year EPA study?

Labeling laws simply don’t protect the consumer. The U.S. Federal Code of Regulations exempts manufacturers from full labeling of products if used for personal, family or ho

Author: Velvet Woodly
If you are a parent or would like to be one, going green should be a major priority for your family. You may ask why. Dozens of cleaning and personal care products purchased at local grocery stores contain harmful chemical ingredients. Unprecedented exposure to chemicals contaminants, pollution, toxic products and stress increase unhealthy conditions, from arthritis and cancer to heart disease and even symptoms of aging.

What parents don’t realize is that storing some of the leading household cleaners in the home is no better than storing gasoline . Each year, over 1 million children are accidentally poisoned. Thousands of children and adults are permanently disfigured or injured through contact with chemicals in the home. The most common substance to poison children is a household cleaner.

Did you know…
That natural cleaning products work just as well as their caustic, chemical counterparts? Skip the name brands in the cleaning aisle (especially while pregnant, nursing or with toddlers around) and go straight for the food section of your grocery store. White vinegar and water will clean and disinfect just about anything and you can add table salt and baking soda to scrub out the tough ones.

Some leading, name brand cleaners are highly flammable, dangerous to inhale, can cause irritation and/or damage to skin, eyes and lungs. Some very popular name brand baby and women’s body wash contain the carcinogen, 1.4-Dioxane, which is suspected of causing cancer or birth defects. Actually ¼ of all personal care products sold in the U.S may contain this chemical. With over 150,000 babies born with defects each year or reasons unknown, it should make you wonder if toxins are the blame for a percentage. Another 500,000 babies are miscarried early in pregnancy or stillborn. Infertility is increasing and widespread with over 2 million couples unable to conceive. Environmental factors in childhood cancers are being researched and the cause of childhood cancer is difficult to prove. By now you should be saying hmmmm.

You may feel this is overwhelming and not even know where to start. The best time to start is when you are pregnant or trying to conceive. High levels of toxins can be found in the blood stream of newborn babies due to the mother’s level of exposure during pregnancy. Since exposure begins in the womb with toxins being transferred from mom to baby by umbilical cord blood, this is a vital stage to reduce exposure. With no one knowing the true effects on a developing brain and other vital organs, use natural cleaning & personal care products both during and after pregnancy. Choosing organic foods whenever possible will also greatly decrease your exposure level to toxins.

Now you may say my children are already here. What do I do now? Is it too late? It is never too late. Start where you are. Eating organic foods decreases toxins. Certain fruits and vegetables are more toxic than others and going organic in this group reduces your level of exposure to pesticides by 90%. These include potatoes, strawberries, peaches, apples, spinach, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, cherries, pears, imported grapes and lettuce. Searching for organic foods is not always the most convenient or affordable. If you focused on this batch, it would truly make an impact on your child’s toxin in take.

You can also make a healthier decision when it comes to your child’s mattress. Some crib mattresses are constructed of polyurethane foam enclosed in vinyl covers. The plastic products are made by combining highly toxic chemicals together. Every night your child breathes in these toxins. A healthier alternative would be to purchase a mattress made from 100% natural and raw fibers. You can find natural mattresses for all stages of your child’s life from birth to teens.

Standard crib mattresses are also soaked in flame retardants (by law). Some parents may rest easier knowing that the crib mattress is less likely to ignite but there are non-toxic alternatives available such as wool, which is a natural flame retardant. Toxic crib mattresses may be a key player in SIDS as well. If your child has a reduced immune system from recent vaccines or smoking in the house and then sleeps face down in a cloud of toxins, it is a recipe for disaster. Learn more at Cribs, SIDS and Cosleeping.

These are all baby steps to a more natural life style for you and your kids. Do take steps to a healthier home because your health is wealth.

Buy the Book: Eco Babies Wear Green

About the author:
Velvet Haygood Woodly is an Atlanta entrepreneur and owner of an online super store http://www.naturallyvelvet.com . Health and wellness has always been a passion of hers and she does consultation work regularly.

