Smoke Alarms and your child

Raising Safe Kids: One Stage at a Time
Does Your Child Know the Sound of a Smoke Alarm?
Children younger than age 7 are more vulnerable to smoke and flames in a fire, less likely to wake up if a smoke alarm sounds while they’re sleeping and have a hard time escaping a burning home by themselves.
When children see smoke or fire, they may try to hide in a closet or under a bed. So, as soon as your children are old enough to understand, make sure they know the sound of the smoke alarm and what to do when they hear it.
Remember to make and practice a fire escape plan with your entire family. Find at least two ways out of every room and have a plan to help young children escape your home.
Q&A of the Week
Q: My children sleep very deeply. Will they wake up to the smoke alarm?
A: Sometimes children will sleep through a smoke alarm. Test your alarms at night to see if your child will wake up and respond to the alarm. If you child doesn’t wake up to the alarm, try a talking alarm that says “Fire! Fire!”
Some smoke alarms also use a recordable voice message to wake children up, instead of a traditional alarm. These devices let a parent record a personal message like, “Suzie, wake up and get out of the house right now!”
Tip of the Week
Preschool-aged children (3 years and older) can begin to learn what to do in case of a fire. Teach your little ones that the sound of a smoke alarm means go outside immediately, meet at a designated place and don’t hide from firefighters.

These are great tips from the website http://www.safekids.org/stages/index.html on smoke alarms and your children. Such a great idea to introduce your kids of all ages to what a smoke alarm is and what it sounds like. At our house we regularly change the batteries and test the smoke alarms both upstairs and down in our basement. I let the kids help me and explain to them what I am doing and why. We have a plan for fire or smoke that involves a central location that we will all meet in the front yard in case the smoke alarm sounds. My husband and I also role played with our younger kids about what the fireman would look like and sound like if he came into there room at night. It would be scary to anybody to see all that gear and air packs on some stranger in a dark smoke filled room. A trip to your local fire station helps , we went with a group on a tour and one of the firemen put on all his gear and let the kids touch and look closer at him, he explained how he was not a monster, but a community helper that was going to help them in the event their mommy or daddy could not get them out of the house.

Please talk to your kids about these very important tips and maybe it could save a life.