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How To Baby Proof Your Home

How To Baby Proof Your Home

How To Baby Proof Your Home.

As a parent to a toddler, you realise the amount of work that is needed to help this child navigate their way into becoming independent. That process is time consuming, a pain, yet fulfilling at the same time. 

Before you get to a point where you can relax and watch some footie, you will have to take some precautions around the home. Your child may be at a stage in their development where they are curious about everything around them, and they don’t know enough yet. This is a recipe for excellent development, but also a recipe for disaster.

So, what can you do to baby proof your home?

Mind The Cot

The irony of baby-proofing the baby’s cot.

That baby cot represents your hopes and dreams for this beautiful child’s future. However, if you do not pay attention to what is going on in and around the cot, it could easily turn into something you never want to see anywhere near you again.

By now, you are probably well aware of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, there is no need to harp on about. However, did you know the mattress placed in the baby’s cot could be a hazard that leads to SIDS? You have to choose the right type of mattress to place in the crib.

The other things to consider are the blankets and pillows. Yes, they may be soft to the touch and have all manner of expressive caricatures on them, but to an active child, they could easily be the reason you will be driving frantically to an A&E near you. 

Next comes the cot rails. When the infant is barely a new immigrant to this world, you will definitely have it at the highest setting to prevent them rolling out of the cot, or lifting themselves up out of it. 

As they grow and develop, they will definitely be able to lift themselves over the railings.  If the railing is at the highest setting, this just makes it a steeper fall to the ground. It would be best to have the cot railing to its lowest setting.

Hazards exist where you least expect them to…

Especially if you live in an old home. It wasn’t until 1992 that lead based paints were banned from the shelves available to the general public. Prior to this, lead existed in a variety of paints, both as a dyeing pigment and a drying agent. 

Paint is notorious for chipping around window seals, door frames and other nondescript areas. With a child that is crawling around and sampling everything new around them, the toxicity of lead is not really something you want them to experience. If you suspect your home may have lead-based paints, it would be best to call in lead paint removal experts. 

Taking a look at the heater for leaks and the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in your home is a superb precaution to consider. Their fascination with knobs and taps will be great at this point. Set your water heater to at most 50 degrees Celsius to avoid any scalding. 

That book case looks lovely, and probably contains the reasons why you are crushing, or will crush this parenting thing you have began. While it is great for your knowledge, and nourishing your grown up children, it’s a superb hazard for that toddler who has just started crawling.

With their curiosity, they will begin pulling stuff around them. The book case, with that heavy professional tome just isn’t conducive to your crawling child. This also goes for any other heavy thing that may be within their reach. 

Table cloths and mats look beautiful, until your little bundle of joy becomes curious and tries to find out what is happening on top of the table. It is normal to find your child pulling the table cloths, but whatever is laying on top of the table could be the issue here. If it is a hot meal, or some other heavy thing, then that could be the cause of a serious injury.

Watch out for the electricity

You have watched too many cartoons and comedies in your life to immediately know of the dangers that electricity poses. Yes, the hairs standing on the head and the sooty face are funny, but serious things happen in real life. 

The most disturbing this is, electricity sockets are usually placed well within reach of the child! Argh! But it wouldn’t be parenthood if there were no obvious hazards that you have to protect your child from. 

The simplest solution is to get those tight-fitting socket covers that a baby wouldn’t have the dexterity, nor the strength to pry out of the socket. 

Watch for The Stairs.

If you live in a maisonette or some other type of home with stairs, then you can clearly understand how stairs can be a hazard to the safety of your child. You may have safely come through an accident on the stairs in your infancy, but better not tempt fate with your child. 

As soon as they are able to move around by themselves, then it’s time to put gates on the ends of stair cases. Some models are simple enough to put up, they just need a set of screws and you are good to go. 

Keep Chemicals and other hazards Out of Reach.

The thing about having a toddler is that you need to keep your home, and their garments clean. Doing this requires various chemicals such as soaps, detergents and other cleaning aids. You don’t need to imagine how dangerous these chemicals can be when your baby ingests them. 

Ensure that the laundry cabinets, medicine cabinets, the broom closet and other cleaning supplies are locked, or the materials are out of reach of the child. 

Watch out for sharp edges

Toddlers have been running around the home for eons. Having the table in a room has also been a part of human tradition for eons. These two things can sometimes clash, and it’s always the toddlers who come off worse.

When baby proofing your home, you need to scope out all the sharp edges of your furniture and other equipment. There are a myriad of corner protector guards on sale that you can pick from. 

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