Your little one is moving’ and cruisin’! So what’s next? Now the challenge is making sure your house is ready for your toddler’s new explorations. Follow our room-by-room tips to help protect the baby from touching, grabbing, and exploring the everyday items they will now be fascinated by!
It’s helpful for parents to experience the environment as their baby will. Parents should crawl on the floor in the area their baby will be, look for objects that could be potentially dangerous for baby, and remove them.
Limit Access to Stairs, Low Cupboards, Pinch Points
As your child learns about their world, they will use their hands and body to explore anything in their immediate surroundings. Most of the time, this is good, but it does have the potential to be dangerous. Limiting access to stairs, cupboards, pinch points by using baby gates and child safety cabinet and door locks can be a good idea
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Secure Furniture that Could Topple
One of the biggest risks to little ones is furniture that has the potential to topple. As your baby learns to crawl, they will no doubt reach for just about anything that they can for support. TV stands, ironing boards, and bookshelves are some of the many items that your baby may try to grab onto. If these items aren’t sturdy and stable, they may be at risk of toppling. You can use furniture straps to make sure that everything is in place, and pay attention to how things are stacked.
Use Outlet Plugs
Children love to poke and pry around, and unfortunately, this sense of curiosity can sometimes be dangerous. Use outlet plugs for outlets that are close to ground level to prevent babies from sticking their fingers or objects into them, which could lead to shock and injuries.
Toilet lid locks
At some point, toilets become a wonder to babies and toddlers. Their precocious minds are drawn to reach or throw toys into the toilet water, which can lead to leaning over and falling into the toilet, which they may be unable to get out of.
Consider toilet lid locks on all of the toilets in your home to prevent your tot from getting into this dirty and dangerous space.
Latches and Locks
These simple mechanisms can keep dangerous chemicals and other potentially hazardous items under lock and key. Look for latches and locks made of sturdy materials that won’t give way easily or snap under stress. You’ll also want to ensure the latches and locks you choose are ones you can actually open. You know, in case you need that stuff sometime in the next three years. For maximum safety, move poisonous substances to higher cupboards and cabinets that are well out of baby’s reach.
Window Guards
Some childproofing gadgets can be lifesavers. Literally. Typically pressure mounted and adjustable, window guards should have quick-release mechanisms to allow for escape during emergencies.
Furniture wall anchors
Sometimes, the growing strength of your baby can surprise you. In the blink of an eye, your little Spider-man (or Spider-girl) may turn climbing your furniture into their ultimate mission.
If not properly anchored to the wall, the furniture piece and all of its contents can come crashing down, causing a serious fall, injury, and/or entrapment.
Dressers, TVs, and bookcases are a few of the most common culprits. But you can help prevent this with properly installed wall mount anchors, such as a fabric wall anchor or a more heavy-duty metal wall anchor.
Stair or balcony banister guards
Kids learn by experiencing and don’t quite understand the risks involved, so they stick heads, hands, and feet into places they shouldn’t. This includes between stair, loft, and even balcony banisters. The good news is that there are easy to install net-like banister guards to prevent these accidents.
Appliance and front-loading washer and dryer locks
Young kids do the darndest things, such as climbing into the front-loading washer or dryer. These weren’t designed for exiting, so your tot could get in and not be able to get out. Add a mischievous older sibling who decides to turn it on into the mix, and you have a dangerous situation.
Fortunately, this can be prevented with a variety of simple locks to keep trouble at bay.
Other appliances can also be harmful if accessible to little hands, such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and microwaves. Appliance locks can secure many appliance models, but check the product you choose to see if there are particular limitations.
Stove
It doesn’t take long for babies to catch on to the fact that delicious food comes out of the oven. As such, they may become astute and try to open it while something’s baking, which could be very dangerous. Using a stove lock can prevent this from happening.
You can also consider covers for a gas burner and oven knobs so your child is unable to turn them on. And for toddlers with growing reach, a stove guard can prevent little hands from pulling hot pot and panhandles (and their contents) down from the stove.
Every loving parent wants to protect their child while supporting their natural wonder to investigate and learn. By taking a few steps to babyproof, your home can be safe and full of great adventures. While baby-proofing gives you a little peace of mind and helps protect baby, nothing replaces keeping a close eye on your child as they begin walking and exploring their surroundings in a whole new way.
If you’ve planned ahead and made the environment as safe as possible, you’ll feel more comfortable letting your baby explore their surroundings, while keeping an eye on them.
