Baby proofing your home
The time before your baby becomes mobile is a time that you need to spend gearing up to make a “ baby safe home”. You would be surprised to see just how many places there are, where left alone the baby could get into trouble. In fact you need to go room by room to safeguard baby safety and health. Here are some handy tips to ensure that you do a thorough job with it.
Look at things from the baby’s level
When you look from up there, there may not seem like too many things that you need to fix. However it will take your getting down to your hands and knees to figure out what all needs to be done. Odds are that you will need to remove sharp objects as also cover up any sharp corners. There could also be lots of stuff that the baby can simply pull over. These are things that need to be removed from his or her line of sight.
Instead keep toys at baby’s level to keep them distracted. If you keep the toys in baskets you can also teach them early on how toys need to be put away. Now that is a simply priceless lesson!
Remove small objects
The biggest fear with a small child crawling around is the fear of choking. Baby health and safety demand that any small objects that the baby can put into his or her mouth be removed from reach.
Electrical points
A key emphasis area has to be electrical points. Today of course there are a number of options that are easily available that can cover electrical points. Ensure that there are no loose ends here as this is a landmine for disaster.
Ensure drawers and cabinets cannot be opened
With a growing baby, things under attack are drawers and cabinets. While opening them can be a dangerous activity, what is even more dangerous is access to the stuff kept inside them. What you need therefore is to secure latches that the child cannot open.
Block potentially dangerous areas
Now these may include the kitchen, bathroom or even an older sibling’s room for fear that the child can cause himself harm on account of the many things lying unattended. This will mean blocking off these areas. Best to use a wall-mount gate that the child will not be able to navigate particularly around stairs.
Trash Cans
While we may not think of trashcans as a hazard, fact is children can draw out all sorts of things from it. First and foremost do not allow the can to overflow. Also in disposing things like broken glass etc be careful of not leaving it in the can, in a place that is accessible to the child.
Guard Windows
It is important to ensure that windows don’t open more than 4 inches so that there isn’t the fear of the child falling off them. There are a whole lot of window stoppers that are available which you can screw to the window or even use suction cups to fix them
Steer clear of tablecloths
Another aspect of baby proofing the home is to steer clear of tablecloths. In case the edge of the cloth falls in the child hand, that is enough to send all the contents on the table flying high.
Use anchors
Once the baby starts to stand up, baby safe homes demand that you use anchors to mount furniture to the walls as the baby may use them to help stand up. An important part of baby proofing your home is also to go cordless as cords present the additional danger of tripping and falling.
Adult supervision
All your attempts at baby proofing the home however cannot be a substitute for adult supervision. Any time that you need to finish a certain task or simply need some breathing space, ensure you put the child in the crib so that he or she doesn’t run into any unexpected territory.
Discipline
Above everything, in order to keep the child out of harm’s way, discipline the child. This means using appropriate words such as “no”, “danger” etc while you are steering the child from harm’s way. While the child may be young, repeated use of these words will allow him to understand the context.
Here’s to your baby’s safety and health!
