If you're a busy parent it's sometimes easy to forget basic safety measures. Many accidents are caused through carelessness – leaving toys lying on the stairs, putting a child in a bath that's too hot, or carrying a hot drink while you're carrying your child.
Fire is the biggest killer of children in the home - about 35 children in the UK are killed every year by fire and 1,200 children under the age of 11 are injured.
Installing a smoke alarm is the single most important thing you can do to protect your family. If you don’t already have them, fit smoke alarms and test them regularly. Put one on every floor of your house. Most fires break out between 10pm and 8am when you're likely to be asleep.
Everyone in your family – including children – needs to know what to do in the event of a fire starting. If you have a child under five, make sure they know to tell an adult if they discover a fire and that they must never hide – many young children think hiding from a fire is the best way to deal with it. Every year about 437 children under five are seriously scalded in the bath. Hot bath water is the number one cause of severe scalding injuries among young children.
Always run cold water first and then add the hot to get it to the right temperature and use your elbow to test the temperature for about a minute before you put a baby or child in the bath.
Never leave a child unsupervised in a bathroom, even for a moment.
Thermostatic mixing valves in the hot water system ensure a controlled amount of water at a safe temperature.