Share your top safety tips for your family – carbon monoxide alarms and £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Whether you’re preparing for a new arrival or you’re just trying to keep up with your family’s needs, it may seem as though you’re constantly making lists of the things you’ll need to buy to keep your family safe – from the latest car or booster seats to bath thermometers or drawer locks. Co-Be Alarmed! would like to hear about the top safety tips you have for your home and family - whether they’re things you’ve bought or things that you do.

Here’s what they have to say: “Research from the national CO-Be Alarmed! campaign showed that while UK parents spend an average of £222 on safety features for their kids, a third of mums and dads do not have a carbon monoxide alarm in their home. Those with children under twelve months were found to be the least likely to have one.

Carbon monoxide is also known as ‘the silent killer’ because you can’t see, taste or smell it, which is why the only way to protect yourself and your family is to buy a CO alarm. Make sure you add one to your list: it’s one less thing to worry about and it could save your family’s life.”

So, share your top safety tips for your home and family to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice.

Additionally, if you also add your details here, you’ll be entered into a prize draw for one of 100 carbon monoxide alarms from Co-Be Alarmed!

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Keep a fire blanket in the kitchen

I used cupboard locks and safety gates when my children were small. Now, it's all about nagging them to wear their helmets when they're riding their bikes and ensuring that they use the green cross code when crossing the road.

Keep knives off the draining board after they've been washing and put them on top of the window sill out of reach

Put locks on cupboards with anything dangerous in. Or move them higher! The packs of safety catches you can buy don't work once they're a toddler and can figure them out!

Get down on your child's level,
I got down on my hands and knees and made my way around the house when I was child proofing it to find dangers.
It's difficult when you're child proofing for the first time and there are dangers that don't even occur to you until you get down and look.

Things like floor level switches which are really sharp if fallen into are something I found doing this. A bit of white duck tape matches the socket so you can't notice it and softens sharp edges.

Tipping out the toy box once every few weeks is another tip I'm always amazed at what manages to make its way into there.

When staying in a hotel with children (I have a dd with ASD who is prone to wondering) most hotels room doors now automatically lock and open just by the handle inside so can't be secured really well. To keep the room secure I bought a cheap personal attack alarm from eBay and taped (with duck tape I love the stuff ) the alarm to the door and then taped the release cord to the door frame so that if dd ever tried to open the door, pulling the door would force the cord out of the attack alarm and set it off. This now means that I can actually sleep on holidays now as dd can't get out without setting the alarm off. (Obviously needs to be taped higher than children can reach)

Use the back burners when cooking. Have child locks on cupboards containing chemicals, knives and medicines. Do a first aid course so you know how to deal with a choking child etc.

Always keep tablets a medicines in locked cupboards.

Make sure any locks on doors eg bathroom can be opened from both sides!

Make sure cleaning products are up high, not just in low cupboards with baby catches, as both of my DCs could work out how to open those by 2.

I was always taught to close doors downstairs when you go up to bed as if a fire starts at night, it will be slower to spread.

For child safety we;
Have foam parts on all the doors to stop finger trapping,
Plugs have something plugged in or safety plug to stop DS playing,
All cleaning products are out of reach,
Safety gate on his door.
Pan handles to the side so can't be pulled down when cooking.

We test the smoke alarms & carbon monoxide alarms once a month.
Also have discussed what to do if there is a fire with OH.

Passports/tablets/laptop/car key are all upstairs with us, safely hidden away so if we are burgled, I did read they don't go to the room you're sleeping in usually. Plus it's not obvious that we have a car.

Buy a sealed battery carbon monoxide smoke detector so batteries can't go missing......

put checking them and smoke alarms in your diary's to check monthly

I have a carbon monoxide alarm above our boiler. We have a fire alarm in the kitchen too. There is a fire alarm in both my daughters' rooms as well as stair gates on their rooms and one at bottom of stairs.

my top tip has to be to make sure you check smoke alarms every month and also to not leave keys in doors as kids are quick learners and can get out onto main road without you noticing.

Sit down and work out an escape route/plan in case of a fire or other emergency.

We have a carbon monoxide alarm and smoke alarms - wouldn't be without them (even if the smoke alarms go off when I burn cook bacon).

During the last summer holidays I wrote our address out clearly and stuck if by our landline - I told eldest DS (5 nearly 6 then) that if anything ever happened to me e.g. I fell down and couldn't get up, how to call 999 and read out our address. Haven't needed it yet thankfully!

I don't think there are many products on the market that are a replacement for keeping an actual eye on your child.

Don't allow small DC in the garden, kitchen or bathroom unsupervised.
Don't leave small DC alone with pets (however well behaved)
Knives, nasty chemicals and anything else dangerous out of reach or locked away.
Don't allow DC to bed with necklaces
Insist on cycling helmets
Make sure they have appropriate equipment or clothing for their activities.

And finally - make them wash their hands after anything grubby and always before they eat.

Make sure you have a fully stocked first aid kit in the house

do fire drills, but also tell children never to hide in wardrobes or cupboards or underneath beds, just to get out of house. learn the emergency phone number.

We have rules around where the children can play eg no throwing things near the hobs.

Check the (electric) hob sockets are off before we leave the house.

We use safety clips or pram toy hooks round cupboard handles to keep little hand away from dangerous liquids or objects.
Use stair gates and teach stairs also.
Teach about hot and burny so kids know not to touch.
Allow some risky play so they can develop new skills and learn their own limitations.

Fire extinguisher kept upstairs in airing cupboard.

I wouldn't use it to fight fire, just tncase I needed to get ds out if room

Childproof locks on any low cupboards cupboards, especially any containing any chemicals. Put away/out of reach anything you don't want the DC to get their hands on. Stair gates! Check smoke alarm batteries regularly. Have clear rules about behaviour from early on e.g my DC know they are not allowed to muck about in the kitchen when I'm cooking.

When cooking food put pans on the back hobs.

Best safety tip I have had was from fire brigade (totally contradicts everything I have ever done) is to leave keys in the doors at night so that you don't block off your escape route in event of a fire. As he put it, would you be in the right frame of mind to find keys. We also installed carbon monoxide detectors too after their visit.

As long as I've lived away from my parents it's always been the last thing I've done at night- removed keys from doors so we don't get burgled.

When you go away, always check you know where the fire escape or emergency exit is.

My boss was telling me when he went on work trips he made sure he knew where the nearest fire-escape was, and could find his way in the dark - I thought this was a bit over the top however 2 weeks after a trip the hotel he was in burnt down with loss of life. Now, I always check-out escape routes when I go away.