Time For a F.O.D. Walk

Little ones are curious and very unpredictable! There is no tool to measure just how much is going on inside those adorable lil' heads of theirs from one moment to the next.

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We can do every single thing correctly in our homes and lives and yet, tragedy may still strike. As our lil' ones discover life and the objects we have gathered in our homes to facilitate the activities of our lives, we must realize that they see their use as very different from the intended purpose.

You and I do not look at things as these lil' ones do. We know their use and purpose and know how to use them. To the young child, something like a cell phone or a toy with buttons and moving parts, are intriguing to experiment with.

As these amazing lil' creatures explore our homes from below, let us remember to prepare their path. What treasures lay about awaiting discovery? The smaller the better. My lil' grandson has awesome fine motor skills and with those adorable tiny fingers, he can pick up a single green pea without squashing it and put it into his mouth. I love to watch him eat peas one at a time.

However, with those same fine motor skills, he could ingest a small coin or battery. My daughter-in-law takes awesome care of this lil' guy and their home is immaculate. Even still, children are looking for things that you and I are not seeking to find. We live in the age of technology and many items in our homes are present that were not present in generations before us.

When I was in the military and we worked on aircraft, we used to do what we called F.O.D. walks. Foreign Object Damage walks. We searched the flight line and hard stands where our aircraft would travel, and looked for anything that might be sucked up into the intakes of the engines. If it was large enough, we ran the risk of the compressor blades inside of our engines getting damaged as the aircraft was taking off. Should that happen, if the damage was severe enough, the aircraft could crash and lives be lost.

Time for a F.O.D. walk inside of our homes, and let's keep these lil' ones safe. They are our future..

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