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Cosleeping, or using a family bed has a number of advantages for both the parents and their babies. Many parents begin cosleeping to facilitate nighttime breastfeeding or they started bringing their crying newborn to bed with them in the middle of the night just to get some shut eye. Once cosleeping begins parents begin to discover the benefits. The children clearly feel safer and sleep much better when sleeping next to mom and dad. Parents get more sleep because there are no walking trips to the nursery in the middle of the night. Breastfeeding in a family bed merely involves rolling over and letting the baby latch on. It is also an additional eight hours to snuggle, caress and bond with your baby.

Many parents avoid the family bed for safety reasons, however. Perhaps you have heard the horror stories of infant suffocation, rollovers or nasty falls from a parent’s bed. You may have even heard that cosleeping is a risk factor for SIDS and decided to skip the family bed for safety reasons. Much of what you hear about cosleeping is myths, lies and fairy tales because the family bed is just not the cultural norm in western society. Families around the globe have safely used a family bed since the beginning of time. Cosleeping is the safest, healthiest way to sleep with your child for a number of reasons.

SIDS is a term that refers to a baby who dies in their sleep with no known cause. SIDS is extremely rare in cosleeping families. Babies who sleep in the same room as their non-smoking parents have 1/5 the rate of SIDS as babies sleeping in separate bedrooms. Exclusive breastfeeding reduces the risk of SIDS further. It is interesting to note that another term for SIDS is “crib death” or “cot death”.

Unexplained death in a parents bed is exceptionally rare.
The real safety issues for a family bed is overlying, suffocation, entrapment and falls. While the number of infant deaths for these factors is very small, you still do not want to be the one that it happens to. Here are some basic safety steps you can take to make your family bed as safe as it can be.

Avoid Chemical Influences:
Never sleep with your baby when you have been drinking or using drugs. One glass of wine is probably fine but anything that can impair your reaction time or put you into too deep of a sleep should be avoided. The vast majority of rollover accidents involve alcohol or drug use.

It is very simple. If you get drunk, don’t sleep with your baby. If you do drugs, don’t sleep with your baby. If you smoke, don’t sleep with your baby because you will exhale toxic fumes that increase your baby’s risk of SIDS. You should also avoid sleeping with your baby if you are excessively overtired or using prescription medication that causes drowsiness.

A good rule of thumb is that if you should not be driving, you should not be sleeping with your baby. Place your baby in a bassinet, playpen or even bring in the car seat for one night but do not sleep with your baby if you are impaired in any way.

Think of it this way. A drunk person is more likely to fall out of bed while sleeping than a sober person is. A sober person knows where the edge of their bed is and simply never falls out. A sober parent is also aware of their baby’s presence, location and basic needs even while asleep. It is important to note that other caregivers such as grandparents and babysitters will not have this same sleeping connection with the baby, therefore only the baby’s parents should engage in cosleeping with a newborn.

Avoid Soft Bedding
The same bedding rules that apply to cribs also apply to the family bed. Use a firm, clean mattress with a tight fitting sheet. You never want to have pillows anywhere near your baby’s face. You can use your own judgment on whether or not to continue using adult pillows for yourself based on whether or not your child “creeps” a lot during sleep. Breastfeeding babies will also sleep closer to mom’s breast than the head of the bed anyway.

You should also avoid soft, fluffy comforters, waterbeds, beanbags and stuffed animals. You do not want anything soft on or near your bed that your baby can bury their face in, fall into or not be able to extricate themselves from. This rule of thumb is only imperative for infants. As your baby gets older the comforters and stuffed animals become less dangerous because your baby can roll over, sit up, talk and push things out of his or her face.

It is also important to remove suffocation and drowning hazards from around the bed. If your baby falls or crawls out of bed, there should be no fluffy bedding, pillows, water or other objects that your baby can fall face down into and not get out of.

Make Falling Impossible
There are a few ways that you can prevent your baby from falling out of bed. The easiest but probably least aesthetic way is to simply place your mattress on the floor. This also solves the problem of entrapment and even if your little one does get to the edge, there is only a six inch drop to the floor. Some families fill the entire room with wall to wall mattresses if they have a large family.

