Prevent Airway Obstruction

Home Safety Council research shows that suffocation/inhalation is the second leading cause of accidental home injury related death for children under the age of 14. Follow these guidelines to reduce the risk of suffocation, choking and strangulation dangers in your home:

	Go to www.recalls.gov to find out if your crib model was recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
	Place infants on their backs in cribs and make sure the sheet and mattress fit tightly to avoid entrapment and suffocation. For safe sleep, your child’s crib should be empty. Take away all soft bedding, pillows, toys and stuffed animals from the crib.
	Consider buying a small parts tester to gauge whether objects present a choking hazard to young children. Look around your home for anything small enough to fit through a toilet paper tube such as coins, marbles, grapes, etc. These things could cause a young child to choke.
	Carefully watch children when they are playing and eating. Do not let children under the age of 6 eat small, round or hard foods, such as hot dogs, grapes or popcorn. If you do, cut them into very small pieces.
	Keep small things like jewelry, buttons and safety pins away from children.
	The Home Safety Council recommends against the use of latex balloons in homes with your children. If the balloon breaks and a child swallows a small piece, it could be very dangerous.
	Make sure that rattles, squeeze toys, teething toys and pacifier shields are too large to fit through a toilet paper tube. Look carefully at toys and pacifiers and dispose of those with small broken parts that could be lodged in an infant's throat. Remove squeakers from squeeze toys. Babies may detach squeakers and choke.
	Read toy labels. If your child is younger than the age on the label, do not allow them to play with that toy.
	Never hang pictures, quilts or decorations containing ribbon or string on or over a crib.
	Window blind cords can present a serious strangulation hazard. Move cribs and playpens away from windows. Tie up window cords out of a child’s reach. If your blind cords have continuous loops, call 1-800-444-6742 to request free repair kits to make them safer or cut it in two.
	Pull out drawstrings in children’s clothes. Make sure your child takes off any necklaces, purses, bicycle helmets and scarves before they play or go to sleep. Make sure that children under 6 do not sleep on the top bunk of raised beds. Verify that spaces between the guardrail and bed frame, as well as the head and foot boards, are less than 3.5 inches.