When spring rolls around, your backyard turns from a desolate and overlooked wasteland into the most popular part of your house. Your kids and pets can’t get enough of it and it’s also perfect for evening drinks with your partner and dinner parties with your friends. But the yard can also be a dangerous place.
Every year, there are over 300,000 injuries resulting from lawn and gardening equipment, with many thousands more tied to trampolines, lawn games, barbecues, and regular trips and falls.
Nothing ruins your summer faster than a broken arm, missing pet, or a bout of gastroenteritis.
So, if you want to maintain a safe space for all the family, follow these simple steps for cooking, eating, and playing safely.
Be Careful Around Trampolines
At the outset of this article, we mentioned that trampolines account for many backyard accidents. You probably knew that already, but you might be surprised to learn just how common they are.
Approximately half a million trampolines are sold every year in the United States, and they cause around 100,000 accidents that result in visits to the Emergency Room. Close to a third of these are broken bones and for many kids, their first experiences of emergency rooms and broken bones will result from trampoline use.
Does that mean that you should ditch the trampoline entirely? Not exactly. After all, kids love trampolines and there are ways to make them safer.
If we use the injury statistics as a guide, the following tips will help you to protect against trampoline catastrophes:
- Supervise: Always watch your children when they are using the trampoline. You’ll be ready to step in if one of them gets injured and you can also stop them when they get too boisterous.
- One at a Time: Most injuries occur when multiple people jump at the same time. They bounce into each other and trigger bigger and uncontrollable jumps. It’s a recipe for disaster, and if you want to avoid it, your kids will need to take it in turns to use the trampoline.
- Don’t Let Young Kids Use Them: An alarming number of injuries occur in children under 6. They are also more likely to be severe when they occur in young jumpers. Either keep young kids away, or make sure they only jump alone and when supervised.
- Watch for Obstacles and Pets: Make sure your pets don’t wander too near the trampoline and if there are any toys, remove them. They’ll get in the way and could injure your children.
If you’re dismissing those statistics on the basis that “bumps and scrapes are common and will help the child to learn” then think again. Roughly 0.5% of all trampoline accidents result in serious brain and spinal damage and have a massive impact on the child’s quality of life. 4% of them are so severe that they lead to prolonged hospital stays.
Safety nets are commonplace on trampolines these days and they help to prevent many accidents, but they are not bulletproof, and they don’t substitute for good supervision and careful use.
Supervise at All Times
Always keep an eye on your kids and pets when they are in the backyard. You don’t have to be there with them, but you should least be monitoring them from the window or placing an older and more responsible child in charge.
Look for Hazards
Try to view your garden through the eyes of a child. Are there any climbable trees and fences that could cause harm? Are there are areas where they shouldn’t venture but almost certainly will? What about holes, animal dens, insect nests, and play areas that the neighborhood cats are using as litter boxes?
Remove those hazards, keep it clean, and if there is something that can cause harm, get rid of it!
Install a Fence and Gate
Installing a fence will give you some privacy, but it will also prevent kids and pets from going somewhere they shouldn’t go. Giving your kids GPS tracking devices and installing chips in your pets will give you some added peace of mind. However, that doesn’t mean you can just let them run wild as you stay indoors—always supervise them!
Safeguard Your Pool
Drowning is the number one cause of death in children under 4. Some of those children drown at sea or in public swimming pools. Some are freak and unavoidable accidents that occur on vacation and by the seaside. But the majority occur at home, with kids falling into swimming pools and ponds and being unable to free themselves. Even hot tubs can pose a threat to the health of your child.
If you have a pool or water feature, don’t give your children easy access. Make sure that all doors and windows are locked and secure and supervise them whenever they are outside.
There are pool alarms that will alert you whenever children are near and while these can be expensive, they’re worth it if you have a swimming pool and a small child.
You can also place covers on hot tubs and nets on ponds to reduce the risk, but supervision and locked doors are the only guarantees.
Remove Dangerous Plants
Did you know that lilies can cause kidney failure in cats? Not only is this species deadly when consumed directly, but it will also kill them if they rub against the plants, get pollen on their fur, and then lick themselves clean.
It’s not just lilies, either. There are dozens of plants that can kill or cause serious gastrointestinal distress in both cats and dogs. Children are not immune, either. They can be just as curious and if you have mischievous kids who like to explore, dig, and eat anything they can get their hands on, your garden plants can be a serious health risk.
Research the plants in your garden and remove the ones that can harm your pets and children. It doesn’t matter how pretty they look or how long they have been there—it’s not worth the life of your loved ones.
Follow Basic Food Hygiene
Just because you’re cooking and eating outside doesn’t mean you can neglect basic food hygiene and start thinking like a caveman. Bacteria can still gather and accumulate. People will still get sick, and if you want to avoid an outbreak of sickness and diarrhea, you’ll need to follow these basic hygiene rules:
- Buy a thermometer and cook all meats to the right temperature, thus killing the bacteria.
- Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Bacteria thrive at between 40 and 140 degrees and these temperatures should be avoided.
- Put food away and don’t leave it at room temperature for too long.
- Don’t cross-contaminate by mixing raw meat with cooked meat.
- Wash your hands before preparing, cooking, serving, and eating food.
- Don’t reuse plates and cutlery that were used to handle raw meat.
- Clean all your fruits and vegetables before preparing them.
- If you’re using coolers, don’t keep the lid open and limit the number of times it is opened and closed. Not only will warm drinks and food be unpalatable, but the risk of contamination is much higher when they’re not chilled.
- Clean all surfaces before placing food on them.
Keep Fires A Safe Distance Away
Move the grill/pizza oven away from play areas and place the firepit at least several feet from furniture. It’s tempting to keep fire pits close so that you can enjoy the heat when it’s cold out, but doing so will burn or scorch the furniture, as well as any hands, arms, and hair that stray too close to the flames. Fire pits are safe, but only if you follow basic safety guidelines and don’t throw caution to the wind.
Keep Pets Away
Pets love gardens as much as children, and your outdoor space is the perfect place for them to play together and burn off some of their boundless energy. However, you need to be very careful, as pets and children don’t always mix.
If you have big dogs and small children, the kids may be at risk. We’ve all seen it—the kids get too excited, the dog feeds off their energy, and before you know it, you have an apologetic dog and a crying child on your hands. If you have small dogs/cats and boisterous children, they could be kicked, trodden on, or otherwise harmed during ball games and general play.
If you have fire pits, patio heaters, pizza ovens, and/or grills, curious cats and dogs can quickly turn into flaming fireballs. You’d think that self-preservation would kick in and keep them at bay, but that isn’t always the case. Cats especially are very curious creatures and like to sniff and rub on everything they find, while dogs seem to lose control of their tails and may swipe the flames.
Whenever there are fires raging or kids playing, keep pets out of harm’s way.