Safety Tips for Children

: Your child’s safety is critical. Here are 4 essential safety tips to help keep children safe and secure.

If you’re a parent, you know how precious your children are, and you probably worry about their safety all the time. As their role model and guardian, it’s your job not only to keep them safe when you’re with them but also to teach them about staying safe when they’re on their own. Here are some essential safety tips for children to learn.

1. When Alone at Home

Your child should understand not to open the door for strangers if they’re home alone. Teach them to stay quiet and hide out of sight from the door if a stranger rings the doorbell.

If your home has a landline, make sure your child knows how to use it and what number(s) to call in the event of an emergency. If your child has a cell phone, show them how to use the emergency call function, and show them how to use that function on your phone as well. All cell phones are different, and learning to use a new one can be confusing for children, so considering buying your child the same kind of cell phone you use yourself.

Teach your child to stay away from the medicine cabinet and the cabinet where the cleaning supplies are located. Better yet, keep those cabinets locked until you come home.

Explain to your children why it’s not safe to jump on the furniture or play near bookcases or armoires. Furniture that isn’t secured to the wall might topple over onto a child playing nearby, and even brand-new furniture may give way when jumped on, causing injury or worse.

2. In Case of Fire

Your family should have an emergency plan for getting outside the house and meeting back up together in case of a fire, as well as emergency plans for what to do in case of dangerous weather, like a flash flood or a tornado. Your child should be familiar with these plans so that they know what to do in an emergency.

3. When Out of Doors

Your child should know which plants and animals to be wary of when playing or walking outside your home. Teach your child to recognize poisonous plants and berries, including poison ivy, oak, and sumac. Warn them to stay away from animals like raccoons, possums, and feral cats, which can carry rabies. Also, tell your child never to approach an unfamiliar dog, even if it seems friendly.

4. When Out in Public

Every parent’s worst fear is losing their child somewhere out in public. Teach your child to stay put if they get separated from you. Doing so will improve your ability to locate them once you notice they’re gone.

Giving your child a personal security device (PSD) like the TOPPS Security Key Fob can give your child a crucial lifeline if they get lost or experience an emergency. The TOPPS Security Key Fob offers protection for the whole family; it comes with a charger so you can charge it by your bedside at night, giving you immediate access to emergency services in the event of a break-in or home invasion. It also comes with a watch band to attach it to your child’s wrist for easy access.