Babies will usually sleep between both parents which pretty much prevents a fall out, but that does not protect the baby during naps or if sleeping with a single parent. Single parents can use a bed rail on the opposite site of the baby. If your baby will be napping alone, then use a bassinet, multiple bedrails or place your mattress on the floor until your baby is old enough where falling is not an issue.

You can also place towels or a yoga mat on the floor next to the mattress if you have a baby who moves a lot during sleep and your mattress is on a solid surface floor rather than carpeting. Just make sure that the backup is not a suffocation hazard.

Another way you can prevent falls is by using bed rails. There are many brands on the market which prevent rolloffs, entrapment and suffocation simultaneously. Many parents put the baby between themselves and the bed rail or they use two bed rails for naps. You can use bed rails until your baby is more mobile and then put the mattress on the floor. You could use your adult bed only if you are in bed with your baby and simply let your baby nap on a blanket on the floor, a sling or in a bassinet.

Another option is to shove your bed into a corner so the head and one side of the bed are against two walls. This raises the issue of entrapment however. You have to be exceptionally careful with a newborn because they are unable to extricate themselves if their arms, legs or face get stuck in between the mattress and the wall or even in part of the headboard or footboard.

Thoroughly examine around every side of your bed for a space as small as an inch. See if a finger or two slides in easily, then you may have a problem. If you do discover a space that your baby can get stuck in, simply roll up a blanket or towel into a very tight roll and stuff it into the space between the wall and the side of the bed.

Create a Healthy Sleep Environment
Creating a healthy sleep environment applies whether you use a crib or cosleep. Try to create an organic sleep environment for your family. Use an organic mattress if you can afford it. Organic mattresses contain wool which is a natural flame retardant. If you buy a conventional mattress, it may be soaked in chemical flame retardants which have many health risks and many believe that these chemicals are the real cause of SIDS.

It is also important to avoid the use of chemical laundry detergents and fabric softeners. These products are loaded with chemicals and implicated in all sorts of health problems and they have no place near a sensitive baby. Try washing your bedding in hot water only and drying them outside on a line. If you must use detergent, then choose a more natural laundry option such as soap berries or organic laundry products.

Lastly, create a peaceful, healthy environment in your sleeping area by removing all electronic clocks, TVs and phones, blocking all light, using a waterfall or sound machine and keeping the air clean with air filters.

While this may seem like a lot to think about, it is worth taking the time to cosleep properly because bringing your baby to bed with you is the most natural, healthiest and easiest way for everyone in the family to get a great nights sleep.

Visit the Cosleeping Department of A Much Better Store to find everything you need to create a safe, healthy family bed.

Buy the Tres Tria Cosleeping Solution
Buy the Humanity Family Bed Cosleeper

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Guidelines suggest that newborn babies need to be placed on their back for the safest sleeping. As the infant grows and begins to roll over on his own, the organic crib sheets become the most beneficial to the developing child. The organs of the infant are still growing and maturing and can be easily influenced. Offering a fresh, all natural alternative can be the best thing to encourage healthy development.

Natural products have been rising in popularity over the last few years. With the emphasis on global warming, especially after some of the sensationalized movies that have been produced lately, organic is the popular choice. It is also a healthier choice when it comes to many products. Organic crib mattresses, organic sheets, and other similar products breath easier, are better on the skin, and do not contain any harsh chemicals.

Organic Crib mattresses are not the easiest item to locate. Many of the discount and chain stores haven’t discovered the benefits of carrying the natural products. There focus is still on high prices to you, but low cost to them. The internet is becoming the best tool that new or expectant parents can find. Many of the online stores offer registers like the large retail stores offer.

Even veteran parents or grandparents want the best for their children. With a little investment of time and money, the best organic crib mattress can be found. Companies that specialize in products for the smallest of companies are gaining popularity through the World Wide Web.

by Kathryn Lang
About the Author:Kathryn Lang is a freelance writer covering environmental issues and especially the recycling industry. She has written various articles on organic crib mattress and regularly contributes to the organic help site Fair Home.

Please read our other article on the relationship between crib mattresses and SIDS.

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