Babyproofing in the Home

Walking into the baby safety aisle might feel a bit overwhelming the first time. There is safety hardware pieces, locks, gates and clip for everything! Suddenly you feel as though your house isn’t a safe place for your dog! Most moms like to be very prepared and like to do prep their houses early. Before it becomes overwhelming let me share with you some tips!

Do a little overtime as you get to know your baby and see what level of curiosity and interest they have in different areas of your home. My husband and I took the route of adding in safety features and items as they became necessary. Children are different during their developmental stages. What we baby proofed for our first child, in some cases did not need to baby proof for our second. Some things our first child got into that our second has no interest for; therefore there is a lack of needing to baby proof the exact same way.

Once your little one starts to scoot/crawl is when I think the first bit of baby proofing needs to take place. Examine all the things the baby can potentially get into at this level. Book on low shelves, DVDs under the TV, dog bowls etc. Find these “no no zones” and easily rearrange items that may become damaged or harmful to your baby if they came in contact. I felt in this stage the only major thing I had to baby proof was the stairways. We choose to install hardware mounted baby gates as we felt those were safer over pressure-mounted gates as we were focusing on blocking off stairs rather than just a room.

Also, you can easily baby proof by shutting the doors. Creating this new habit really helped us cut down on some extra baby proofing. It’s very easy to shut every door behind you. Get in the habit; remind all in your household that this is an important new rule. I would give that a try at first, if not then continue to look for safety hazards in those extra rooms. A few other areas to evaluate would be blind cords, fireplace covers, and any heavy furniture that may need a tie down.

After that little speedster starts crawling, soon comes pulling up to stand and then walking. This is the time when we invested in a few more items. Buy the drawer locks! Such a huge help! Babies at this stage love to pull and push and dig around in those junk drawers and cabinets. So many small things get stuffed in those kitchen drawers; sometimes they may not be safe for your little one.

Also, many tend to keep their cleaning products in the kitchen cabinet, make sure to install a lock on that cabinet ASAP. My suggestion is to let one cabinet or one drawer in the kitchen be baby safe. Let your little one have access to this pace and fill it with cups, books, big spoons, and maybe a few toy pans. They will love spending time digging in their cabinet and will maybe leave the others alone. Another big one at this stage for my family was corner guards. When your little one is beginning to walk, they tend to be a bit wobbly. Inspect any super rough corners on tables and counters to see if a corner guard protector may be necessary.

So, don’t go down the aisle and grab one of everything. Learn with your child as they are investigating and really see which safety items are needed. Letting them discover and explore can be done safely as long as you are learning with them. Be watchful and proactive in your baby proofing! Don’t let the potential danger of things create a panic and take away from your child’s discoveries.

~Ms. Whitney
Prekindergarten Teacher
Curriculum Coordinator