Handy Pointers for acclimatizing a new babysitter to Infant Safety and one’s home

Safety Measures:

• Enquiring from the babysitter if she has knowledge of infant CPR and first aid procedures.
• Reminding the babysitter that the child must not placed on any kind of beds intended for adults.
• Reminding the babysitter about placing the child on its back during sleep.
• Ensuring that the babysitter is well-versed with symptoms of ailments affecting children inclusive of alterations in the color of the skin, sweating, nauseous feelings or vomiting and diarrhea.
• Informing the babysitter of the location of the fire extinguishers and explaining their method of usage.
• Pointing out the place where the first-aid kit is kept.
• Reminding the babysitter to keep any kind of plastic-based articles or balloons out of reach from the child.
• Telling the babysitter that infants must always be accompanied by adults when they are in the bathtub. The sitter must make it a point to always get the children along with her when the need arises to vacate the room like when a phone call or a door bell needs to be answered.
• Reminding the babysitter of always shutting the doors to the washroom when not needed and always placing the top and the toilet seat down when not required.

Familiarizing the babysitter to one’s home:

• Always ensuring to provide the babysitter a guided tour of the house.
• Ascertaining all the windows are shut and that the sitter understands that they must be kept closed.
• Showing the sitter the means to operating the infant safety gates and the places where they lead to.
• Showing the sitter the place where the flashlights are placed.
• Ensuring putting away any form of sharp objects like scissors, knives and any other kind of objects that could prove detrimental when accidentally handled by the child.

• Band-aids or plasters – Maintaining a sufficient collection of infant-sized plasters in varying sizes and interesting shapes and characters would aid in distracting them when they might be sensing pain due to being hurt. Assorted sized and shaped bandages and few safety pins for fastening them would be quite beneficial.
• Thermometer – According to age, one might require the strip version, ear or sucking thermometers, or the digital stick kinds.
• A pair of tweezers – In case one might need to pull out some sharp objects or splinters, some form of stings and grits, however, they must be sterilized prior to being used.
• Pain allaying medicines – One needs to ensure that one stocks up on infant painkillers that are meant for that appropriate age. It is important to constantly stick to following the instructions mentioned on the medicine bottle prior to use. This is also essential to ascertain that one has a measuring scoop or syringe sans the needle to be employed while administering dosages.
• Sun protective lotion – A pre-requisite for the sultry days is choosing a children’s sunscreen having SPF factor of no less than 25.
• Calamine lotion – An irritant or soreness soother and is especially useful in relieving major discomfort experienced while ailing from rashes, stings, sunburns and on chickenpox scabs.
• Sterilized gauze pieces – These come in handy for covering up grave cuts.
• A pair of scissors – They are needed to cut plasters and bandages to the needed size.
• Antibacterial cream – These assist in averting infection when locally applied to a small scratch or scalding following a thorough cleaning of the site. One could watch out for those creams that could have a small quantity of anesthetic as these could deaden the pain and discomfort to a certain extent.
• Insect repellent sprays or lotions – A must-carry during outings and scorching summer days.
• Antibacterial wipes – These could be employed to mildly cleanse the site of injury prior to applying a plaster.
• First-aid guidebook- It is never to late to skim through the first-aid manual with mischievous tots around, it would definitely prove beneficial to place it in the first aid kit so that one could refer to it in case one might need it.
• Medications – It is always appropriate to maintain extra sets of medications that either you or the child might be taking to be placed in the first aid kit.

Though these might appear to be a lot of things to maintain in one’s first-aid kit, but these are readily obtainable from the local superstore or medical store and are quite usable to maintain just in case of unexpected emergencies.
However, even after assembling one’s first-aid kit, it is crucial to keep a note of the expiry dates of all the items and replacing them when necessary.

Read more at : Making An Infant-Paly First-Aid Kit – Part I

When there are tiny bundles of joy prancing about the house, it is always a prudent initiative of maintaining a stockpile of crucial first-aid items that could help one tackle any kind of emergency that might be anything from bumps, contusions to grazes. By having whatever hypothetically one might need, neatly stacked in one place would translate to lesser periods of time spent dashing about searching for items and spending more time to comfort and tend to the infant.

Getting started

All kinds of first-aid kits are obtainable in the shops and these could be a great way to get started especially if they are planned to be children-friendly. Optionally, one could put together one’s own first-aid kit by selecting a heavy-duty, watertight box and labeling it ‘First Aid’ in bold and lucid writing or making a large-sized medical red cross sign so that it would become easier to detect when one urgently requires it. The contents of the box also need to be clearly mentioned on the outside.

It is crucial to secure the first-aid kit and keep it well out of the reach of children. An ideal place would be placing it in those particular places where it would be easy to find such as the top shelves of the kitchen or in a closet in the washroom. It is always sensible to inform about the location of the first-aid kit to one’s babysitter, family members or to friends that are tending to one’s kids, so that they would know the place where to spot the enclosed data and supplies, if and when the need arises.

It is always practical to maintain a scrolling of emergency contact numbers on the first-aid kit, as they might just turn out to be handy when the need surfaces. One must also mention the bare essential contact numbers that are stated below:

• One’s general practitioner or health care provider.
• The direct get through number of NHS (0845 4647).
• The emergency dial-up number 999.
• The contact numbers of one’s workplace, residence and cell phone numbers.
• The contact numbers of at least two family relatives or friends that could be called in case of an emergency.