How to accident-proof your kids - continued (2)

SNEAKY SITUATION 2
When you're doing chores

Little kids have a knack for getting injured when you're right there, and in a blink, too. Just ask Doris Alexander, a mom of four in Pasadena, Texas. She turned her back on her 2-year-old son, Andrew, while unloading the dishwasher. "In that quick second, he reached in and touched the still-hot heating element in the bottom," she says. "He wound up with a second-degree burn over half of his palm."

• Play it safer: Whenever you're doing anything that's potentially hazardous -- unloading a steaming dishwasher, using caustic cleaning chemicals -- take a minute to settle your child somewhere safe before you get started, like in a play yard or high chair with a toy or a snack (or, yes, a video!). And keep in mind that the most common time for accidents is during meal preparation: If your husband's around when you're cooking dinner, put him on kid watch while you stir the pasta sauce.

SNEAKY SITUATION 3
After you've popped a pill

It might seem like the perfect in-a-pinch plaything: a shakable plastic container of pills or capsules with a child-resistant top. Katie Rainville certainly thought so when she handed her 18-month-old daughter, Sydney, a bottle of gelcaps to rattle while she went to get the vacuum cleaner. "From the next room, I heard Sydney say, 'Mmm,' " recalls Rainville. When the mom from Franklin, New Hampshire, came back, the meds were all over the floor. At the ER, blood tests confirmed that Sydney had swallowed just one pill, which, fortunately, wouldn't hurt her.

• Play it safer: "Don't mistake 'child-resistant' for 'childproof,'" says Carl Baum, M.D., an associate professor of pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, Connecticut. These kinds of lids are hard for kids to open, but not impossible. Second, keep a stash of safe, age-appropriate toys in baskets or drawers all over the house. If you're desperate for a distraction, reach for a set of keys. They may not be especially clean, but they're not deadly, either. Parenting.com: Quick and easy fun