Making your christmas decoration safe for children
Based on the reports by the United States’ Consumer Product Safety Commission, over 15,000 injuries are recorded from Christmas decoration procedures every year. This makes the most expected time of every year a very risky period as well. Even if every ornament seems safe and easy to use, parents have to be extra careful when rolling out their collections of Christmas decorating ornaments.
Recently, a mother, Nicole Mackintosh Leo took to Facebook to narrate how her son lost his eyes and now uses artificial eyes after a stocking holder fell on them. He was trying to pull a stocking out of the holder when the accident occurred.
You can prevent these accidents by taking the following precautionary steps:
- HEAVY STOCKING HOLDERS: Avoid using heavy holders for your Christmas stockings if you have little children. Follow Nicole’s advice and use other similar holders like 3M Command hookers that you can stick to your walls and remove easily when required.
- COMMON DECORATIVE PLANTS: Most of the plants used for Christmas decorations are usually poisonous and harmful to little kids and pet. Here’s a list of plants to keep far from the reach of your children.
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Holly: This deciduous plant contains the exact toxic substance, theobromine, which is found in chocolates and can cause a variety of ailments in your children. The berry produced by this plant has an excess amount of theobromine that can lead to health issues such as drowsiness, nausea, diarrhea and dehydration once a little as a berry is consumed by a young child. Ensure to take out the berries whenever you wish to decorate your home with the holly plant.
In the case of an ingestion of these poisonous berries, simply take out any berry left in your child’s mouth and wash with enough water or milk. - Mistletoe: Facts have it that the Phoradendron species of mistletoes is filled with phoratoxin, a toxic substance known to cause diarrhea, alterations in blood pressure, blurred vision, vomiting, abdominal pain and eventually death. The Viscum species of this plant also contain a combination of toxins such as alkaloid tyramine with the same consequences as those of the Phoradendron species.
- Poinsettia: Though not toxic, this plant should not be consumed. People with allergy to latex should keep away from this plant as it belongs to the rubber family. A study reveals that over 35% of people that had an allergy to rubber were found to be allergic to Poinsettia.
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CHRISTMAS LIGHTS: Use Christmas lights at their proper locations and make sure their cords are secured on a wall rather than on the ground or under the rug so your kids do not trip over them. Also make it a habit to turn off the lights when you go out.
You can however eliminate the troubles associated with electric decorative bulbs by using battery operated LED lights with timer. This way, you don’t have to worry about your kids tripping over their cords and you can set it to go off on its own without worrying about it when you’re out. - GLASS DECORATIONS: Keep you glass decorations away from the reach of children or use non-glass one instead. In the event of a breakage, clean up the tiny glass pieces with sliced bread.