One of the little girls we have visiting with us over the Fourth of July weekend, was two-year-old Willow. She reminded us of how important it was to baby proof the house for this age child. She is very fast and very clever. Although we had been conditioned to shut all the doors so she could not wander, by the end of the week she figured out how to work the latches. I happened to catch her before she was about to close the door on her fingers. One evening I let her put the measuring cup full of dog kibble into his dish. The next day, when she was out of sight for a moment, she was into the large crock where we keep the kibble, and had filled not only his food dish, but his water dish and was in the process of tossing measuring cups of kibble around the kitchen.

Our new technologies have added a new domain of baby-proofing. This domain was highlighted by a recent research article published in The Journal of Preventive Medicine (McKenzie 2009). The researchers found that over the period from 1994 to 2006 there was a seven fold increase in the number of emergency room admissions for computer related injuries. Children under five were found to be most at risk. Most frequently, the injuries were caused by the young child’s tripping over computer wires. In so doing they can easily bump their heads on sharp corners. Although this cause of accidents sounds counter-intuitive consider the fact that the most frequent cause of death in young children is the result of swallowing balloons.

The chief researcher of the study, Lara Mckenzie listed a number of precautions to be taken to prevent computer related injuries in young children. The most important is to keep computers on solid, stable furniture, away from sharp edges and unreachable to small children. It is also important to separate the children’s play areas from those areas where there are computers. In setting up the computer all of the wires should be gathered and secured either with tape or with materials made specifically for that purpose. Other common sense precautions include keeping the computer against a wall and away from walkways. Finally, Dr. Mckenzie advises parents not to allow young children access to computers unless there is adult supervision of the activity.

If all of this seems like overkill, it is not. As I learned from watching Willow, run out the door, climb on anything climbable and eat anything she could grab, children at this stage have enormous curiosity and few learned fears. That is a very dangerous combination. For this age group, we should take the trouble to make the environment safe, rather than be sorry that we didn’t.

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McKenzie, L. M. e. a. (2009). "Computer Proofing the Home." Journal of Preventive Medicine (July).