Learn how you can make your home safer for your little one’s adventures with these easy baby-proofing techniques.
Every little child, from the infant age of 7 months to age 11 already has a curious spirit that makes them want to explore the world around them. This usually involves them using their hands and most of the time, their mouths.
A lot of items in the house are potential health hazards for children. This includes some objects that you would never suspect e.g button batteries, balloons, shoes, dustbin lid, your purse and all that’s inside it etc.
With kids, your hawk-like supervision would need to be on hyperdrive mode, especially if your baby is already an accomplished crawler.
By the time they hit the 10-month milestone, they become even harder to be taken care of.
One minute you can have your eye on your child crawling across the room, and the next, they have their hands tangled up in the dishwasher or their faces covered in peanut butter.
Babies can be very creative when it comes to mischief. This is why babyproofing your house is very important. By childproofing your house, you can create a safe space for your little explorer to move around in.
This article aims to guide you on how you can get started with making sure your house is hazard-free for your child, as well as listing out the best baby-proofing products you can use in achieving this.
13 Effective Tips For Baby-Proofing Your House
Many baby safety guides usually include a room-to-room proofing guideline, and leave out some simple but highly important things to do when childproofing a home.
To fully arm you with all the information you may need, here’s a list of important things to add to your baby-proofing checklist:
Keep your Bathrooms or Storage Locked and Secured at All Times
For a child who is constantly touching or licking things, the bathroom is a serious health threat, considering the chemicals stored in its cabinets and the microorganisms it tends to the harbor.
There’s also the risk of drowning, even in little amounts of water.
Rather than take the risk of letting them get in there, it’s best to keep the door locked. As a safety measure, use child safety locks on all the cabinets and drawers.
You can also use door knob covers if your kid is at the age where they can get their hands on the door knobs. If not, always be present with them whenever they go into the bathroom.
Be Mindful of Your Hot-Water Heater Settings
Some of the most common child injuries in the emergency room are burns and scalds. Little children are quite fascinated with knobs and all gadgets that turn or have wheels.
So if you have a water heater at home, it’s always best to leave its thermostat below 120 degrees.
Your little one can easily get into the bathroom and turn on the hot water. But if the water isn’t that hot, they won’t get scalded, just shocked by the spray of water.
Learn to Keep Your Baby’s Crib Safe
It’s not ideal to leave objects in the crib with your kid. Small objects like toys can be a choking hazard, while pillows and blankets can also cause them to suffocate. A bare crib is always safer.
Baby-proofing the crib also involves paying attention to its height. Keep the crib at its highest when your baby is under 5 months and can’t sit up. Once they can pull or sit up, you can now lower their height. This will keep them safely in there for the whole night.
When you notice the cot is now coming up to chest level, it’s probably time to switch to a toddler bed.
Remove Heavy Objects From Their Reach
By the time your child is 9 months old, they can already pull themselves up to things like tables, low shelves, or other furniture pieces around the house.
The best way to prevent anything heavy from falling off those surfaces and unto them is to take them out of their reach.
Heavy things like lamps, TVs, or pottery should be removed from surfaces they can get to. Make sure cabinets or shelves are secured tightly to the wall and can bear their weight.
Be Electricity-Cautious
Children love to stick things in holes, and electrical sockets, unfortunately, have holes.
To eliminate the risk of electrocution, keep extension boxes off the ground. Use tight-fitting electrical outlet covers for all the sockets at home.
Be Careful of Window Covers
The cords of window blinds can be a strangulation risk, so try as much as you can to either remove them or keep them out of sight.
For curtains, it is recommended to keep their tails off the ground and make sure that they are tightly secured to the wall. If that can’t be avoided, then replace heavy curtains with lighter ones.
This is because your kid can pull at it and the entire curtain would come tumbling down on them.
Beware of Small Objects
Tiny objects are always a choking hazard. You can create a small object tester to help you determine which item should be kept out of your little one’s reach.
For example, a little cup. Anything that can fit inside their mouth can be considered a choking hazard.
If you have older kids, teach them babyproofing exercises. An example is keeping their toys e.g Legos and figurines, inside their rooms and away from the baby.
Beware of Stairs
Keep every door that leads to stairs locked at all times. As they get older, kids move around a lot more and you definitely don’t want them falling down the staircase.
You can also fit child safety gates over the doorways if you don’t want them closed.
Keep Chemicals Like Cleaning and Laundry Products out of Reach
Leaving them around increases the risk of your child being exposed to poison. Laundry agents are more commonly consumed, so take extra care with them or keep them locked away in cabinets.
To be safer, always keep a first aid kit too around the house.
Create a Safe Spot for Babies to Play During Chores
Chore time is one of the moments when your attention isn’t totally on your little one. To prevent any mishaps, you can set up a kind of enclosure with some child safety barricades and fill it with some choke-free toys to keep them busy.
It’s best to get one with an adjustable height so that they can continue to use them as they grow older.
Watch Out for Corners
Things like table corners can be very attractive things for your child.
However, corner guards and safety bumps are a great way to make sure all the sharp corners in your home don’t hurt your child.
Keep Windows Guarded
An open window is a fall hazard, especially when they are low windows. Put up window guards as a baby-proofing measure.
Skip the Tablecloths
Like curtains, kids love to pull overhanging clothes like tablecloths or to use them to pull themselves up.
When that happens, they end up pulling everything placed on it down on themselves too.
To avoid this, pin the ends of the tablecloths underneath the table or just leave them out entirely.
Conclusion
Investing in a baby safety kit is always important because they come with everything you need to baby-proof your home and make it a totally safe environment for your kid.
The checklist may seem a bit long, but it’s definitely worth it. It also helps your kid learn what they can and can’t get close to or touch.
Although childproofing is a great safety measure for your kid, it doesn’t take the place of supervising them, especially when they’re awake. Do your best to keep them within arm’s reach while letting them satisfy their curiosity at the same time.