How to Baby Proof Your Home

Whether you have babies in your home already, you are considering having a child or you are a first time parent, it is important that your home is safe for children to be in. Making the necessary changes around your house to ensure that children are safe will be well worth your time and effort. There can be many hazards throughout a typical American home, but by following these tips you will decrease the number of hazardous situations you may accidentally put your child in…

1.      Make sure that the outlets in your home are safe.  You should replace all of the sockets in your room with childproof sockets and tie-up or tape down the electrical cords that are coming from each of the sockets.

2.      If you have stairs in your home it is important that your child is not climbing up and down them. To prevent this, simply put a safety gate at the top and the bottom of the stairs.

3.      If you keep fresh flowers or plants in your home, you will want to put them up high.  If a plant is on the floor, you may find your child trying to eat it.  Seeing as many house plants can be dangerous if ingested, it is better to keep the plants out of reach of the children.

4.      In your bathroom you should be sure that there is a lock on the toilet lid and that you never leave any standing water in the bath tub or even in a bucket in the bathroom.  Babies can drown in very little water and you do not want to put your child at risk of drowning.

5.      The cleaning supplies throughout your home should be kept in high cabinets. If you cannot move your cleaning supplies into a high cabinet, make sure that a lock is installed on the cabinet door.

Although this list is not extensive, it will give you a great start to baby proofing your home.  Talk with your doctor and other parents about what else you can do to ensure that your child is not going to be at risk of being injured in your home.

photo credit: IronRodArt – Royce Bair (“Star Shooter”) via photopin cc