General BabyProofing Tips

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       To start babyproofing your home there are a lot of general things that you need to look for.  Some of these things are fairly obvious, but when you’re taking on a big task, like babyproofing your entire house, it helps to have some guidelines in order to avoid overlooking potential harm to your baby.  Some of the things that you want to look for include:

Things your baby can put in his or her mouth

            Be on the lookout for small objects that your baby can choke on or anything that may be poisonous or hazardous if ingested.  You need to make sure to always look for anything that may have fallen on the ground or been left out.  Small objects that can fit in your baby’s mouth will make it into their mouth more often than not.  As you know, babies are very curious and they are not aware of the various dangers involved in putting a small object or poison into their mouths.  Therefore, as a parent, it is your responsibility to pick up and remove small objects from any area of your home that the baby can get to.  In addition, you should make sure that your child does not ingest poisons, make sure to keep cleaning supplies, medications, hair products, and any other toxic materials out of the reach of your baby.  Consider getting a safety lock for all cabinets containing toxic/poisonous materials in order to prevent your child from accidental indigestion.  Also, make sure that you don’t leave excess cleaning product on any surfaces that your baby will have access to. Your baby could easily come in contact with poisonous materials left on the floor, coffee table, or other areas of your home.  If your child is exposed to any poisonous material, please call poison control. 

Things that can fall on your baby 

           This is an area of babyproofing that is often overlooked.  You need to be sure that cords, table cloths, and anything else that your baby can grab onto are out of reach.  It’s not hard for a baby to pull a lamp off the table by the cord.  Once your baby starts to pull himself up to stand or walk be weary of chairs or tables that he can pull over on himself.  All objects on the lower shelves of bookshelves should be relocated to shelves that are out of reach.

Places where your baby can fall

            Babyproofing your stairs is easy and extremely important.  All you need to do is install a removable gate at the top and bottom of all stairs.  It’s important to baby proof the bottom of stairs along with the top because babies may find a way to climb up a few stairs and then find their only way back down is followed by injury.

Electricity

            We know that you need to use the electricity in your house.  In order to make your baby as safe as possible though, you should install outlet plugs that prevent anything from being shoved into the socket.  Loose cords should also be secured behind furniture to prevent chewing or pulling.

Water

            Your baby can drown in water.  This should be obvious to everyone so there is no reason to leave your baby in the water alone ever.  NEVER leave your baby alone in water.

Places where you don’t want your baby

When you consider babyproofing your drawers/cabinets, you will probably have to put in a bit more work, but it is well worth the time.  When your baby is crawling, a simple magnet fastened inside the door and on the inside of the cabinet may be enough to keep them out.  When your baby starts pulling themselves up on anything in reach you’ll find that a magnet generally won’t hold their weight.  At that point you may have to install a baby proof latch.

Sharp corners

When it comes to avoiding sharp corners, the best case scenario is to buy furniture without sharp or jagged edges.  Unfortunately furniture is expensive and it may not be practical to buy new furniture.  However, you can baby proof your furniture, with sharp edges, by installing plastic or rubber bumpers on the corners.  You don’t need to keep these on forever, but it’s not a bad idea when your baby is learning to walk.

Strangulation hazards

In most homes, there are electrical cords and drapery cords located throughout the house.  In order to protect your baby, you should make sure that all cords are either behind furniture that the baby cannot get to, or that the extra cord is wound up and secured.  Keep phone cords out or reach as well if you have a phone with a cord.  Another thing that can get caught around your baby’s neck is the cords from blinds, shades or draperies.  In this case, you could install a hook next to the window that the cord can be wrapped around in order to avoid accidental strangulation.  Another precaution that you can take is to cut the loops at the end of these cords because there is still a chance that the cords might fall off the hooks from time to time.

If you take the time to look out for all these things you will already be on the right track.  Of course every house has its own specific dangers.  Therefore, when you baby proof your own home, always look for every possible danger.