How to set up the electrical installation in your home to make it suitable for children and pets?

The home is somewhere that should provide safety for the people who live there, especially if they need special protection, as is the case with children and pets. Here are some recommendations to help you make your home safer.

A safe house for children

According to data provided by the Spanish Association of Paediatricians (AEPED in Spanish), in its Guide for parents on the prevention of unintentional injuries in childhood, more than half of accidents suffered by children between 0 and 4 years old happen at home. That is why the AEPED emphasises the need for guardians and educators to provide a safe environment for children.

A safe house for pets

Pets may accidentally manipulate plugs, switches and domestic appliances. Some dogs and cats nibble on wires, it is your responsibility to protect them from electrical accidents.

What you can do to create a safe electrical environment for children and pets.

To do this, you need to take the following two steps:

1. Surveillance: Check that your installation and appliances comply with the regulations and are in good working order, by regular inspection and correct maintenance. You should ensure that at key points where children and pets spend more time, there is no danger: No easy access to switches, plugs, domestic appliances or cables.

This surveillance should ensure the identification of possible risk factors, finding out the best way of neutralising them and ensuring that the solution adopted is effective.

There should not only be surveillance in the home, but you should also take a look at other areas where the children may spend more time without supervision, including the homes of family and friends, education centres, hotels, etc.

2. Training: With regard to this, as children grow up, they need to be trained so they learn how to avoid risks. Parallel work also needs to be done depending on their age, to teach them how to use switches, plugs and domestic appliances responsibly and carefully. They need to learn to keep them in good working order and knowing what to do in case of risk is essential so as they grow up knowing how to behave in the environment around them.

This is not possible with animals. Sometimes a pet may be trained not to chew on wires and cables or to come into contact with plugs, but this is not always possible. That is why the home should be set as much as possible right from the start to prevent them from getting into the habit.

Easy ideas to optimise the installation in your home

• Protect your plugs: There are numerous solutions, select the one that best suits your needs and installations.
• Protect your cables: Keep them in good condition, store them or get cable protectors, which will prevent children and pets from harming them or themselves. If you have a pet, there are products that can be applied to cable protectors to repel animals and prevent them from biting them. Use furniture, brackets and fastenings to secure the cables and keep them away from children and animals by raising them to a suitable height.
• Unplug anything that is not being used: From chargers to lamps, such a simple act enables you to prevent countless scares, as well as saving by avoiding phantom consumption.

What is an electric shock?

It is the type of injury resulting from a discharge, in this case produced by an electrical accident. It can be:

• Low voltage: this is the most frequent and least serious. It is the result of handling plugs, bare cables or domestic appliances in poor condition. It causes burns that are usually located in the area near the injury, which is usually the mouth or hands, although it can also cause arrhythmia so it is important to treat this immediately although at first glance it may seem minor.
• High voltage: this is less frequent and much more serious. This results in skin burns of different degrees that involve the destruction of deep tissues affecting multiple organs.

The main symptoms of electric shock are the following:

• Burns to the skin A burn at the point of entry and at the point of exit. The severity will depend on the voltage and time of exposure.
• Damage to muscles: Electric shocks cause damage similar to that by crushing and may result in swelling and even necrosis. It is important to receive medical attention immediately as other vital organs such as the kidneys may be affected.
• Vascular damage: As a result of thrombosis in blood vessels.
• Heart damage: It may cause arrhythmia and tachycardia.
• Neurological damage: This can appear as a headaches or even a seizure.
• Bone damage: This can be caused by fractures that may be due to muscular contraction.

Immediate attention and supervision by health personnel is always recommended in case of suffering an accident of these characteristics.

Recommendations for each of the rooms in the house

In the kitchen:

The kitchen is where there is a high concentration of smaller domestic appliances, that is why there is usually an accumulation of plugs, adaptors, extension cords and multi-socket adaptors. A quick and effective solution in order to keep them out of reach of children and pets, is to keep them hidden among the elements of the kitchen, behind the furniture or high up in the cabinets.

We also recommend keeping domestic appliances unplugged when they are not being used: This is how you can prevent children or pets from accidentally switching them on.

When children start walking, they need to be taught the basic rules for using these appliances, including for example, always handling them with dry hands and never barefoot. They also need to know about their basic maintenance: How to disassemble, clean and store them properly.

In the bathroom:

The bathroom is another room where there is an increasing number of small domestic appliances. As these are not used continuously, it is recommended to keep bathroom electrical appliances safely stored and in perfect condition, with no access for children and pets.

In the case of children, it is advisable to teach them how to use these appliances, emphasising the importance of having dry hands and not being barefoot, not to be standing on a damp or wet floor, as well as using them away from water.

In the living room:

Highchairs and playpens should always be well away from switches and plugs. It is also advisable for the television to be out of reach of children and pets and in should have a stable base or attachment, to prevent them from handling it. Finally, plugs, adaptors, extension cords and multi-socket adaptors need to be protected or hidden, to do this you can make use of other elements in the living room. In this way, you will not only make your home safe, you will also be able to add a decorative touch.