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Showing posts from 2015

SIDS - The silent killer...

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"Better a thousand times careful than one dead" ~ Proverb Like the name says, SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is sudden and silent as it is not usually accompanied by known symptoms. According to the NHS , it is the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby.  Although there are no statistics in Nigeria, and may therefore not seem very common, it is the most common cause of death in babies under 1 year in the United States (higher risk between 0-4 months).  I think what is worrying about SIDS (also known as cot death) is that it is unclear what

Toys - play safely

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Danger never takes a vacation [even during the holidays] ~ Author Unknown Apart from ice-cream and maybe a couple more things that I do not yet know about, I wonder what other word elicits so much joy, excitement, or anticipation from kids as TOYS!!!  What better time to talk about toys than in this season of giving, giving, and even more giving. Oh, and receiving and receiving; after all, someone has got to receive all that giving away. The most toy-related deaths in 2013 for kids in the US were due to asphyxiation, while there were 256,700 toy-related injuries. I can't get any statistic for Nigeria, but I can imagine the figures will be

Safety-Chondriac

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A sense of humour is needed armour... ~ Hugh Sidey A bit of humour today. Are you a 'Safety-chondriac'? No need to grab a dictionary 'cause I just formed that word. I was having a conversation with my roommate/flatmate some nights ago, and she was describing the symptoms of a disease (I can't quite remember the name now). One of the symptoms she mentioned was pain in the hand, and suddenly I started massaging my hand and noticed that I felt a slight pain; then she mentioned another symptom that I could relate with. It appeared that for every symptom she mentioned, I had a corresponding ache or pain in that part of my body. She got irritated at some point and had to stop. LOL. This and

Medicines and chemicals: use and "keep out of reach of children"

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Precaution is better than cure ~ Edward Coke I didn’t want to write about medicines and chemicals/poisons just yet, but my coworker narrated something that happened to her a couple of days ago, so I figured i'd just do it now. I hope you pardon my numerous stories. These are true stories based on my real life experiences or the experiences of people I know. These stories of babies and children safety overtime inspired the creation of this blog, and I hope that we can begin to discuss how we manage these safety issues in our challenging environment.  Now back to my story: My coworker left her kids (a 2-year old girl and 2-month old

Still on electricity safety - appliances and cords

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Safety is a cheap and effective insurance policy.  ~Author Unknown I was watching a show on TV some time ago with my friend, enjoying it and getting along well when the screen went blank. No, it wasn’t a power cut (or our dear PHCN) as we usually have to deal with that a lot here. Her 16 month old son who was playing around had made his way to the socket,  pulled out the TV plug and was standing there looking all mischievous with a big smile on his face. His mum complained that he had done that a number of times and was wondering what to do to stop it. I’m guessing this is something some

The ‘(in)convenience’ of baby walkers

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Accidents do not just happen; they are caused, either by man's act of commission or omission ~ Ernest Greenwood (paraphrased) Source: discountmugs.com  Baby walkers have come in very handy to a good number of parents in the past and even now. I guess some of us also used them as babies. I have heard concerns about the dangers of these baby walkers lately, and thought to do a bit more research on them. So I bring you my findings  J : I will begin with the advantages: Baby walkers have toys that provide entertainment to babies. And because babies love these toys, they are kept engaged / focused for a while. Some parents /caregivers use this as a form of babysitting while they 'quickly' attend to other things.  It is also ‘believed’ that baby walkers help children maintain balance as they learn to take their first steps. Then the disadvantages: Babies are active and so eager to move about, and walkers

Electric sockets - how safe are safety plugs?

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If you don’t practice electrical safety, there can be electrifying results - Unknown Regarding baby-proofing the house, I used to be an advocate for using safety plugs to cover socket holes when not in use. Imagine how surprised/embarrassed I was when I discovered how un-safe these ‘safety’ plugs actually are. You know the safety plugs (socket covers) that lots of retail stores sell, sometimes separately, or as part of a safety pack? Well, reports have  shown that they are not really safe, and there are some  campaigns trying to discourage parents and childcare providers from using them.  Some retail stores, including IKEA for instance, stopped the sales of these plugs and have withdrawn them from stores since 2014.  Unfortunately, crawling babies and toddlers are able to yank off these safety plugs from the sockets with little stress. One may begin to wonder why these safety plugs are dangerous. I am going to get a bit technical here, so please bear with me:

Door stoppers on a budget

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For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind ~ Eleanor Everet When is the right time to start baby proofing your house? Baby proofing the house comes in stages, as there is only so much a baby can do at every stage of growth. E.g., if they are just learning to sit or crawl, they can’t reach high enough to grab on to things from table tops etc. This is however different when they start learning to stand and grab on to things for support, and when they learn to open doors. So there will be no need to go out and buy every kind of baby safety item you see at once, unless of course it’s on offer for a really good price (I mean who doesn’t love a good offer). I think it’s very important that you understand what your parenting style is first of all.

Are your furniture and fittings firmly in place?

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Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent ~Author Unknown The other day, my friend was telling me about how the top shelf in her kitchen fell on her maid as she was trying to get something down from there. She got a call while at the office with loud screams and a lot of crying in the background, and was so worried. Fortunately, her neighbour s were able to rush the maid to the hospital to get treatment, and thankfully, there was no fatality. What even made her even more thankful was the fact that her 18-month old son who liked to cling to the maid’s legs was snoozing quietly in his cot. I cannot imagine how much more disastrous that would have been if the little boy was awake and following her around like he always did. SO, let's ask ourselves:

Our little tots and transportation

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Hug your kids at home, but belt them in the car ~ Author Unknown Now let’s take a very first look at transportation. It is important that we move our kids from one place to the other: school, doctor’s appointment, visit friends and family, etc. So how do we manage transporting our darlings? Not to sound technical, but there is something I would like us to understand first.

Welcome!

We are really good parents; at least most of us are. I know this for a fact, having been brought up by amazing parents myself. I also know we do our best every day to ensure our little darlings are well taken care of, provided for, and kept safe.  The world is changing however, and with these changes come a lot of adjustments that need to be made to how we care for our children, different from how and what our parents did. Childcare in Nigeria comes with its own pack of challenges as we all bear the full responsibility of ensuring our children’s safety. When I mean full responsibility, I mean we barely have enforceable laws that protect our kids from harm. These range from laws on minimum safety standards concerning buildings and road construction, fire safety laws, traffic laws (zebra crossing especially), just to mention a few. So how do we navigate this world of child safety in our dear country and combine providing immediate care for our children to ensuring they are k