BIG scare - ds almost electrocuted himself - how do I explain the danger? (long)

[mollipops]

Wasn't sure which topic this belonged in, but I guess behaviour is close... Yesterday ds (3yr 9m) and dd (6yr 2m) were playing in his room, seemed to be playing nicely while I did housework. When I went in to check on them I was horrified to find that the powerpoint/socket was blackened and the plug on his lamp was also black and had a 10c piece "welded" onto one of the pins. He had put the 10c between the 2 pins and then plugged it in and turned it on! LUCKILY we have a fairly new house and have a safety switch installed (don't know if you have them - they cut of the power in 1000th of a second in instances like this). It "flicked the switch" on that fuse and all the powerpoints in part of the house stopped working til I turned it back on.

Coincidentally I had already arranged for an electrician to come today to install some lights and powerpoints...he said that the safety switch almost definitely saved ds' life. He had to replace the powerpoint as it had burned out on that side, and could start a fire if we kept using it. By the way the lamp still works!

It hit me and dh last night after we went to bed how very close we came to losing ds - and how very fragile life can be; one second he would be here and the next second gone forever. It was very upsetting, I couldn't stop crying. Trying to explain how serious it could have been to ds and dd though seems futile. Dd thinks it's a bit of a laugh, and altho ds seems a bit more serious about it (he got a bit fright too I think - big flash he said), he still today is asking to play with ext cords (naturally I said no!) I told them that plugs and cords are not toys and he must not play with them, nor put anything into them. Do you think the message has got thru? Or is he too young to understand consequences as serious as this?

P.S. The electrician said kids are always putting things in powerpoints, hairclips and keys etc. All I can say is if you haven't got a safety cut-off switch, get one - now.

THanks for starting this thread Mollipops! It has really made me think. We don't have a saftey switch in our house..but I am going to get one put in asap!

Just been reading this thread- all mine have messed around with plugs and yes, I think it's a boy thing too. My oldst, who's nearly 13 was about two and decided to hoover for me. I jokingly said ok carry on then, knowing he couldn't get the plug cover off. Next thing I know, it's gone really quiet, you all know that awful feeling, and yes, he'd done it! The clever little chap had carefully sorted through Daddy's tool box, selected a metal screwdriver and prised it off himself!. Anyway, as this is talking about safety, I see lots of Mums every day and I've warned them about something that happened to my littlest one last summer, when he was 3.5 It's something in my safety checks that I never even thought of. I'd taken my dining room curtains down to wash and left the tie-backs up as they couldn't go in the machine. Ds was playing and while I was putting the washing in I heard him cry and then stop. He has a 7 year old sister and is a bit of a girly sometimes, crying one second and laughing another, so I just yelled to see what he'd done. He didn't answer, so as I went back into the romm I was saying thing like, Oh no, now what have you done, you banana. It still makes me feel sick now...Ds was hanging with his neck in the tie back and his feet about 12 inches of the ground and as I watched, he managed to lever himself back onto the dining room windowsill and he started to gasp and cry. As I was running towards him, he slipped back off again and I really thought he'd broken his neck. It was really hard to hold him up and unhook the tie back off the little hook on the wall and when I later looked, he'd fallen so hard that he'd pulled the little gold anchor clips out of shape. He was fine after a lot of cuddles and I admit I did start off by shouting at him, but when he said he was just playing horses like he does with his sister, it made me realise how quickly I could have lost him and then the shock really set in. I could have been outside hanging the washing out, on the phone or in the loo and he could have been gone! I don't mean to sound all depressing but this something in 13 years of bringing up kids that even I hadn't thought of.

Oh this thread has really made me think too, my daughter is always getting herself into places she shouldn't, climbing etc. I would really like to put in the electricity safety switch but have never heard of it, is it a job to do on each socket or something that goes on your fuse box or something else entirely?? Also, is it something a regular electrician would do and how long should it take? Thanks to anyone who can help.

Janus, are you in the UK?

On our fuse box there's a load of trip switches (instead of the old fuse wire that you'd have to replace if it blew). That way if something goes wrong that circuit is "tripped" off (apparently there's two different types of trip switches according to dh but I got lost with the explanation - our fuse box has both types) until you flip the switch back to turn on the electric to that circuit again. Is that what you mean?

You can also get safety sockets which you can use while using power tools (like when you're mowing - it would trip if you mowed throught the cable for example) which plug into a normal socket then you put the plug for the tool into that. However, since our fuse box has the trip switch thing, there's no need for us. (LOL, and our trip switch is really sensitive... a bulb blows and it trips out!)

Chances are your fuse box is already fine, but if you're in any way worried you should get an electrician around to assess your system and recommend from there.

Obviously I can't comment on anything other than the UK system.

Janus, ours is in the fuse box, and is to protect against electrical shock. It cuts off the power in 1000th of a second (or a 30th of a heartbeat) - definitely a lifesaver. It must be installed by an electrician. The ones you can get to go in each individual socket are to protect the appliance against surges - not sure if they also protect the person using it or how fast they work.

Interesting what you say about the UK power outlets. I knew they different in Europe but didn't know they were so different - they do sound safer. Ours are 240V.

Thanx phillipat and lou33 - and I was just in a hardware shop today and didn't even think if it! Sigh.

Jollymum, what a scary story - I do know of a baby who was hanged in the cord of her blinds, beside her cot. She had leaned out, trying to see out the window, and slipped. So I have always been wary of the cords on curtains and blinds, but I hadn't thought of the ties on curtains as well. Thank you for sharing it with us and I'm glad your ds was okay.

Note when I said "our fuse box" I meant our personal one in our house, not all UK fuse boxes - just reread and realised that's ambiguous!

Thanks GeorginaA and mollipops, I will definitely look into this. I know our old house used to have the trip thing as every so often I had to go and switch a fuse back on, although didn't know why it went off! We're renting at the mo (am about to check what we have here) but as soon as we move into a new house I will make sure we have a proper system in.
Thanks again, this is really important.