Background Babies, toddlers and little children spend most of their time at home. Because of undeveloped instinct of self-protection they usually get injured there. Some of the injuries are small and some are serious enough to require a visit to an emergency department. According to the State Deaths and their Causes Register during 2014 due to unintentional accidents (ICD-10-AM) W00-X59) in Lithuania were 10 deaths of children 0–5 years old. During last five years (2010–2014) 68 children 5 years and younger died in Lithuania because of the same reasons. According to the Lithuanian Trauma and Accidents Monitoring System during 2014 were registered 12 043 (22,78/1000 inhabitants) cases of unintentional accidents (ICD-10-AM W00-X59) which required to visit emergency department and 2,571 (4,86/1000 inhabitants) cases then children were hospitalised for the same reason. All those injuries happened at home. Because of that, the aim of this research was to evaluate the prevalence of home related injuries among children under five attending preschool education establishments in Lithuania.

Methods Anonymous questionnaires were given to parents/adopters of children under five who lived in 23 Lithuanian districts municipalities. The final study sample was of 1047 respondents. Methods of the statistical analysis were: descriptive statistics; for hypothesis testing were used Pearson Chi² or Fisher exact tests; odds ratio for evaluation of risk and preventive factors were counted. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results The prevalence of home injuries was 64.3%; 95% CI: [61.3–67.1]. The most common injuries were fall (59.6%; 95% CI: [55.8–63.2]), cut/prick (41.2%; 95% CI: [37.5–44.9]), burn/scald (24.7%; 95% CI: [21.5–28]), choking/suffocation (15.5%; 95% CI: [13.0–18.4]). Most of the time ?during the injury child were supervised by an adult (>80% cases). In cases then the parents/adopters let the children play in the yard/playground, without adult supervision, the risk of fall was 1.92 time bigger (95% CI: [1.39–2.61]; p < 0.0001), in cases then parents/adopters let the children to use kitchen appliances, without adult supervision, risk of burn/scald was 2,17 time bigger (95% CI: [1.05–4.49]; p = 0.02), in cases then parents/adopters let the children play with pet, without supervision of adult, the risk of pet injury was 3,05 time bigger (95% CI: [1.77–5.29]; p < 0.0001). The risk of injury is smaller if there is enough information for the parents/adopters about child home safety (OR = 0.56; 95% CI: [0.38–0.82], p = 0,0001) and the risk to cut/prick is smaller if sharp things are out of reach of children (OR = 0.6; (95% CI: [0.46–0.80]; p = 0.0001).

Conclusions The prevalence of home injuries among children under five was 64,3%. 2) The most common injuries are fall, cut/prick, burn/scald and choking/suffocation. 3) Most often injuries occur then child are supervised by an adult. 4) Storage of sharp things out of reach of children and enough information for parents/adopters about home safety are preventive factors. Letting children play in the yard/playground, to use kitchen appliances, to play with pets without adult supervisions are home injuries risk factors.