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Safety: Throughout childhood
Keeping your baby safe requires vigilance throughout childhood.
Eight major dangersOur infant safety checklist can help you take the steps needed to protect your child from these eight major dangers: automobiles, burns, drowning, falls, miscellaneous and deliberate injury, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), suffocation and choking.
Helpful tipsFollowing these guidelines will help you keep your baby safe:
Use a car seat. Hundreds of children under five years of age die each year in car accidents. Thousands more suffer serious injury. Properly used car seats can prevent many of these injuries and deaths. That's why all 50 states have laws requiring their use. Learn more about car safety seats.
Avoid airbags. Although airbags can protect older children, they can injure infants. Never place an infant in an automobile seat that has an airbag.
No smoking! Tobacco smoke increases your child's risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), colds and other respiratory problems. Babies should not be around people who are smoking. No one should smoke in your house.
Install smoke alarms and more. Having smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detectors on every level of your house will protect your entire family.
Get rid of moldiness. The usual small amounts of mold found in most homes don't cause problems. However, standing water with constantly wet walls or floors encourage the excessive growth of molds, some of which can cause serious lung injury to infants. Tobacco smoke increases the damage that excessive mold can do to the lung. Repairing water leaks, removing standing water and replacing constantly wet wood or wallboard minimize the chance your child will have a problem.
Keep your cool. Parents often experience extreme frustration as they try to juggle their many responsibilities. Fatigue, sleep-deprivation and the demands of a new baby can drive a parent to the breaking point. In a moment of frustration, he or she may feel like shaking the baby to stop it from crying. Never, ever do this. Shaking babies can permanently damage their brains, or kill them. To prevent shaken baby syndrome, it might help to put the baby down and try some stress management techniques.
Check into toy safety. Many seemingly wonderful, innocent-appearing toys present unanticipated hazards to your child. Go through your baby's toys to make sure they do not appear on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's toy hazard recall list.
Prevent baby burns. Burns are the third leading cause of accidental death among infants less than one year of age. To protect your child from common burns, follow a few simple suggestions.
Infant safety checklist Return to "Volume 3: The first month" Pregnancy Condition Center: Your newborn Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota: Parenting resources
Source: Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
First published: 05/07/2001
Last updated: 05/24/2005
Reviewed by: Jennifer Rogan, MD, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
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