Who to contact:

You should contact your GP if your child or baby examples include but not limited to showing signs of serious illness, refusal to eat or drink, unsual lethargy, breathing diffculties, a rash that does not fad with pressure or a stiff neck. 

If you need medical help urgently but it is not life threating call or if you are unable to contact your GP call 111.

If your child or baby is in a life threating sitaution such as; seixures, choking, diffculty breathing, heavy bleeding, unconscious, has a spotty rash that is not fading with pressure or at immediate risk call 999.

On this page you will find advice on how to keep your home safe for children and babies:

• Who to contact
• Bath time 
• Summer safety
• Toy safety
• Dangers of water beads
• Dangers of batteries
• Dangers of magnets
• Child car seat safety
• Food weaning
• Child locks on cupboards
• Plug socket safety
• Signs a baby is unwell
• Damp and mould in homes
• Scalds and burns

Bath time

How to keep baby safe during bath time before the bath:

• Get everything ready you need before bath time
• Limit distractions

How to keep baby safe while running the bath:

• Put cold water in first and top up with hot
• Test the temperature with your elbow - it should feel the same as your body temperature (or thermometer)
• Put your baby in when it feels neither hot nor cold
• Make sure to mix the water so there are no hot patches
• Avoid leaving a running bath unattended.

How to keep baby safe during the bath:

• Always stay with your baby or young child while they are in the bath and make sure to stay within arm’s reach
• Do not leave your baby alone
• Do not rely on young children to watch the baby as they are too young to recognise danger and may not react quickly enough.
• If you need to leave the room, take your baby or young child with you.

How to keep baby safe after the bath:

• Empty the bath as soon as possible after use
• Remove all toys as they can block the plug
• Do not leave child in the bath if there is any water left in

How do I bath my baby? (NHS)

More information on bath time safety:

• Advice on how to bathe your baby
• Baby bath seat safety poster
• Safe baby bath time poster
• Watch out in water fact sheet
• Watch out in water fact sheet Welsh

Summer safety

The Child accident preventation trust has created a page on their website on summer safety tips. 

Scan QR Code to be redirected to summer safety tips:

Toy Safety

Top tips for buying safe toys

• Only buy toys from brand names you know
• Be careful when buying toys for under 3s as they are highest risk
• Keep an eye out for cheap copies of toys as they may not be made to UK safety standards
• Check if the toy has been removed from sale, you can do this by visiting the list of recalled products on GOV.UK.
• If you buy something that appears to be unsafe, send it back.

How to check if a toy is safe:

• Check battery compartments for accessible button batteries or loose spares in the box
• Check for any loose small magnets
• Give parts of the toy a quick tug and check if parts come off
• Look for long cords or access to stuffing
• Check if there are any age restrictions or safety warnings

Which toys are most dangerous:

• Toys with accessible button batteries
• Super strong magnets
• Water beads
• Toys with long cords
• Toys with small parts
• Cheap electrical toys

How to report dangerous toys:

• Citizens Advice consumer helpline: 0808 223 1133
• Citizens Advice consumer helpline (Welsh-speaking adviser): 0808 223 1144
• Advice Direct Scotland helpline: 0808 164 6000
• Northern Ireland Consumerline: 0300 123 6262

More information on Toy safety by the Child accident prevention trust:

• Toy safety fact sheet
• Toy safety signs to look out for to ensure a child's toy is safe
• What makes toys safe? Flyer

Dangers of water beads:

If your child has ingested water beads they must be taken to A&E immediately. 

There has been a product safety alert for the product mostly known as Water beads as of September 2024. Water beads are a product that can absorb and retain large amounts of liquid and when exposed to liquid they can expand up to 400 times their original size.

Safety concerns:

• If swallowed they can expand and cause a blockage
• They can cause chocking if inhaled
• They are also not visible on x-rays

Advice for water beads:

• Kept away from children under 5 years old
• For older children make sure they are being supervised when they are being used and limit the number of water beads being used
• Be aware of signs of ingestion of water beads such as vomiting or stomach pain
• Be aware of signs of choking such as struggling to breathe, struggling to speak, crying, coughing, pointing to their throat, grasping their neck, face turns pale or goes blue

Water beads poster

Dangers of batteries:

If your child has ingested batteries they must be taken to A&E immediately. 

Batteries can badly hurt a child due to them getting stuck in a child’s food pipe which can cause internal bleeding or even death. 

