Childproofing 101: Household Safety Guide for Children

As Parents, we think that our house is the safest place for our little children, it is true, that way our children are in front of our eyes and we can keep them safe. However, we cannot ignore the dangers our own house can pose to our children while they explore around. Common possible injuries at home include drowning, fire burns, suffocation, choking, falls, and poison. These might sound rare and implausible, however, you would be surprised by how common they are.

A lot of us stop our babies from crawling around the house and avoid leaving them without supervision, as a result, we are stopping them from exploring and learning new things. How about, instead of hindering their exploration, we make their adventures safe?

"So I can't do anything I like?"
- Joey Tribbiani
(season 9, Episode 16)

Remember Joey fighting with his apartment because Rachel baby-proofed his house for Emma? Well, we will not take it that far, yet child-proofing is an essential need for today's children.

We have a baby-proofing checklist attached at the end of the article!

Baby-proofing seems necessary once your child starts mobility, once they are old enough to explore they become more prone to the dangers of the house. Until then, their area is mostly the crib they will sleep in, so ensuring their safety is limited to that.

With your newborn baby are you looking to make your own baby room? Find the best baby room trends here

Make sure that your child always sleeps in an empty crib! Pillows, stuffed toys, and blankets pose a risk of suffocation.

Baby Gates

These are common and widely used, extremely effective until your child grows up enough to find a way around it. If you have more than one floor in your house or a staircase of any kind, it is advisable to keep baby gates at the top and the bottom of the stairs. Apart from that kitchen entry and washing area could be other areas to consider.
Though the baby gates are extremely helpful, our eyes on our children are a must, it is the best prevention we can muster.

Your Entertainment Center- TV Room

Most of us have our own entertainment centers built in our living rooms and we usually do not pay much attention to the potential dangers they can pose to our babies, toddlers, or young children.

Mainly your TV needs to be absolutely secured, either wall-mounted or tied to the wall. The TV comes with a lot of wires, which is a very exciting and danger posing item for our children. Ensure these wires are all tied up and away from your toddler's reach. For all other accessories like little batteries, CDs, DVD player, cable box try to keep a shelf preferably a closed one, like a cabinet. If you have a cabinet for all of this keep a child lock on it and ensure that you do not leave it open by mistake whenever you access it. This furniture poses another kind of danger: they have sharp corners which are very dangerous for our crawling and playing toddlers. Cover the corners of the furniture with padding, also check for sharp handles and doorknobs. Also, remember to keep the remote controls away from the children.

Quick Tip: Wall-mounted TV is the best thing you could do for your child if you have not done it yet and your house allows it, get it done now. You can in fact book one from here

Electrical Sockets and Stove

For your sockets have the potential to pass electricity and they seem like fun to our innocent kids, cover your sockets with outlet covers. Ensure that you cover them after every use or get the ones that are self-closing.

As mentioned earlier, fire is extremely dangerous, and getting stove guards for your kitchen could be a great option if your kids are growing up. Also, ensure your ovens, microwave, and other such appliances are out of reach and so are your knives, cutlery, and glassware.

Child Locks

When you are little and extremely curious crawling on the floor, you seem to open cabinets and drawers unnecessarily and play with medicines, detergents a lot. This is obviously very dangerous for your children. There are cabinet locks that are child-proof (like the one Rachel put on her fridge). These are smart and convenient, they can be used for all the doors that need not be opened by children. Furniture poses another threat by their sharp corners and as mentioned earlier, it is a smart decision to add padding to the corners of the furniture.

Doors

As you can see, the doors can shut on the hands of our little ones causing their fingers tremendous pain, these door stoppers can be a great choice in order to avoid such accidents.

Window and Balcony

The windows and balconies are very high risk for our children. Make sure the doors are always locked and you have some sort of grill or safe locks on your windows. Never keep furniture near the window where your child can climb.

Heartiest congratulations to you if you have or are going to have a new baby in your house!

If like Rachel did, you are looking for professionals like electricians, carpenters, and so on, book from HomeTriangle.com

BABY PROOFING CHECKLIST