E = ALTER the Environment You and Your Child Spend Time
Make Changes in Your Home that Can Prevent a Fall
An important strategy used by parents for keeping children safe is to adapt or change the home environment to prevent injuries. The most important and common change is the addition of a stair gate or hall gate to keep your child away from dangers in the home. The other important strategy is to organize your home to maximize visibility of your child where they most often play or spend time. The important point is to consider ways of adjusting your home to help you to monitor and keep your child safe.
Examples:
- Use baby gates with stairs, even when your child knows how to use the stairs safely. Children can still forget safety rules and get hurt when not closely monitored.
- Rearrange your furniture to give you a better view of your child’s activities.
- Rearrange your furniture so that IF a fall off the furniture happens, your child is less likely to hit something on the way down.
- Permanently attach tall furniture to the wall so that IF it is played on it won’t fall on top of your child.