It can be fun to let young children play in a garden but experts warn of some of the dangers to look out for. Tools, chemicals and water are the biggest hazards; and certain plants and flowers also must be avoided.

Video Transcription

Female Speaker: Because she is so energetic, it's nice that we have got a garden that's mostly grass. So if she does fall over it's more of a bump than it would be a bruise or a cut. And things like flowers, we haven't got many flowers in the garden at the moment or roses or things like that, but the things we did have, roses we took out because of the danger if she fell on to it. But I always make sure that the garden is safe before she goes out to play. Male Speaker: Tools, chemicals, water are the biggest hazards we have in the garden. Tools many have sharp edges or they have spikes. Children will see you use them and they will pick them up and try to do the same thing themselves. Garden can be a right fun. And if you share a good practice yourself, if you teach children how to do things responsibly then when they are old enough, and only you can make the judgment of when they are old enough, when they are old enough then they can start to use those tools safely. We have had some terrible accidents with lawn mowers. There are thousands of people who hurt with lawn mowers each year. And there have even been cases where older children have run over smaller children on sit-on lawn mowers. So if you are out mowing the lawn don't leave it around, and don't tools around when the children are there. Take them in with you. Perhaps some of the bigger jobs with hedge trimmers, don't let children enter in the garden while you are trimming the hedge. You can help yourself by maintaining fences, and maintaining gates, so that the children can't get out of your garden easily. If they are all well maintained they constrain to the road. The only 100% safe thing to do with a garden pond if you have a small child, is to fill it in. Perhaps use a sandpit for a while until your child is older. Unfortunately all of the measures that have been tried to make gardens with ponds safe have failed at different times. Children have even drowned on rainwater that's gathered on the covers on top garden ponds. When grills are used at sometimes children trip on them and their face will get into the water. Children have drowned in just couple of inches of rainwater which has gathered in a bucket or a garden container. Female Speaker: Always make sure that there is nothing out there that will hurt them. Check the garden first, because you never know somebody might go over the hedge or anything like that. Always make sure that it's a nice safe area for them to play with, that they are wearing the coat, and coat is done up properly, that they shoelaces are tied up, so they don't fall over. Male Speaker: Chemicals, you should never leave those around either when children are there and after use lock them away in the shed. And don't decant them into other bottles, because again we have seen deaths among children where they have drunk from a pop bottle which contains things like acid. And that's obviously an extremely upsetting experience for parents and they have to live with that for the rest of their lives. And if you use a shed for storing that type of thing then don't let your children use it as a den.