The Mother's Way

You’re expecting an addition to your family; it’s an exciting time, and you no doubt have a million things on your mind – getting the nursery ready, buying clothes for the baby, picking out names. While all of these things are important, there’s another thing that you may be forgetting all about – safety around your home, and childproofing your house.

It may seem like something you can put off for a while, especially if you haven’t had your baby yet – but time will fly by, and before you know it, your child will be getting into everything that looks exciting to them.

The best way to see what may be a potential hazard for your baby would be by crawling around on all fours and seeing what is in your reach that could be harmful to a child. You can also check out what is precious to you that your child may be able to get their hands on, and can remove that to a more suitable location.

After you have done that, here are some other things that you can do to childproof your home.

Doors and Cupboards

Babies are naturally very curious people, and they like to go exploring, whether it means outside, in another room in the house, or in the cupboards in the kitchen.

A baby gate is a good thing to have for your staircase, or any other rooms that you don’t want your child getting into. When looking for a gate, buy a brand-new one; one that cannot be dislodged by a child but is still easy for you to open and close, and preferably one that screws into the walls as opposed to a tension gate. Try and choose a gate that is straight across the top.

When childproofing your cupboards, buy exterior or interior cabinet locks. Put them on most of the cabinets that you don’t want your child getting into, however, always leave one cabinet (filled with plastic containers and the like) unlocked for your child to play with. Remember – because some children can still manage to get into cupboards with locks on them – keep anything hazardous in a higher cabinet that your child won’t be able to reach.

Childproof door handles are great so that your child won’t slip outdoors if you’re temporarily distracted. You can buy these for all your doors, or you can use a hook and eye latch on doors that are indoors that you don’t want your child opening.

Furniture

Once your child starts walking, you’ve got other things to worry about; children learning to walk are never completely steady on their feet at first, and have a tendency to fall into things, or hold onto things to keep them steady. In order to prevent serious accidents, put bumpers or cushions on tables, fireplaces or other furniture with sharp edges to soften the fall if your child falls into these objects. Also, if you have a traditional fireplace with doors, keep these doors shut and locked to prevent your child from playing in any remaining ashes.

Any large or heavy pieces of furniture should be bolted to the wall with L-brackets, and you shouldn’t use furniture that has wheels on the bottom.

A lot of drapes or blinds will have cords attached to them – children can easily get caught in these cords. Roll up the cords until you need to use them, or cut them off completely.

Toys

Every child likes to play with toys, and most parents love buying toys for their new youngster. All toys can be intriguing for young children, so keep any toys belonging to older siblings in a separate room where your younger child can’t get to them. Also, make sure to throw out any broken toys and toy parts that could prove to be a chocking hazard.

Don’t allow young children to sleep with a stuffed animal (or too much bedding) as it can sometimes lead to suffocation.

Other

There are numerous other little things that can be done to keep your house a child-safe place for your new baby:

• Buy outlet covers for all of your electrical sockets.
• Cleaning Supplies can be poisonous when consumed by anyone, and children like to get into everything. Put all your cleaning supplies together in an inaccessible location, preferably far out of reach of children (high up cupboards work best). Lock the cupboard the supplies are in with childproof locks. It’s also a good idea to store any knives or glass in locked cupboards.
• Double check that your baby monitor is always working and within range to hear your child.
• Houses built before 1978 were painted with lead paint. If the paint is old and peeling off, it may release lead particles into the air, which could cause lead poisoning. If there is lead paint, it should either be removed (by a professional) or covered with an approved sealant.
• Remove anything that is small enough to be a choking hazard – including fridge magnets that could fall on the floor when the door is slammed.
• Get lids for your trashcans to prevent your child from putting something into their mouths that may prove harmful.
• When cooking, use back burners and turn any handles to the back of the stove. This will stop young children from grabbing a pot handle, tipping it over and having something hot spilled on them.

Of course, these are only some things to do to baby proof your house. Try looking at things in your house from the perspective of a young child – what looks like it could be interesting to explore and play in? Then look at it from an adult – is there something that could hurt your child from this? If there is, look for ways that you could make this object safer.

Lastly, and I can’t stress this enough, don’t wait until your child is old enough to be crawling around on his/her own. This is an exciting period of time for your child, and you don’t want to have to worry about how you haven’t had a chance to childproof your home yet.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 10:56 am and is filed under Helpful Baby Care Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.