Child-Proofing Your Home

Children are curious by nature and will go explore and try to make sense of every object they come across. From small and sharp objects, to plastic bags, and electrical outlets, children will try to conquer every household items and appliance they see. This means, it’s time for you start childproofing your home.

Safety Tips

Here are some useful tips on how to childproof your house:

Stoves, Ovens, Other Appliances: Curious toddlers can place their hand on a warm stovetops or burners when you’re not looking. They can also crawl into ovens or open dishwashers that store sharp utensils. Making it a good idea to face pot handles inwards while cooking and to install knob handles to prevent your child from turning on a burner. You can also buy a stove guard to prevent your child from touching warm tops. Installing locking latches on all appliances that open and close is also a good safety measure you can take.

Poison and Cleaning Products: Not knowingly, you may store cleaning products in places where kids can easily reach, such as in the cabinet under the sink. But, toddlers don’t know what’s safe or what’s dangerous when they discover these cleaning products. To prevent your child from spilling harmful liquids onto their hands, or getting it in their eyes or mouth, move all cleaning supplies to higher cabinets. Alternately, you can buy childproof locks to place on easy to reach cabinets with cleaning supplies.

Small and Sharp Objects: Kids love exploring with their mouths, and they can accidentally ingest small objects posing a choking hazard. Or they can cut themselves reaching for sharp objects like for a knife on the counter. Clear off counter tops and tables, and keep items with small parts that can easily break off, such as plastic flowers, away from your toddler.

Electrical Outlets: Your toddler can stick her coloring pencil, fork, or even her finger in an unused electrical outlet to see what happens. To prevent your child from exploring electrical outlets at home, purchase electrical outlet covers from your local hardware store. Keep electrical cord out of reach of your toddler by tucking it away behind furniture.

Plastic bags: Make sure you store all plastic bags in a container or bag holder far from reach since toddlers can readily asphyxiate while playing with plastic bags.

Stairs: More than half of the nonfatal injuries toddlers experience involve falls. Many of these falls involved unprotected stairways. Protect your child by placing safety gates on the top and bottom of your stairs.

Another safety precaution you can take to protect your child, is by supervising your child as she plays and explores her surroundings. But even with supervision, it may only take a moment for your child to place something hazardous in her mouth or to slip down the stairs.

For more information on safety and your baby check out our baby care videos.