Summer means lots of children will be playing outdoors, but it’s important to keep a safety checklist in mind to keep children safe while they’re having fun. Here are some great tips to keep in mind for children’s safety. Post this safety checklist on your fridge or family bulletin board as a reminder of ways you can keep your children safe and prevent injuries or accidents from intruding on your family’s summer fun.

1. Sun Safety

When it comes to protecting your children from the sun, sunscreen plays an important role. But sunscreen is just one of the ways to guard against the sun’s damaging rays. Because the sun’s rays can reflect off of the sand and water or other reflective surfaces, hats and sunglasses can also play an important role in preventing UV damage. Even on cloudy days it is important to apply sun screen half an hour before you go outside.

Nowadays there is also sun protective clothing for those long days on the beaches or at camp. There are also some really cool sunglasses that block 99 to 100 percent of UVA and UVB rays. You don’t need to spend a lot, research has shown inexpensive sunglasses that are labelled as protective for UVA and UVB are effective.

2. Protect Against Bugs

Bugs are one of those annoyances of summer. But insects such as potentially disease-carrying mosquitoes and bees can also be harmful to children. To protect your child against bugs:

• Particularly at dusk wear long sleeve shirts and long pants when going outside, when mosquitoes are more likely to be present.

• Never leave stagnant pools of water around the house. Pools of water can serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

3. Avoid Dehydration

Whether your child is playing soccer with teammates or running around in the sand with some friends, it’s important to keep in mind that frequent water breaks are very important to prevent dehydration. Your child should drink water before exercise and during breaks, which should be about every 15 to 20 minutes. On particularly hot and humid days, it’s also a good idea for parents to spray down kids with some water from a spray bottle.

4. Don’t Forget Helmets

Your child should wear a helmet whenever they are on anything with wheels, such as a scooter, bicycle, or roller skates. A helmet is the most important device available that can reduce head injury and death from a bicycle crash. Be sure to set a good example by always wearing your helmet when riding your bike.

5. Practice Food Safety

Food-borne illnesses increase in the summer because bacteria grow faster in warmer temperatures and humidity. On top of that, more people are eating and preparing food outdoors, at picnics and barbecues, where refrigeration and places to wash hands are not readily available.

To prevent food-borne illnesses:

• Be sure to wash your hands before preparing or serving any food. Make sure your children wash their hands, or at least use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser, before eating.

• Never cross-contaminate. Do not allow any raw meat or poultry to come into contact with any other food or plates or utensils.

• Consider the temperature. Use a thermometer and be sure to cook all meat and poultry to the correct temperatures to kill any harmful bacteria. Keep all perishable foods in the refrigerator and do not keep leftovers unrefrigerated for more than one or two hours.

6. Guard Against Drowning

If you have a swimming pool or if your child will be near one, it is crucial to put multiple safety measures in place to keep children safe.

• Put barriers around the pool to restrict access. Use doors with locks and alarms to keep children out when adults are not present.

• Never leave children unsupervised. Even if your grade-schooler is a confident and capable swimmer, do not leave the pool area without adult supervision if children are in or near the water.

• Do not allow children to use flotation devices alone. Inflatable “floaties” and other flotation devices and toys can give children who cannot swim a false sense of security.

• Learn CPR. You may never need to use it, but knowing CPR for adults and for children is something that can mean the difference between life and death in an emergency.

7. Avoid Trampoline Danger

Keep your eye on the children at all times when they are on the trampoline and move the trampoline away from other structures where the children can fall and hurt themselves.

8. Warn children about hiding in enclosed spaces.

Teach children to never play hide and seek by crawling inside an enclosed space such as a car trunk, chest, or old cooler or appliance.

9. Use Caution When Doing Yard Work

Never allow children to ride on lawnmowers or to play near motorised lawn equipment.

10. Safeguard home playgrounds

If you have a backyard playground or play equipment, make sure the ground beneath the equipment is soft enough. Surfaces made of concrete are too hard, and do not absorb enough impact in the event of a fall.