Childproofing Your Home

For some strange rea­son, I know of a lot of peo­ple who has borne babies the past month or so. So this post is ded­i­cated to all of them—to Mikki and Iris’ first­born, Danny and Lala’s first­born son, and Del’s sister’s firstborn.

The reg­u­lar home may seem like the safest place in the world for us, but it can be a dan­ger­ous place for kids who are grow­ing up. Things like sharp fur­ni­ture sides, open elec­tri­cal out­lets, falling books, doors, elec­tric fans and knives can seem like every day things for us, but they are poten­tial haz­ards for chil­dren who are grow­ing up. While the nat­ural curios­ity of kids have to be sup­ported for them to grow into bright, con­fi­dent indi­vid­u­als, we have to make sure that the home is as safe an envi­ron­ment as possible.

So how do you child­proof your home? Here are some tips. These is by no means an exhaus­tive list but this is a place to start:

Child­proof­ing your Kitchen

1. Install safety latches on all cab­i­nets and draw­ers to keep chil­dren from poten­tially poi­so­nous house­hold products.
2. Keep kitchen­ware and appli­ances out of reach and away from the edge of coun­ters and tables.
3. Safe­guard heat­ing and gas sys­tems against accidents.
4. Be sure that fur­naces, fire­places, wood-burning stoves, space heaters, and gas appli­ances are vented properly.
5. Keep dan­ger­ous chem­i­cals out of children’s reach.

Child­proof­ing Your Bathroom

1. Install toi­let locks to keep toi­let lids closed. Chil­dren are more top-heavy than adults and can lean and fall into a toi­let eas­ily. They also can drown in just one inch of water!
2. Be con­sci­en­tious about the use of water heater. It takes just three sec­onds for a child to sus­tain a third-degree burn from hot water.
3. Unplug hair dry­ers and elec­tric rollers after use to pre­vent elec­tro­cu­tion from con­tact with water in the bath­room. Also keep them away from curi­ous chil­dren to pre­vent burns.
4. Cover unused elec­tri­cal out­lets with out­let pro­tec­tors or safety caps. For out­lets in use, tape plugs into out­lets, espe­cially those low to the ground.

Child­proof­ing Around the House

1. Use door­knob cov­ers to keep chil­dren away from rooms and other areas with haz­ards, such as swim­ming pools. But make these devices easy for adults to use in cases of emergency.
2. Put cor­ner and edge bumpers on fur­ni­ture to pro­tect against injury.
3. Place fur­ni­ture away from high win­dows so chil­dren won’t climb onto windowsills.
4. Shorten cur­tain and blind cords and make sure win­dow blinds do not have looped cords — they can be stran­gu­la­tion haz­ards for chil­dren. Also, always lock blinds into posi­tion whether they are all the way up or down.
5. Pre­vent fur­ni­ture from tip­ping by secur­ing book­cases, shelv­ing, and heavy fur­ni­ture to walls with brack­ets and anchors. When stor­ing items, put heav­ier items on bot­tom shelves and in bot­tom drawers.
6. Always use a safety belt on your baby when she is sit­ting in a bouncy seat or a swing.
7. Place house­plants out of children’s reach and know the names of all plants in case a child eats one of them.
8. Keep cig­a­rettes, matches, and lighters out of children’s reach.
9. Remove the plas­tic end caps on doorstops or replace the stops with a one-piece design to pre­vent choking.
10. Con­sider plac­ing plas­tic guards along the hinge side of fre­quently used inte­rior doors to pre­vent the doors from pinch­ing fingers.
11. Make a fire evac­u­a­tion plan and prac­tice fire escape routes at least twice a year.
12. Keep firearms and ammu­ni­tion safely locked away.
13. Learn first aid and CPR.
Every Fri­day is Organize-Your-Life 101 Day at AngPere​grino​.Com.
Vis­i­tors who read this post also read:

1. 73 Great Debt Elim­i­na­tion Tips
2. How To Make Your Room Smell Good
3. Bath­room Clean­ing 101
4. 15 Ways to Man­age Risk In Your Finan­cial Life
5. 10 Non-“Secrets” About Gro­cery Shopping

Quote of the Day: “Acci­dents hurt — safety doesn’t.” — Unknown

Don’t miss any post! Sub­scribe to my RSS Feed