Edition No.3 - Heart & Home Newsletter - Providing professional child-proofing products & services, customized for your home

Heart & Home continues to answer frequently asked safety questions. Many of you have expressed concerns about window safety, particularly at the start of spring. In this edition learn how to prevent a fall. We're also focused addressing problem spots parents often overlook. Read on to learn which common products are dangerous and how you can make your bathroom safer.

Heart & Home is dedicated to helping parents who want to keep their child safe and create a danger-free home.

Window Safety: Preventing a Fall this Spring

Ah, spring! We're abandoning the playroom in favor of the playground at last! Many of us are joyfully throwing open our windows to welcome the fresh air that clears our minds and (hopefully) helps the kids sleep more soundly at night. Now is the perfect time to think about window safety.

Ok, you'd rather be thinking about sipping mai tais on a sandy beach, but bear with me. Window safety is all too often overlooked by parents because a fall from a window doesn't seem possible. Unfortunately, a fall from a window is a very real, very plausible danger for children from toddlers 10 year olds. The results can be unthinkable. You may recall the tragedy last September when a 9 month old Roxbury boy died when he fell from a window. No parent should ever have to lose their precious child to a preventable accident. Heart & Home has the solution!

You may be thinking "My windows have screens, they're ok." Screens cannot prevent a fall. They're meant to keep bugs out, not kids in. Think about how little force it would take to push out a screen. They're designed to be pushed out easily in the event of a fire. Perhaps you're thinking, "My windows open from the top." Unfortunately that's also a hazard. Opening windows from the top is certainly a better alternative than opening from the bottom, however most children are strong enough to simply push the window up from the bottom themselves.

So what's a fresh air lover to do? We recommend two different solutions, depending on the frequency with which you open second floor windows. If you only open them occasionally, or just open them slightly, then a Window Stopper will do. It allows you to open your window 4" – enough for some fresh air but not enough to allow a fall. We recommend a clear plastic adhesive stopper called the BurglaBar or a hardware mounted Wedge-type Window Lock. Both varieties can be overridden if you insist on opening your window more than 4". (Please be advised this is not our recommendation.) Window Stoppers are an inexpensive solution for parents who don't open their windows much. They generally cost between $5-$7 per window.

Our preferred alternative is to install window guards. I know, I'm losing you here. You're conjuring up images of your child living out his days in a prison cell. No worries, window guards are not bad at all. In fact, they're a wonderful product because they allow you to safely open your windows as wide as you please! We use Guardian Angel Window Guards exclusively because parents can remove them easily in the event of a fire and they're attractive and clean looking. Window Guards are around $65 each depending on the width of your windows.

We usually recommend a combination of products. Perhaps go with Window Guards in the bedrooms and Window Stoppers in the bathroom. As children get older they may figure out how to override the Window Stoppers. At that point Guardian Angel Window Guards are the way to go. They generally can't be unlocked by a child under the age of 5. We also advise keeping climbable items such as toy boxes and chairs away from windows.

Don't think it can happen to you? According to Safe Kids Worldwide falls are a leading cause of unintentional injury for children. More than 80 percent of fall-related injuries among children ages 4 and under occur in the home. Jessica of Sharon, MA recently shared with me a close call involving her 4 year old daughter who'd been sent to her room for some quiet time, "I must have had the window open and when I checked on her, she had pushed her head into the screen hard enough to release it and her head was completely out of the window," shares Jessica. Thankfully she has now taken precautions with all her windows even those on the first floor. This is just one of the many stories clients have shared involving close calls. But if you have implemented these solutions: let the fresh air in!   

Why You Shouldn't Keep Medicine in Your Medicine Cabinet

When parents begin childproofing they often start by locking the cabinets under the kitchen sink. Since those cabinets usually contain dishwashing detergent and other cleaning supplies it's a great place to start. But often forgotten are the dangerous products in the bathroom, many of which parents don't even realize are dangerous.

When assessing a client's home during a Safety Survey we often tell parents, "Don't let your child have access to anything you wouldn't put in your mouth." That means seemingly innocuous items like soap, shampoo, deodorant, cosmetics, perfumes and colognes should be kept out of your child's reach. And some items you do put in your mouth but don't ingest, such as toothpaste and mouthwash, should also be out of reach. These items contain countless chemicals that if ingested into the small body of a child can be harmful.

"The leading causes of poisoning in children are cosmetics such as perfume and nail polish, and personal care products such as deodorant and soap," according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. The Massachusetts/Rhode Island center reports that cosmetics and personal care products account for the greatest number of calls to their center. We recommend locking bathroom cabinets and drawers as well as using a showerhead caddy to store personal care items (and razors) out of reach.

Prescription and over-the-counter medicines tend to be a more obvious danger than deodorant and soap and the like, but many parents unknowingly store medicine in places that are too easy for children to access, such as the medicine cabinet. Medicine cabinets tend to be an easy challenge for children to overcome. Step1: climb on toilet, step 2: lean on sink, step 3: jackpot! Yummy liquids and interesting pills in cool containers. Of course, some children take the short-cut and just use their step stools. And don't rely on "childproof" caps. You may struggle to get them off but somehow your child won't! Also, treat vitamins with the same precautions you would medicine. Rather than storing medicines and vitamins in the medicine cabinet we suggest a high shelf of a locked closet, such as the bathroom closet or hall closet. To lock the closet door we recommend an item aptly called the Top of Door Lock. (This is a phenomenal product for inconspicuously locking any door in your house. Contact us for more info.). And a reminder – check your nightstands and the drawer of your child's changing table for any medications, Childrens' Tylenol , etc. you may have forgotten.