News And Events

Outdoor Safety

During Summer we spend a lot of time outdoors and there are some things that you can do to help keep your children safe at home so they can play and have fun outdoors. About 13,000 children aged under 5 are hospitalised each year because of accidental injuries and poisonings. Many of these accidents and injuries can be avoided if you check your outdoor home environment for safety. For example, have you:

Taught your child not to leave the property without a trusted adult?

Taught your child to hold an adult's hand when stepping onto the road?

Fenced the outdoor play area?

Made sure the garage, driveway and work areas are not accessible?

Installed safety catches on windows above ground level?

You can also have some rules for children playing outdoors, and actively supervise your children. For example, rules might include: no pushing other children off a swing or piece of playground equipment, no swinging empty swings, no climbing up the front of the slide, no twisting swing chains, no rough playing on equipment, and only one person can be on a piece of equipment at one time, if it is designed for use by one person (for example a trampoline).

Children are usually unaware of the risks that are present in playing outdoors. You can guide and support them to play safe outdoors:

Keep children from walking in front or back of a moving swing.

Place young children in the centre of a swing. Make sure that they are capable of hanging on to the swing or place them in a swing designed for infants and toddlers. Keep reminding them to hang on - small children need constant reminding.

Be extremely cautious of swimming pools, paddling pools, and spas even when a pool has a cover and is fenced in. Keep your eyes on the children at all times.

Make sure the gates are locked, and paddling pools are emptied after use.

Make sure any poisons and outdoor garden equipment cannot be accessed by children.

Remove poisonous plants from your garden.

Learn CPR and first aid practices in case you might need it when watching children.

Learn the phone number for emergency medical services in your location.

At Nurtured at Home, all of our Educator’s homes have gone through a rigorous health and safety check so that children can play safely outdoors throughout the day. Ensuring safety first means children can explore, play and learn without restriction.