Family Safety and Health

We all want to do whatever we can to keep our children and families safe. To learn more about family safety, take a look at the resources below. If you have specific questions about this category or know of additional resources that should be on our list, please contact us.

Family Safety Resources Topic List
Natural Disasters and Weather
Travel Safety
Household Safety
Personal Safety
Avoiding Chemicals
Pest Control
Cyber Safety
Talking to Your Children About Disasters and/or Tragedies

Natural Disasters and Weather

Tornado Drills with Toddlers: Five steps to prepare your children for a tornado.
FamilySAFE: Featured on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, FamilySAFE builds storm shelters into homes that do not have safe areas to stay during dangerous storms.
Emergency Preparedness News and Tips, by American Family Safety: With guidelines and Q&A from Red cross, FEMA, and Homeland security, this one-stop-shop could be invaluable in planning your family’s kit.
Are You Prepared?, by 72Hours.org: This comprehensive website guides you through the process of building a disaster-preparedness kit as well as offering advice relevant to many different kinds of emergencies.
Being Prepared For Personal Disasters, at Diary of a First Child
Is Your Family Prepared for an Emergency?, at Happy Mothering
What to Do in an Earthquake, at A Little Bit of All of It
15 Must Haves for the Natural Minded Family When Disaster or Emergency Strikes, at Hybrid Rasta Mama
Inside Our Just in Case Kits, at Natural Parents Network

Travel Safety

Ten Tips to Relieve Toddler Carseat Woes: Some helpful ideas to make traveling with your toddler easier.
Why Rear-Facing is Safest, by Car-Safety.org: Though you might be eager to forward-face your little one’s car seat, this article explains why rear-facing for as long as possible is the safest.
Child Safety on Airplanes, by FAA.gov: Taking to the skies for your family vacation? The FAA offers tips for keeping your kids safe and secure on a plane.
Should You Use Your Car Seat on the Plane? by Travelwithyourkids.com: This article offers a simple answer to a common conundrum and tells you what’s approved for use on flights.
Natural Cures for Radiation Exposure, by Liana Werner-Gray: While radiation exposure is unavoidable when flying, its effects can be eased with some simple foods like miso soup.
Counteracting the Negative Effects of Full Body Scanners & Airplane Radiation, by Travel Lotus: Should you opt for the pat-down or the full-body scanner? How can you detox after travel? Melinda London answers these and other questions.
Pack a Car Safety Kit: 25 Must Have Items for Emergencies, at Hobo Mama

Household Safety

Leave Your Shoes by the Door by NatureMoms: Eliminate 98% of toxic dust in your home by creating a no-shoes-in-the-house rule.
Sparky the Firedog: A family-friendly site about fire safety, with downloadable fire escape planning grid and home fire safety checklist, as well as coloring pages for the little ones.
Five Ideas to Keep Babies and Toddlers Safe from Choking, at Code Name: Mama

Personal Safety

Creating a DNA-Fingerprint Kit for Your Family: A how-to guide to creating this important safety tool.
Safe Kids USA: This site gives many great tips and information about keeping kids safe “at home, at play, and on the way.” You can select your child’s age and particular activities for even more specific tips and guidelines for safety.
Protect Your Kids from Sneaky People, at Hobo Mama

Avoiding Chemicals

Non-Toxic Kids: Helping Your Kids Stay Safe, Healthy, and Smart: This “green” blog is full of important information related to natural parenting. It has been featured in various popular newspapers and magazines as well as blogs and websites. Among other things, Non-Toxic Kids focuses a great deal on the safety of chemicals and products that our children may come into contact with on a daily basis.
Top Sun Safety Tips, by Environmental Working Group: EWG’s comprehensive and up-to-date guide on safe sunscreens includes everything you need to know to keep your family safe and healthy in the sun.

Pest Control

Pesticides: Controlling Pests, by The EPA: The EPA website offers information and resources on pest control and pesticides, as well as information on how to apply this knowledge in your home, building, school, and garden. They provide Do’s and Don’ts of Pest Control, and a multitude of articles regarding the topic and related subtopics, as well as a resource page of external links for pest management.
Pets, by Green Living Tips: Green Living Tips is a website focusing on “greening” every aspect of your life. The site contains several informative articles on natural and chemical-free pest control and pest management under their Pets category, and also accepts feedback from readers, so you may find tips by reading the comments posted to the individual articles.
Natural Insect Pest Control, by EarthEasy: EarthEasy is dedicated to greening your home and garden, with topics from energy efficiency and water conservation to non-toxic pest control in your home, yard, and garden. They offer an abundance of pest control information divided into subcategories listed by specific pests, and also feature an online store selling a wide variety of non-toxic, earth friendly products to help you tackle your pest problems.
Organic Data Bank has a host of articles relating to natural pest control in and outside the home, as well as information pertaining to pets, gardening, and tree and plant care.
Home and Office Pest Control, by Wondercide, a non-toxic, organic pest control company with a very well-designed, comprehensive website, including an online store.

Cyber Safety

Windows Live Family Safety 2011: Offers a downloadable program for those running Microsoft Windows, and includes safe search, parental controls, and the ability to monitor activity.
Family Safety, by Microsoft Safety and Security Center: Offers a table of contents of options centered around safety and tips for cyber safety and cyber safety with children in the home.