Cleaning Safety for Kids

Whether you have an infant, toddler or preschooler at home, it’s important to understand cleaning priorities and practices as kids crawl, toddle and run. Focus cleaning efforts on key places for health and wellbeing and stay ahead of cleaning safety precautions.

Cleaning for Health

Parents with infants do, on average, a load of laundry a day. Parents with toddlers know anything within reach will be put in their mouths eventually. And as children get older, there are different things to focus on keeping clean, like toys and tablets. Pay attention to key cleaning moments (link) to help keep kids healthy, no matter their age.

Safety Precautions

When using cleaning products, be sure to take precautions. Try to time deep cleaning for when children are not around.

• Never let children handle cleaning products
• Always store cleaning products up and out of sight and reach of children
• Always store cleaning products in their original container
• Always keep product containers securely closed

Did you know that the Poison Prevention Centers offer free, private, confidential medical advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? You can reach your local poison center by calling 1-800-222-1222. ACI suggests that you program this number into your home and cell phones in case of emergency.

Kid Friendly Chores

Getting kids involved in cleaning, safely, helps give them a sense of responsibility. Chores should never involve young children handling cleaning products. But there are plenty of other ways to help! Safe and feasible tasks will depend on the age of the child. Learn more.

Spots and Stains

Children get into all sorts of situations where stains can occur, from eating ice cream (protein) , to playing in the yard (grass, mud and maybe a skinned knee from time to time), to finger painting. The sooner you pretreat/soak the stain the better chance you have to having the stain fully removed. A quick and easy reference on how to treat and remove stains can be found on ACI's Stain Removal Chart.