Prevent Injuries at Home
Your home should be the place you and your family feel safe and secure. Learn how to prevent falls, fires, furniture tip-overs and other accidents from our injury prevention team.
Visit our other pages for tips about:
- Gun safety
- Toy safety
- Water safety
- Fire safety
- Burn prevention
Choking and Strangulation Prevention
Choking is a hazard for all ages but especially for children and seniors.
Tips to Prevent Choking in Children
Children can easily choke on food, toys and small, hard objects. Supervise your young children while eating and playing, and remember to keep small objects out of reach.
- Cut food into tiny pieces for toddlers.
- Children under 5 should not eat small, round or hard foods.
- Read the parts list, age recommendation, instructions and warning labels before buying toys for your kids.
- Keep cords and strings out of your child’s reach.
- Move chairs, cribs and other furniture away from windows and window blinds.
Tips to Prevent Choking in Seniors
In older adults, wearing dentures and having difficulty swallowing can increase their risk of choking.
- Avoid foods by the handful
- Avoid large bites and chewy or dry foods
- Chew slowly and thoroughly
- Drink alcohol moderately
- Have fluids ready in case of choking
Medication Safety
- Store prescription drugs and other medications in a locked or out-of-reach cabinet, away from small children.
- Talk with your teens about the dangers of taking and mixing prescription drugs.
- Dispose of unused or expired medications at a safe drop-off location.
Get more medication safety tips for children from Safe Kids Worldwide.
Medication Safety For Seniors
Older adults are more likely to take several medications each day. This increases the risk for drug interactions, mix-ups and adverse side effects.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy recommends a number of precautions for seniors and their caregivers.
- Use a pillbox to sort your medications for the week. Many pharmacies, including University Health pharmacies, provide these for free.
- Double-check the prescription label before taking it.
- Tell your doctor about everything you’re taking, including vitamins, herbal supplements and dietary supplements, to avoid interactions.
- Ask your pharmacist or doctor if you have any questions about your medications.
Poison Prevention
Curiosity often leads young children to explore areas and items around the home that can be dangerous. Review these common trouble spots to reduce your child’s risk of poisoning.
Cleaning Products and Other Household Items
Examples of Poisonous Household Items
- Dishwashing detergent
- Bleach
- Laundry detergents
- Makeup
- Plants
- Pesticides
- Art supplies
- Medicine, vitamins
- Alcohol
Poison Prevention Tips
- Store household cleaners and other personal care products out of your child’s view.
- Install child safety locks on the cabinets you use to store them.
- Store cleaning products in their original containers.
- Don’t leave potentially poisonous products unattended while in use.
- Keep purses or handbags out of the reach of young children.
- Don’t mix chemicals.
Liquid Laundry Packets
Young children often explore new items by putting them in their mouths. Soft, colorful, bite-sized items like liquid laundry detergent packets can be too much for a toddler to resist.
Because these packets dissolve in water, your child’s wet hands or mouth can cause the packet to dissolve and release the concentrated liquid inside.
To avoid the potential for poisoning:
- Keep liquid laundry packets out of reach and out of sight of young children.
- Keep packets in their original container.
- Keep the container closed when you’re not using it.
If you suspect your child has ingested something poisonous, call poison control immediately at 800-222-1222. If your child has collapsed or isn’t breathing, call 911.
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon monoxide poisoning can result from:
- Faulty furnaces or other heating appliances
- Portable generators
- Water heaters
- Clothes dryers
- Cars left running in garages
Make sure your home has a carbon monoxide alarm. For best protection, interconnect several throughout your home so that one alarm causes them all to sound at once.
Review these carbon monoxide poison prevention tips to better understand how carbon monoxide can be harmful.
If you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning, move the person to a well-ventilated area and call 911 immediately.
Prevent TV and Furniture Tip-Overs
Over the past decade, one child has gone to the emergency room every 45 minutes from an injury caused by a television tipping over.
Here are some tips to avoid these injuries:
- Mount flat-screen TVs to the wall.
- If you have a box-style TV, place it on a low, stable piece of furniture built for its size and weight.
- Use anchors, braces and mounts to secure all furniture pieces to the wall.
- Keep furniture away from windows.
- Store heavier items in lower drawers/compartments.
Sleep Safety for Infants
Co-sleeping and roll-over incidents are the leading causes of death in children under age 1 in Bexar County. Sudden infant death syndrome – commonly called SIDS – is a related sleep safety concern.
Follow these guidelines to create a safe sleep environment for your baby and reduce their risk of SIDS.
- Only use a firm mattress and a tight-fitting sheet in your baby’s crib.
- Remove any bumpers, stuffed animals and accessories in the crib.
- Dress your baby in sleep clothing (one-piece sleeper) and don’t use blankets.
- If you’re buying a used crib, check if it has been recalled.
- Avoid adult beds, sofas, chairs and other soft surfaces.
- Make sure your crib meets the safety standards of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association.
- Don’t use a crib with sides that go down or corner posts that stick up more than 1/16th of an inch.
Get more sleep safety tips at SafeKids.org.