Lighting safety in a home with young children

Children pull cables, touch hot bulbs and put small parts in their mouths. Which lighting risks to watch for at each age and how to prepare your home.

A small child sees a home through entirely different eyes: a cable hanging to the floor looks like a toy, a glowing bulb is fascinating, and the base of a table lamp is a handy support for pulling themselves up. Through that lens, lighting that adults take for granted turns into a series of risks. Most of them can be removed without costly changes, simply by rethinking where things go and adjusting a few habits.

Fittings that can tip over or be pulled down

Table lamps and floor lamps are the most common source of risk. A child pulling on a cable can bring a lamp down off a table, and a tall floor lamp can topple onto them.

• Choose floor lamps with a wide, heavy base, and where possible place them behind furniture and away from the child's usual route.
• Position table lamps near the wall rather than at the edge of the table.
• Run cables along furniture in trunking or with clips, leaving no loose loops.
• Do not route extension leads across the middle of the room.
• Move lamps with glass shades out of the child's reach.

There should be no cables, light strings or lamp flexes near a cot or playpen: a child can pull them, chew them or become entangled. If you use decorative string lights in a child's room, fix them well away from the bed and at a height the child cannot reach.

Hot bulbs and burns

The glass of incandescent and halogen bulbs gets hot enough in use to burn on contact. LED bulbs run much cooler, but their bodies still get warm and sometimes hot. Fittings with exposed bulbs within a child's reach are best raised higher or replaced with versions that have an enclosed shade.

Avoid changing bulbs in front of the child: a hot or broken bulb ends up within reach, and the child may later try to copy what they saw. Keep spare and used bulbs in a cupboard the child cannot open.

Night lights and plug-in lights

A small light left on at night reassures many children, as long as it is chosen with care:

• a plug-in night light should sit firmly in the socket, have an intact casing and not be easy for a child to pull out;
• choose one with dim, warm light, since a bright light aimed at the bed disturbs sleep;
• keep the night light away from curtains, soft toys and bedding;
• use safety covers on unused sockets;
• when choosing a toy-shaped night light, make sure it has no small parts that could come off.

Battery-powered LED products

LED candles, remote controls and small torches often run on button cells, the flat round batteries. Swallowing one is extremely dangerous for a child and needs emergency medical care. Keep products whose battery compartment is not secured with a screw out of children's reach, and do not leave spare or used batteries lying around. If you suspect a child has swallowed a battery, seek medical help immediately without waiting for symptoms.

Bathroom and kitchen

Bathroom light fittings must be protected against moisture and chosen according to the room's electrical zones. In a home with children, it also helps not to use portable lamps plugged in via an extension lead in the bathroom, and to teach children early not to touch light switches with wet hands. In the kitchen, cables and drivers for under-cabinet lights should be covered and out of a child's reach.

A quick checklist by age

• Crawling baby: cables at floor level, sockets, floor lamp bases, night lights close to the floor.
• Standing and climbing toddler: table lamps, fittings on top of shelves, anything that can be pulled down by its cable.
• Pre-school child: night lights, battery-powered light-up toys, exposed and hot bulbs, string lights.
• School-age child: a stable desk lamp, a bulb that is not directly visible to the eyes, and teaching safe rules for when they want to change a bulb themselves.

It is a good habit to go through this list again whenever a new light comes into the house or the child learns a new skill, such as climbing onto a chair.

For a desk, a fitting with a stable base and a shade that covers the bulb, combined with an LED lamp of suitable output, is a sound starting point. Cool-running LEDs are a sensible choice in a home with children, and because Zəfər İşığı bulbs come with several bases, matching them to existing fittings is easy.