For their first year of life infants are completely dependent upon others. In the second year their curiosity grows and they want to investigate elements such as fire, water, earth, and indeed everything around them, all with no sense of danger. Later they develop new skills and take every opportunity to practice them.
A baby can suffocate from being overlaid by his mother, by choking on his bottle, swallowing small objects, having a tight sting around his neck. He can be burned by rolling into the fire, knocking over a lamp, playing with candles and petrol, and being scaled by boiling pots, steaming food, and his bathwater. He can be injured by sharp toy, get his head stuck into things, fall off his mother's back, or be dropped by his sister.
A Toddler can do all the above, and because he is more mobile can fall into fires, ponds, latrines, compost pits, drown in the bath, swamp, fish pond, spring, and climb into every danger. He can investigate electricity, gas, oil stoves, cutlery, tools, taps, and even the car outside; he can taste attractive looking liquids in familiar bottles, but instead find disinfectant or paraffin; he can try out any pills he sees that look like sweets; he can wander off, to be bitten by animals or injured on the road.
The mother and other members of the family must be alert. If an accident does happen, find out the causes so that it can be prevented in future. Accidents need not "just happen", they can be prevented.
