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Nowadays I am convinced that with the undertaking of a safety and responsibility company, something catastrophic will happen to someone in my family. My toddler, an incredibly active, adorable, smart and defiant 2 year old is certainly putting us to the test ! Yesterday was my nephew's 7th birthday. The girls had the day off of school, so after taking the two older girls to get their flu shots, we all piled in the car and headed over the bay to my sister's home. When we arrived, the kids ran off to play in the backyard. You have to understand that with my three girls and my sister's three kids, things get quite chaotic instantly! Kids were flying through the air on the trampoline, golf clubs were swinging towards heads, feet were trotting up and squeaking down the slide, a neighbor's dog was sniffing crotches and bedlam was somewhere around five minutes ago. Once the kids had enough of their outside shenanigans, they came thundering inside the freshly cleaned house and sat down to eat pizza. Well, kids never really sit for long, but they ate, anyway. Before long, doors flung open and kids were back outdoors, while some stayed inside and played. All the while, I made sure to keep a very close eye on the two year old as she is often caught putting small, dangerous objects into her mouth or climbing up on counters and grabbing knives (no, I'm not exaggerating). Just a few moments after she finished eating, cute little 2-year-old toddler girl wandered over to the frontdoor, opened it and ran outside onto the front porch. I was about one step behind her, so I turned her around and ran her back inside the house, closing the door and locking it behind me. You can imagine where we are going with this, right? Now it's time for cupcakes. "Happy birthday to you... Happy birthday to you..." we all sang. Toddler was under my hand at this time. Seven-year-old nephew blew out his candle. Yeah, time to eat cake! But, where was two-year-old toddler girl? I announced that she was missing, and my heart began to pump in my ears. I had a feeling she was in danger. I ran to open the front door. Everything looked normal and quiet. So, I closed the door. My sister ran outside in the backyard to see if she was there. Nothing. My brother-in-law checked the kitchen. Not there. Meanwhile, I was running from bedroom to bathroom and closing doors behind me after checking rooms. Nothing. She was nowhere. The neighbor drove by the house waving to my sister. She waved back and continued her search for the little curly haired active, smart, deviant toddler who was nowhere to be found. We were all calling out her name and getting no response. By this point, I was in a frantic fit, yelling for all the kids to help search for the missing toddler. The cupcake that I had just taken one bite out of was now creeping back up my throat. Where was she? "I found her!" my sister called out from outside. "Where are you?" I yelled. "Outside" she screamed back. I flew out the front door and there she was, curls dangling over her big blue eyes, standing in the street as my sister scooped her up. Just then, a car sped down the normally quiet street. It absolutely could have been one of the worst moments of my life. Was I being irresponsible? No. Was I not paying attention? No. Could I have done anything differently? Not really. Of course, I came home and explained what had happened to my husband. He immediately launched into a lecture about paying attention to the cute little toddler. As you hear with any tragic situation, it only takes a moment. With toddlers, this is especially true and this is why we not only need to be constantly supervising our children, but we also need to be prepared in case there is a medical emergency. The fact is that there are moments where the child can slip away or where an injury can occur no matter how closely you watch a child. Most kids are active and my older two girls were never bumps on a log, but my third daughter is dangerous to an extreme that the pediatrician is a bit nervous about her. We are very vigilant parents, especially with this child, but we regularly find this girl in very scary situations that arise in a matter of one moment! Hopefully, this cute little curly haired defiant toddler will learn from us, not from a serious accident. This story is an example of when childproofing is not enough. What can we do about it? Starting before your child can crawl, go through your entire home as an octopus bulldozer. Get on your knees, open the front door and crawl in. Grab onto and pull down on anything in your reach. Everything that has the potential to be opened, pinched, tumbled or broken needs to be addressed . Start with getting electrical socket covers and place them high and low, in every electrical socket in your home! If you do this first, you will not be sorry! Our two year old has learned how to pull these out, but we still use them! Even though she can remover these covers, they are one added step that gives us time to react when we see her at the electrical outlet . If a piece of furniture or large object, such as a TV, moves