Childproofing: Clothing Hazards You May Not Know

While you're thinking of childproofing your house, I'd like to bring up an area that many don't think about...your child's clothing. Sometimes the simplest things can be overlooked and your child could be in danger without you being aware of it.

Flame-Retardant Clothing

This is an area that many are already familiar with, but I believe this should be covered for those who may not know. Check what your children are wearing for pajamas! Despite the deaths that I read about in the papers every year, stores continue to sell pajamas that are not flame- retardant. This means that if a fire should break out or, God forbid, a child gets a hold of matches, your child could literally go up in flames. With flame-retardant treatment, your child has less risks of getting severely burned in those situations.

For those who like yard sales, if you don't see "flame-retardant" on the tag, don't buy it! This is not an acceptable area to economize. I do not ever buy pajamas second hand because of this danger. This won't totally protect your child, obviously, but it does lessen the chances of your child spending time in the burn unit.

Strings and Things

Don't ever lay a child down with any clothing with strings! My friends learned this the most painful way possible. They had returned home from going out to dinner. They were going back out to go to church as soon as everyone was ready, so they didn't want to wake their 15-month old son. Instead they laid him down with his jacket on in his crib. Half an hour later, my friend went to get her son from his room and it was too late. Her son had woke while they were out of the room and tried to climb out of his crib. The jacket string caught on the bars and he hung himself without ever crying out.

Don't ever think that it takes a long period of time for something to happen to your child. The doctors who failed to revive little Joseph said that he had died within five minutes. My friends have had to deal with their grief and guilt over this incident for the past ten years and will deal with it for the rest of their lives. It is always better to wake a child and deal with their crying than to survive the aftermath of such a horrendous death.

A Hairy Situation

This last item may sound comical now but it was pretty scary at the time. When my daughter was only two months old, I was giving her a bath after her morning nap. As I was cleaning her little feet, I discovered that two of her toes were discolored and swollen. Looking closer, I realized that they seemed to be pinched in a the base, although I could not see what caused this. I honestly thought her itty bitty toes were going to literally fall off in my hand!

After a very anxious trip to the emergency room, we found that hair in her blanket sleeperhad wrapped itself around her toes and cut off the circulation. I completely freaked out on the doctors when I found that this is a common occurrence with infants. Later when I had my son the post-natal care videos did cover this possibility, but at the time I was incredibly angry that no one had warned me of this situation.

We spent several days going back and forth to the doctor's office making sure that gangrene did not set in and then 7 months waiting to see if Tabitha would learn to walk okay. Thankfully, she cut this period short by skipping right over crawling and going straight to walking at 9 months old. She is 19 years old now and still bears the scars from this on the last two toes of her left foot. Never again have I put anything over a baby's foot that I did not completely check for stray hairs or loose threads.

In Conclusion

Do everything you can to childproof your home but be sure to look into the more simple things. Too many times a child has been seriously injured or killed through hazards associated with their clothing. They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...I say an ounce of prevention can be worth a child's life.