Here - Health Promotion Agency

Illness and accidents
Avoiding mosquito bites
Do all you can to prevent
your child from getting bitten
by mosquitoes.
● During the day and night,
use clothes that cover the
arms and legs.
● Use insect repellent on the
skin and a mosquito net
soaked in insecticide.
Use an insect repellent
suitable for children. Ask
your pharmacist for advice.
The Child Accident
Prevention Trust (CAPT)
provides useful information
on a range of safety topics,
as well as some fun activity
and quiz sheets. Look up its
website at www.capt.org.uk
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S AFETY
● Accidents are the most common
cause of death among children
aged between one and five years.
●
Every year about 600,000 children
under five go to hospital because
of an accident in the home.
Children need to explore and to
learn about the things around them.
The safer you make your home, the
less likely it is that their exploration
will land them in hospital. Outside
your home it’s not so easy to make
sure that the world is a safe place,
but by getting together with other
parents you can make a difference.
You can put pressure on your
local council as follows:
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to make road crossings safer;
to mend stairs and walkways and
improve lighting;
to clear rubbish tips and board up
old buildings.
PROTECT AND TEACH
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Under-threes can’t be expected
to understand or remember safety
advice. They need to have an
adult nearby at all times.
Three-year-olds can start
learning how to do things safely,
but expect your child to forget if
she or he is excited or distracted.
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Eight-year-olds can usually
remember and act on safety
instructions, though they are not
yet safe enough to cross a busy road
alone. They need adults around at
all times to call on for help.
Under eleven-year-old children
are unable to judge speed and
distance, so they should never cross
busy roads alone. From the age of
eight or nine children could cross
quiet roads alone but they must
wait until there are no cars at all.
They should know and understand
the Green Cross Code.
SAFETY CHECKLIST
Use this list to check whether you’re
doing everything you can to prevent
accidents. It’s impossible to list all
dangers, but thinking about some of
these should start you thinking about
others. Tick off the things you’ve done.
Danger – choking and suffocation
❑ Do you store small objects away
from babies and small children who
might put them in their mouths?
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Have you got rid of ribbons
and strings that might, either in
play or by accident, get wound
around a child’s neck?
Do you keep peanuts away
from children in your house?
They often cause choking.
Do you store polythene bags out
of children’s reach?
Danger – fires, burns and scalds
❑ Have you fitted a smoke detector?
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Have you checked your smoke
detector battery this week?
Could you get out of your
house in a fire?
Have you shortened your kettle
flex or bought a coiled flex?
Dangling flexes from irons
and kettles can be pulled.