What to do if you suspect your child has swallowed a button battery:

• Take them to A&E immediatelyand tell the doctor
• If you have the battery packaging or the product that is powered by the battery, take it with you
• Do not let your child eat or drink
• Act fast

Rescources on batteries:

• Button batteries
• Button battery fact sheet

Dangers of magnets

If you suspect your child has ingested magnets they must be taken to A&E immediately. 

Magnet safety tips:

• Keep magents out of reach
• Educate older children and parents on the dangers of magents
• Inspect toys regularly 
• Beware of what household items may contain magnets

Rescources on magnets:

• Dangers of magnets flyer
• Magnet audit checklist
• Safe fashion - the dangers of magnets when used in place of fake piercings or jewellery

Child car seat safety

Is the child seat I am buying safe and legal?

Fitting child seats into a vehcle:

 

Food weaning

Weaning is the process of introducing your baby to solid foods, this will start when your baby is aroud 6 months old.

How to introduce solid foods:

 

Signs your baby may be ready for weaning:

• Stays in sitting position, holding their head steady
• coordinate their eyes, hands and mouth so they can look at their food, pick it up and put it in their mouth
• swallow food (rather than spit it back out)

How much food does my baby need?

 

Child locks on cupboards:

Parents/careers should use child locks to help keep their baby safe at home. This is because it prevents the aby or young child being able to access harmful objects for substances. However, it is also important that the locks are regularly checked to ensure they are secure and safe.

Plug socket safety

In june 2016 the Department of Health published an alert on the use of plastic 13A electrial sock inserts as they can overcome the safety features already designed into socket outlets. They also reccomned any sockets already in use should be removed. Plug socket covers can present a high risk of electric shock.

A baby's or young child's fingers are not small enough to go into the socket holes as the plug sockets are designed for babies and young children to not be able to reach/touch the live part of the plug socket. There are alo insulated shutters on the inside of the socket and these close as soon as a plug is pulled out. 

There have also been no plug sockets approved for use within the UK.

• https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/News/EFA_2016_002_Final.pdf
• https://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/

Signs that baby is unwell:

If your baby or child is ill take them to A&E or call 999.

The first sign to be aware of when a baby is unwell is their temperature. A normal temperature in children is around 36.4 C, typically a fever is usaully 38C or above. While hypothermia is a dropin temperture below 35C. 

How to take baby's temperture:

• Use a digital thermometer - this helps with giving fast and accurate results
• Hold them comfortably on your knee and put the thermometer in their armpit (always plae it in the armpit if they are under 5 years old)
• Gently hold the baby's arm against their boody to help keep the thermometer in place
• Keep the thermoter there - this will depend on the manufacturers instructions

Signs to look out for involving your baby or child's temperture include:

• High temperature but cold hands and feet
• High temperature that does not come down with either paracetamol or ibuprofen
• Very high temperature
• Low temperature
• Child is quiet and listless
• High temperature in a baby less than 8 weeks

The second sign is their breathing:

• Rapid breathing
• Panting
• Throaty noise when breathing
• Child is finding it hard to get their breath and sucking their stomach under their ribs

Other signs:

• Blue, pale, blotchy or grey skin
• Child is hard to wake up
• Child appears disorientated or confused
• Crying constantly or their cry does not sound like their normal cry
• Green vomit
• Child has a convulsion or seizure for the first time
• Child under eight weeks and does not want to feed
• Nappies are drier than usual

Scalds and burns

If your child has a burn or scald make sure you:

• Cool the burn or scald under cold running water for ateast 20 minutes and remove all clothing and nappies. You should also remove jeweller however if it has melted over the wound, make sure to leave it on. 
• Make sure to then cover the burn or scald and make sure it is clean and non-fluffy or you can use a loosely applied cling film or a clean pastic bag. Make sure to not put this over the baby's or young child's face. 
• Make sure to call 999

How to avoid burn and scalds:

• Do not hold your baby and a hot drink at the same time
• Do not leave hot drinks withn a easy reach. Make sure your baby is not able to reach or grab the drink as they may spill the contents over them
• Make sure when you are cooking all pan handles are facing inwards
• Try to only use the back hobs when cooking
• Make sure products such as straightners or curling tongs are turned off when not being used and not in your baby/child's reach
• Use heat reistant protective punchs for tongs or straighters 
• Make sure when running your baby a bath to use cold water first prior to adding hot water
• Do not let your baby/young child near fires and this includes BBQ. bonfires or fireworks

For more advice for burns and scalds:

• Baby and child first aid
• Causes of burns and prevention
• Fire safety in the home

Damp and Mould in homes