Safety Tips For When You Take Your Baby Out

General outdoor safety tips

• Teach your kids not to play near the street
• Do not leave them outside alone in the beginning
• You have to make them understand that if their toys roll into the street, they need to ask for help.
• Make sure that you check the outdoor playing area regularly. You should get rid of sharp objects like branches, tools, trash, lawn equipment, and animal feces.

Set-up for a safe outdoor environment

• f there are electrical appliances outside, like your electric meter, make sure that they are in places your child can’t reach
• Ensure that the outdoor play areas are fenced, especially near a parking lot, pond, road, railroad track, etc.
• Keep the gates, garages, etc. locked

Safety in the playground

One of the most important places you’ll have to be extra careful in is the playground. You need to plan and monitor diligently. You need to keep in mind that toddlers and infants (ages 0-2), preschool-age children (ages 3-5) and school-age kids (ages 5-12) have different needs and abilities and will need different safety needs.

• Inspect the playground equipment and surface routinely. Check to see if the equipment is broken, worn or missing parts. Remove, repair, or replace items immediately.
• Make sure that there is some shade in the playground. You can either use natural sources like trees or artificial source like tents.
• If there are metal playground equipment like slides, monkey bar, etc. ensure that they are in the shade so that your kids do not get burnt.
• Any playground equipment, like swings, that have moving parts should be placed outside the play area.

• Teach your kids to play away from the front and rear of the swing area.
• Ensure that you keep the play equipment at least 5 feet away from the walls, trees, road, fences, walkways, and other play equipment.
• Provide guardrails or barriers for platforms or ramps over 30 inches high
• Cover all protruding metal bolts or screws with plastic safety caps
• Never attach any cords or ropes to the play equipment
• You need to anchor permanent outdoor equipment like swings or climbers safely to the ground.

Tips for a safe playground surfacing

• In order to minimize the risk of injuries from falls, ensure that all the play equipment have soft surfacing underneath them.
• Materials like sand, rubber mulch, wood chips are great to absorb falls. Dirt and grass are not soft enough to absorb the shock of a fall.
• Also, do not put loose-fill surfacing over hard surfaces like concrete or asphalt.

You need to keep in mind that surface materials should be a minimum of 6 inches deep for equipment less than 4 feet high and 9 inches deep for equipment that is 8 feet high. The material should also extend at least 7 feet beyond all sides of the play equipment. For swings, the surfacing should extend in the front and the rear, twice the height of the suspension bar.

It is imperative that your kids learn to play outdoors, especially in today’s digital age. It is an amazing place to test their physical abilities and to just have fun. That is why we hope these tips come in handy to avoid any anxiousness while you encourage them to enjoy outdoors.