Summer's Outdoor Hazards

Tips to Keep Tots Safe

By Shannon McKelden

Summertime means families can take their fun and entertainment outside after a long winter stuck indoors. But while it's easy to babyproof inside the house, the outside can prove more of a challenge. How can parents keep tots safe?

"The backyard can be considered another 'room' and should be childproofed just as an indoor room would be," says Robert Soloway, safety/security expert and chairman of NAPCO Security Systems.

Soloway adds that children should always be supervised outdoors. "This is stating the obvious, but babies and toddlers can climb up onto flimsy outdoor furniture and injure themselves, get out of the yard, fall in a pool or worse, be kidnapped out of their own yards," he says. "Parents need to supervise babies and toddlers at all times."

Summertime is a time for lawn and garden care. This means lawn mowers, weed-eaters, rototillers, etc.

"Never allow children to ride with you on ride-on equipment," says Dorothy Drago, a product safety consultant from Wakefield, Mass. Even if children are not riding with you, ride-on mowers or tractors are dangerous because the operator cannot always see or hear a toddler who has approached the equipment. Children have been run over and seriously injured or killed. Drago suggests that you simply make sure your toddler stays inside while any power equipment is being operated.

Aside from the obvious dangers of sharp blades and running motors, power equipment such as mowers and trimmers can also throw rocks and debris quite far, making them dangerous even if you feel your child is at a safe distance.

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