or shifts at all when you are the crazy octopus, it has the potential to fall and needs to be anchored to the wall. If a vase or other heavy object can become loose or fall, it needs to be strapped down or moved to another location where it is not a danger. If drawers or cabinets can be opened, put safety latches on them. Different safety latches work best in different types of cabinets. Some cannot be used if your cabinet has a wide frame or irregular shape, so it is important to try different brands to figure out which latch works best on your furniture. We tried as many as four in some locations before finding one that worked! Our smart, adorable little toddler girl has broken a lot of our child safety latches (and the ones at the doctor's office) so, I highly recommend making sure any choking hazards, such as dry pasta noodles, hard candy or other hard foods be stored up high both in the refrigerator and in other areas of the kitchen. Obviously, liquid detergent and other cleaning chemicals are extremely dangerous and should be stored in the highest possible location as well. Over the refrigerator or oven are usually safe. Until recently, our favorite little toddler could not open doors, so I found that keeping all of the doors in the house closed is a good way to monitor where the kids are. Most importantly, the bathroom door needs to remain shut and the toilet closed with a toilet guard . Other hazards in the bathroom include but are not limited to the bathtub, medicine cabinet, any drawers as well as anything that can fall on top of the child. Don't forget, these drawers and cabinets need safety latches as well! Another thing to keep in mind is that medications may be difficult for children to open, but not impossible. Keep ALL medications stored up high and out of reach, even when your child is very sick. This way, when your child gets better, they won't find the bottle of acetaminophen on top of the dresser and drink it. If you have stairs in your house, you will need a gate at the top of the stairs to prevent baby from going down, and another gate at the bottom to keep baby from climbing up without your assistance. If your stairway has rails that are more than 2 3/4 inches wide, you will need to get a banister guard made to keep baby from going between the rails. You will also need to make sure your windows are safe. If you have safety mechanisms on your windows, use them! If you don't have safety windows, you can buy special safety devices that can be removed quickly by an adult in case of fire. When your toddler is big enough to reach the counter or stove, get a counter or stove guard. This handy but annoying plastic shield will block little hands from getting burned or pulling knives down when you are cutting food for dinner. A woman we know has a large scar on her cheek because when she was 9 months old, she pulled a dishtowel down from the counter. There was a knife on top of the dishtowel that went through her cheek and the scar remains today. In fact, make sure all knives are pushed all the way to the back of the counter, if not stored in one of the latched cabinets! Our adorable two year old has pushed a chair over to the counter, climbed up and grabbed knives from the knife block in a bout 2 seconds. Also, cook on the back burners of the stove. If you are making a lot of food and need to use the front burners, have someone entertain baby outside of the kitchen or put the baby in a safe place while you cook! I used to put the playpen in the middle of the kitchen while cooking. Now, cute little toddler is pushing chairs over to the counter while we are cooking, so we are constantly asking our older daughters to play with her while we cook. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If you have any suggestions, let me know! I highly recommend hiring a childproofing expert to come to your house and install every safety device that your house can accommodate! I also highly recommend and believe it should be mandatory for all parents and caregivers to take CPR and first aid courses every year. In addition to this, it is important for you to make a list of any and all medical history items and medications that anyone in your family needs and to have an extra dose on hand in case of a natural disaster or other emergency. Families need to have an outside the immediate area person to contact if there is a catastrophic emergency and all family members should have this person's phone number on hand at all times. Each household should have an emergency survival kit with enough food, water, medication and supplies for a week. Each vehicle should have an emergency survival pack (including water and food) and a well-stocked first aid kit. I will be writing more on this soon and am leading classes about family emergency preparedness. As always, please fell free to contact me and post on the forums with any suggestions, questions, comments or tips! And in the meantime, stay well, relax, keep watch on your kids, enjoy life and be responsible (or at least be as responsible as you can humanly be!)
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Communication 
