Congratulations on your new baby. You are very lucky to step into this new phase of adulthood. However, there are certain things that you should know before bringing your baby to their new home.
Since there’s only a matter of time until your little knight or princess becomes a toddler, you have a limited amount of time to make your home safer than it already is. Childproofing is an essential thing to do because toddlers tend to adventure into a lot of places that you think are impossible to reach.
Why is that? Well, it’s simple. A baby is naturally curious. So, what you need to understand is that since they start crawling, they will try and reach almost every corner of your house. Although it’s cute, this could be dangerous too.
Therefore, let’s find out what you have to do in order to keep your baby out of danger.
1. The Basics
First of all, it is important for you to acknowledge any areas of your house that may serve as potential threats to your baby.
Take the kitchen for example. What do you keep in the kitchen? Knives, of course. Are they well placed now that a child is free to wander around the house? Can he or she reach them? If so, then hide them somewhere else.
Nowadays, a lot of people tend to keep their kitchen knives in a knife holder situated on a kitchen cabinet. I believe it would be more appropriate now that you have a baby randomly wandering the house, to keep them hidden in a locked drawer.
2. The Sooner the Better
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, it is important to start baby-proofing your home even before the baby is brought in from the hospital. It seems odd when you think of it, but you will see that time flies rapidly and your baby will learn to crawl and walk in the blink of an eye.
As a tip, try and get on your knees. You are now at the height of your child (more or less). Seeing everything from his/her perspective will help you understand what things are accessible to them. Take that cute little lamp on your nightstand, for example. Your child can break it in a matter of seconds if you don’t do something about it.
3. Prevent Electric Shocks
Today, electricity is everywhere. Even now, you are reading this article using an electrical device. Whether it is a smartphone, a laptop, or even a smart TV, all these devices need to be plugged in, in order to work. So, you need to figure out a way to cover all the outlets in your home.
An exposed electrical socket can harm your toddler really bad if they touch it. There are a lot of childproof covers that you can buy from various shops and that require a key to be opened. Lock your outlets and if you want to feel even safer, you can also place a piece of furniture in front of the outlet. This always does the trick.
If you are interested, here is an additional advice on how to baby proof everything electrical.
4. Access Denied
We know that baby-proofing your house 100% is impossible. You just can’t do that. There is always something that you forget to do or something that actually can’t be baby-proofed such as household cleaning substances.
That is why you need to keep all the dangerous chemicals in secured cabinets. Protect your child by installing safety latches that lock automatically when closing the cabinet door.
For example, the bathroom is a room where your child shouldn’t be unsupervised. Therefore, it needs to be locked up too.
5. The Importance of a Crib
The crib is the place where your baby will spend a lot of time in his/her first months. So, it has to be safely set up. For example, cribs with drop side rail can be very dangerous. In the US, these cribs are even illegal to use. With that in made, the crib that has fixed rails is a much safer option.
Test the slats in order to find out if your kid can get his/her head through them. A trick would be to see if a soda can fit through the slats. If it does so, then the slats are too wide. Also, keep the crib full of soft toys, blankets, and pillows. You can buy them from almost everywhere. There are discounts for children’s toys and other articles of this sort that we can find in discount codes sites, sites that few know but that allow to save money for free thanks to promotions pushed by online stores for a specific audience, but usable by anyone who knows the ‘secret code’ without any restrictions.
In conclusion, even if you feel confident that you baby-proofed your home from A to Z, the chances are that you forgot something. However, the bright side is that if you baby-proof the most important parts the right way, then your baby should be safe enough. For more useful articles and product reviews on baby safety check out Kidsco.
