A guide to childproofing your home

Once Your Child learns to roll over and flip from back to tummy, it’s important to baby-proof your home. A crawling baby is exploring their surroundings, and everything is of interest to them. So, it’s up to you to make your home safe.

How dangerous can it be?
Accidents are the leading cause of death for children aged 1-14, and over a third of these incidents occur in the home. Tragically, many survivors are left with lifelong disabilities or brain damage. The most frequent cause of non-fatal injuries in children is falling from a height, which accounts for over 4 in 10 accidents. 

How can you protect Your Child?
The home environment presents the highest risk for young children. Common home accidents include cuts, poisoning, choking, electric shocks, falls, drowning, and burns. You can prevent many of these injuries with proper supervision and keeping the home safe. 

How to keep your home safe?
Begin by getting down on the floor to see your home from Your Child’s eye level. Then, try to explore all corners of your home, paying special attention to the following areas:

• Bathroom: Toilets and bathtubs can be dangerous. You can put a safety latch on the toilet seat to avoid the baby toppling into it. If the bathroom floor is slippery, you might want to add some shower mats 
• Stairs and balcony: When Your Child first starts to crawl and walk, stairs can seem like a great adventure! Keep Your Child away from anywhere dangerous, or be sure to supervise
• Electrical cords and outlets: Babies like to chew on cords and also put their fingers in any open outlets. Cover or tape down cords and buy safety covers for all outlets
• Furniture with sharp edges: A baby who is learning to walk can easily fall onto a sharp corner of a glass cabinet or metal table. Invest in rubber or foam bumpers to line the edge
• Make your windows safe: If you are living in a condominium or on the upper floors of a house, check all windows to see if there are dangerous gaps that need to be closed. Sometimes, it’s better to change the windows or install additional safety breaks
• Cleaning supplies, medicines, and chemicals: Cleaning supplies, pills, and chemicals can be very dangerous. Don’t let your baby ever gain access to where they are kept
• Water sources: Cover any body of water in your home that’s big enough to fit a baby’s face

What to do in case of injury?
In case of a home injury, try to stay calm and follow these steps immediately:

1. Assess the injury
2. If the injury is severe, call the ambulance
3. Perform first aid and CPR if necessary
4. In case of traumatic brain injury and if you have saved your child’s cord blood stem cell, contact your provider

Drowning, falls, and any type of head injury can result in a traumatic brain injury or TBI.

What are traumatic brain injuries? Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an injury that affects how the brain works. And since TBI is a major cause of death and disability, doctors would try to treat severe cases with emergency surgery to stop the bleeding in the brain or reduce pressure from swelling.

Treating TBI with stem cells
Nowadays, there is a new therapeutic approach for traumatic brain injury that involves using stem cells for neural regeneration and restoration. Research shows that stem cell therapy improves functional recovery after a Traumatic Brain Injury.

However, the window of opportunity is small; the cord blood must be administered within 48 hours. If you have your child’s cord stem cells stored with THAI StemLife, you can have them delivered to a local ICU in less than 4 hours. The company offers a 24/7 service and a hotline for such emergencies, making it possible to diminish the damage. Even for those who do not have stored cord blood, stem cells from their bone marrow can be used if done in time. You can reach their 24-hour hotline at +6681 340 7676.

Mali’s trusted partner
THAI StemLife is Thailand’s first and largest stem cell bank and the only one with real-life-saving cases. They are the only provider in Thailand that operates 24/7 for traumatic brain injury emergencies.