If you have young children, you’ve likely had to rush them to hospital with an accidental injury at some stage. And you’re not alone – between 2021 and 2022, more than 300,000 emergency department visits were made in Australia involving injuries in children under 10.1 And nearly half (45%) of the injuries that kids sustain annually happen at home.2
“Our homes are places where we generally feel safe and secure; however, they’re often built and designed with adults in mind,” says Sarah Sexton, Chief Executive Officer of Kidsafe Victoria – a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to child safety.
“Children are inquisitive and love to explore their environments, but they don’t yet understand the dangers that many hazards in and around the home can pose.”
With that in mind, we’ve asked the experts at Kidsafe to help us put together this child home safety guide – beginning with some common causes of infant and child injuries at home.
How do injuries at home occur?
For children, the leading causes of injuries that require hospitalisation are falls and contact with objects – for example, rolling off furniture or getting their fingers jammed in a door.3
“Children can also pull over a television or a bookcase that’s not attached to a wall,” adds Christine Erskine, Executive Officer of Kidsafe New South Wales.
“There’s also a risk of poisoning due to pharmaceuticals not being stored safely.”
Sexton adds that “choking, burns and scalds and button batteries are further common causes of injury to young children at home,” while driveways and pools are examples of high-risk outdoor areas.
Your room-by-room home safety checklist
Your home safety checklist:
Source: Kidsafe Victoria – Making your Home Kidsafe, 2023
How to make your home child safe
Sexton says injury prevention can often fly under the radar. “It’s one of those topics that doesn’t always spring to mind until something happens, and then it's potentially too late,” she shares. “The best way to make your home safer for little ones is to identify the hazards, decide how to deal with them and act immediately.”
And be aware that hazards will change over time, at different stages of your child’s development.4 Erskine explains: “While babies are at risk of falling off beds or change tables when they learn to wriggle, there are different risks to consider when they start moving about on the floor.”
“So, you need to review your baby proofing strategies frequently because children change so rapidly during their developmental stages.” Erskine recommends getting down to their eye level to spot hazards once they’re mobile.
The home safety checklist
Here are some tips Kidsafe Victoria recommends adding to your home safety routine to help protect against common injuries.4
Falls
- Have everything close by when changing your baby on a change table and always keep one hand on your child.
- Always use the harness in prams, highchairs and shopping trolleys.
- Use a baby gate in areas that children shouldn’t access alone, such as kitchens and stairwells. For high-risk areas, for example, at the top of stairs, it’s widely recommended to use wall-mounted safety gates, attached with screws directly into a solid wall or wood post.5
- Use non-slip mats and rugs.
- Place corner protectors on sharp-cornered furniture.
- Keep furniture that children can climb away from windows.
- Lock balcony doors.4
Contact with objects
- Use door stops to keep doors from slamming shut and special strips that cover the hinged side of internal doors to avoid finger jam injuries.
- Use a toy box with a slow-closing lid to protect against crushed fingers.
- “Secure furniture such as bookcases and drawers so they can’t fall or tip on children,” says Sexton. Always secure televisions to the wall or TV stand.
- Avoid putting tempting items, such as toys, on top of furniture and use locking devices on drawers to stop children using them as steps.4
Poisoning
- Store poisons in locked cupboards that are out of your child’s reach, remembering that poisons include medications as well as detergents, cleaning and gardening products, certain cosmetics, e-liquids used in e-cigarettes and more.
- Store anything that could cause poisoning in its original container.
- Ask visitors to your home to place their bags, which may contain medications or other poisonous products, out of your child’s reach.4
Driveways
“Supervise children around driveways at all times,” says Sexton.
Where possible, separate outdoor play areas from the driveway.
Don’t rely on your car’s reversing cameras and sensors to keep children safe. Get into the habit of walking around your car before you reverse it out of your driveway.4
Water safety
Stay close to babies and toddlers whenever there’s water around and supervise them without distraction. At home, “water” includes pools and spas, as well as the bath, nappy buckets, toddler pools, fish ponds and even your dog’s drinking bowl.
