Kansas: 913.236.7337 I Missouri: 816.361.7337 I Lawrence: 785.843.7337

It is amazing how dependent modern people are on electricity. This includes appliances, lights, electronic devices and more. Each room in your house is likely full of power points, switches and other types of fixtures. There are many cases when you may even take advantage of their presence.

However, it is important to be careful when doing anything with electricity, as it poses a serious risk for electric shock or a burn if not used safely.

In many situations, these electricity-related accidents occur when toddlers or young children have the ability to “roam free,” remain unsupervised and get their hands on electrical devices. If you want to prevent the possibility of a serious accident or injury, the best thing you can do is to childproof your home from possible electrical hazards. Some tips to help you do this effectively can be found here.

Identify All Electrical Hazards in Your Home

To find all the electrical hazards present in your home, methodically inspect each room. Be extremely thorough and check each point located at a lower level – i.e. a child’s eye level. It may be a good idea to get on your hands and knees to see things from your child’s perspective.

Be sure to look above dressers, side tables, and countertops, as well as behind furniture. Create a very detailed list of all the possible electrical risks and hazards you have found and then begin addressing them, one by one.

Childproofing Your Electrical Outlets

One of the easiest and most effective ways to protect your children from electricity related accidents and injuries is to childproof all the electrical outlets in your home. The majority of the rooms in your home are going to have several outlets, and children may try to poke their fingers or small objects inside.

A great way to prevent this is to install electrical outlet caps over any unused outlet. This will prevent your child from being able to stick anything inside.

Childproofing Your Power Strips

If you use power strips to help power several electronic devices at once, you need to take steps to childproof these, as well. The tangled mess of cords from various devices plugged into a single power strip may be on the floor, and easily accessible to your children.

You can install power strip covers on any features of these that your children could get to. The covers can wrap around the power strip and have holes at each end for cords to enter and exit. This will prevent your kids from trying to pull out or mess with the wires. If there are any gaps in the cover’s holes, then cover them with duct tape for an additional layer of protection.

Protecting your children from electrical hazards in your home should be a top priority for any parent. Use the tips here, or work with a professional electrician to figure out what else can be done to help prevent electrical related accidents.