A couple of months ago I was dealing with a severe case of hives, having a week off work while forced to take steroids to control them. My parents were looking after my kids one day so I could have a day of rest and at some point I received a phone call from my mum. She was calling to tell my my youngest son Matthew (1 year old) had burnt his hands on the front of her fireplace and did I want to meet her at the local hospital or have her take him to the kids hospital and meet her there? Obviously this wasn't the time for questions, so I said to meet at the local hospital as it was the closest. All through the phone call I could hear Matthew screaming in the background.
I managed to get to the hospital before my parents arrived with the kids, and so when they pulled in I could hear Matthew's screams/crying from the car even a few metres away. While mum and I waited with Matthew to be seen I got the full story. Jeffrey (my nearly 3 year old) needed to go to the toilet (and since he's still relatively new to the world of the toilet he had to go right now if you know what I mean), so my mum took him thinking Matthew was following, as he had been all morning. It turns out he wasn't. It turns out he was distracted by the fireplace, went over, moved the fence and put his hands against the glass of the fireplace door.
Two months on Matthew has now fully recovered, and has had a complete sign off by the doctors. So now I thought it was time to bring up the importance of safety in the home.
Now, the fence in question in front of my parents fire had never been bolted to the wall. When some people hear that, they are rather horrified. And in hindsight, so am I. However it is important to take into account that the kids (prior to this instance) have never been in the room where the fire is unattended. Ever. Of course it is easy to say that the fence should have been bolted to the wall - and it now is. I guess the point I want to make is that it is important to never take safety for granted.
It is important to always keep safety in mind around kids, and a large emphasis is placed on 'baby-proofing' before your baby is even born. My husband and I even went to a home safety seminar run by Kidsafe prior to the birth of Jeffrey. We bought all the necessary equipment to 'proof' the house and some was done prior to his birth, the rest was put off for when he started becoming more mobile - things like cupboards that needed to be kept shut etc. We purchased certain 'proofing' items for at our parents homes and moved easy to reach (and breakable) items out of reach. As Jeffrey got older we continued doing some 'proofing' as we went. However some of the items that we needed to 'proof' we never on our initial list (like the fridge and freezer that he was obsessed with opening) and some items we never ended up needing to do as it wasn't an issue - like cutlery drawers.
So when Matthew came along we figured we were already covered. We had already gone through all of the proofing we needed to do with Jeffrey. Well, it turns out we were wrong. Matthew is a climber where Jeffrey was not, and Matthew is a cheeky little kid where Jeffrey was not. Jeffrey learnt very early on to not touch certain things, where Matthew goes ahead and does what he's not meant to whilst watching you with a cheeky smile, just waiting for your reaction.
We had the exact same set up for the fire at my parents house when Jeffrey was a baby/toddler. Never an issue, he was never interested. The difference between my two boys in their interests and behaviours should have clued us in to the fact that we should have treated home safety differently with Matthew. And we did for certain things - doors to cupboards containing glasses were tied shut etc, but the fireplace we didn't think of as it is only used for a few months per year, and always with an adult present. We never thought that the kids would be in the room alone, but we didn't account for the distraction of a toddler needing the toilet and Matthew's curious personality combined.
So let my scare be a wake up call for you. Don't be complacent when it comes to safety, especially around fires. Even if you think you'll be be in the room all the time, you never know when the instance might come when you aren't there. Even for a split second. That's all at takes. And treat home safety differently for each child. Don't assume that because the way you had things worked for the first child will be the same for the second, third, or fourth (or however many kids you have) as it may not be the case - and many injuries that occur in the home can be easily prevented by doing some simple 'proofing'.
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