- Empty paddling pools, buckets, baths and eskies immediately after use.
- Check and maintain pool gates and fences regularly.4
Burns and scalds
“Make sure your water delivery temperature in the bathroom is turned down to 50°C to help prevent burns,” says Sexton.
- Keep household items that could cause a severe burn – such as clothes irons, hair straighteners, cooking appliances and heaters – out of reach of young children.
- Always supervise children around barbecues, pizza ovens and fire pits.
- Use your stove’s rear elements first and turn pot handles to the back.4
- Dress children in clothing made of low fire risk material.4, Look for bedclothes with low fire hazard labels.6
Choking
- Encourage children to sit down to eat and always supervise them.
- Follow age recommendations on toys and avoid those with small parts that can be swallowed.
- Try to keep objects smaller than a 20-cent coin out of children’s reach.
- “Check your home for button batteries and products that use them and keep them out of reach,” says Sexton. Found in everyday items such as remote controls, car keys, kitchen scales, musical cards and hearing aids, button batteries if they’re swallowed are not only a choking hazard, but they can also cause critical internal injuries.4
Other home safety strategies to take
While you’re legally required to adopt some home safety measures in Australia, including having smoke alarms and installing a pool fence if you have a pool or spa, there are other proactive measures you can consider, such as having a first aid kit at home7 and undergoing first aid training.8 Wherever you live in Australia, it’s also widely recommended that you involve your kids in helping to make a bushfire survival plan for your family, and prepare a bushfire emergency kit including essential first aid and medical supplies.
It’s important, too, to be aware of small, high-powered magnets. These can cause serious injury if they’re swallowed and while they’re banned under Australia’s safety standards, they’re still found in toys and jewellery purchased online or overseas.9
As for teaching your children about safety at home, Sexton has this advice:
“Instilling safety awareness in children from a young age helps them to develop good habits that will keep them safe as they grow – for example, making sure they always wear a helmet when riding a bike and teaching them to wave goodbye from a safe place, away from the driveway as a car leaves.”
“However, young children are unable to make accurate risk assessments on their own. The onus ultimately falls on parents and carers to provide children with an environment that not only stimulates their development but also reduces the risk of serious injury.”
Helpful home safety resources
For more information about home safety for young children, including where to get help, these resources may be useful:
- Healthdirect Australia: The national virtual public health information service has a symptom checker you can use to help assess whether your child should see a doctor, and a 24-hour helpline on 1800 022 222.
- Poisons Information Centre: Call 13 11 26 if you think your child has accidentally taken something or been poisoned.
- Australian Red Cross: Offers courses in first aid for babies and children both online and in person.
- Royal Life Saving Australia: Learn more about how to keep your child safe around water at home.
- Kidsafe Australia: Discover a variety of home safety resources. Kidsafe Victoria also has a hub for new parents with evidence-based resources and links to support services.
Reducing the risk to children in the home may also reduce your risk of accidental property damage. If you’d like to find out how to cover your home and belongings for accidental damage, consider starting a quote with Youi.
The content in this article has been prepared based on current government and emergency services guidelines and expert advice provided at the time of publishing. This information is subject to change. Please be sure to check for the latest information and always consider your personal circumstances regarding home safety preparedness and response.
1 Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Injuries in children and adolescents 2021-22: Variation between population groups, April 2024
2 Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Injuries in children and adolescents 2021-22: Summary, April 2024
3 Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Injuries in children and adolescents 2021-22: Causes of injury, April 2024
4 Source: Kidsafe Victoria – Making your home kidsafe, 2023
5 Source: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission – Safety gate guide
6 Source: Australian Department of Health and Aged Care – Children’s nightclothes and safety
7 Source: Better Health Victoria – Child safety – at home, October 2023
8 Source: St John Ambulance – Empowering parenthood: The vital role of first aid knowledge for parents, June 2024
9 Source: NSW Government, The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network – Small, high-powered magnets safety, January 2025
