It’s funny how folks change when the become parents. Somehow–even if you’ve been a big sister, a babysitter, and been around tons of kids. . . your laissez faire attitude about children’s saftey and injuries suddenly does a 180 when you have kids. Now, I’m not the kind of person to wrap my kiddos in bubble wrap and try to prevent anything from every happening to them. At the Frugal Village Homestead we firmly believe that kids should run and jump, fall down, get dirty and have a life that includes bug bites and scraped knees. That’s part of being a kid and growing up.
That doesn’t mean we don’t try to be sensible about preventable injuries. When the kids were small we covered electrical outlets, put locks on cabinets that contained caustic chemicals or sharp implements, and had gates to block stairs.
I guess it’s a matter of the possible severity of the injury.
Running on the driveway, falling and skinning your knee might lead to tears and a possible small scar–but in the big scheme of things no harm done. Falling down the stairs could break your neck.
When the folks from Pinch-Not contacted me about their finger safety products I admit it. I kind of thought “what’s the big deal”. But as I do with any new possible client I am unfamiliar with, I researched their product and the injuries it was designed to prevent.
According to West Bend Insurance’s “Culture of Safety” site
The National Safety Council reports that more than 300,000 door-related injuries requiring emergency room treatment take place each year. Children, especially those under the age of four, suffer most door-related injuries that ultimately require amputation. Like other hazards young children face everyday, door-related injuries are easily preventable. . . most serious finger injuries take place at the hinge side of the door. As the door closes, the pressure exerted at the hinge area of a door can reach as much as 40 tons – or 80,000 lbs – per square inch!
Hmmm. An easily preventable injury that sends over 300,000 kids to the emergency room–some of whom have amputations. That sounds pretty serious. And I had no idea that a closing door can have 40 tons of pressure per square inch–that’s a huge amount! The same website offer this exercise to demonstrate the power of a door:
To illustrate the potential for excruciating pain, carefully place a standard No. 2 pencil on the middle hinge of any door. Be sure to move your fingers from the door. Once the pencil is carefully balanced, quickly close the door and witness what 40 tons per square inch of pressure can do to a fragile finger.
Ouch! Maybe this all was a bigger deal than I realized!
I agreed to check them out! The folks at Pinch Not sent me a couple sets of their handle side door bumpers and their hinge side door safety shield. At my house we’ve got a lot of open doorways, french doors and pocket doors, so the best candidate for testing these items was actually my basement door. Which is indeed a different color on the front and back due to some DIY work the previous owners did .
The handle side door bumpers come in two styles–the adhesive style door bumper (shown) and a non adhesive slip on style door bumper. It’s simple to attach, just make sure you put it up high enough that the toddler can’t reach it. Then pull it out and over the edge of the door to use the bumper, and then retract it when the door is closed.
The hinge side door safety shield set comes as two flexible pieces. One covers the gap on the interior of the door, and one on the exterior. There is a long adhesive strip on either side, so it’s just lining it up and sticking it on. Really easy installation. The pieces even come pre-perforated on the top so you can just snap along the line to shorten the shield to fit your door (mine are tall so I just left them completely intact.
There is another piece that goes on the outside of the door to cover the hinges. Again, it has a stick on strip and you can “snap” off the top to get it to the right size.
These white plastic shields did not interfere with the operation of the doors at all. If my house had white woodwork/trim, you probably wouldn’t have even noticed it was there!
I think that the shield is a great product for daycare centers, home daycares, nursery schools, church nurseries and places like that–where you have lots of kids all the time. I don’t know that I would personally install them throughout the house–although if you had a playroom or bedroom that your child was frequently in and out of then I’d consider installing them there.
The door bumpers I think are a fabulous idea, and would be great to have on any door that small children come into contact with regularly, and should be considered right up there with electric outlet covers and gates when you are baby-proofing your home.
So where can you find these products? Well, Walmart carries them of course! If you can’t find them in store, then you can order the Pinch-Not products at Walmart.com.
And in case my description wasn’t detailed enough–here is a video showing you how to install the door shield:
****This is a sponsored post****
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I’ve received product samples for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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