Removing hazards from your home and teaching your toddler safety habits are a good start to protecting your child as much as you can. There is one more step you can take to keep your child safe and it begins with you. Changing your behavior will also help to protect your child from getting hurt.
Changing your behavior begins with the understanding you can’t make everything 100% safe for your child and everything requires your constant and careful supervision of everything they are doing at all times.
Become more alert during more stressful times. These stressful times of the day will make you preoccupied and not paying attention to either what your toddler is doing or to your own activities such as forgetting to move the knife from the counter to the sink.
Being preoccupied is linked to diverting your attention while using a knife or a pair of scissors. Always pay attention to who is around when you are using a dangerous objects. One important habit is moving the handles of hot pans to the middle of the stove so not to be pulled over by your child.
Never leave your child alone in the house, car, or a room in the house. You also don’t want to leave your sleeping child alone with a child under the age of five or pet has they might cause an accident too.
Become familiar with emergency and first aid procedures in case of an emergency situation. Also keep emergency numbers just as poison control in a covenant place so you don’t have to go looking for them when they are needed.
Don’t let the fear of your child getting hurt cause you to hover over them, but give them freedom to explore naturally and learn from their own experiences even if this means a few bumps and bruises.
Changing these few behaviors will help to prevent accidents from happening. Changing behaviors takes time and work, but they should also be used as examples for others who are apart of your child’s life as well. If you find changing your habits hard start early so you will have plenty of time to make it a habit before your child becomes a toddlers.
