Baby Proof Your House For Crawling Children
At the rolling and crawling stages, mobility brings added risks and dangers. Here are tips for babyproofing to protect the "crawling and bawling" babies in our lives.
1. Pad the edges of coffee tables and brick or tile fireplaces
Just a little padding can prevent a big bump, bruise or cut on the head. These corners just at crawling height are risky.
2. Remove the crib bumper pad as soon as your infant can get up on hands and knees
Little ones have been known to use these bumper pads as steps to climb out of a crib and topple to the floor.
3. Secure your entertainment devices
Make sure that cords for televisions, stereos, DVD players and home theaters are shortened. Make sure they are stable and won't tip over if grabbed onto. Bookshelves and entertainment centers should be anchored to the wall if possible to prevent them from tipping over.
4. Cover every electrical outlet in your home
Open outlets are an invitation to danger. Try using the child-resistant outlet covers; the plastic outlet plugs we used to use are pretty easy for little fingers to pry out.
5. Provide screened barriers around fireplaces or any lower level heat source
These can be attractive nuisances to the crawlers in your life, and they are dangerous.
6. Get those safety gates up
Install hardware-mounted safety gates at the top and bottom of stairways with two or more steps. The old pressure-mounted gates generally will not hold a toddler back very long.
7. Install cabinet locks
On your ground level kitchen and utility cabinets, get some good cabinet locks installed. If the cabinet doors have handles, handle locks that wrap around or through the handles are good choices. Otherwise, install the locks on the inside of the doors that you have to push down or pull up to unlock.
8. Avoid moving walkers
There have been many household accidents due to babies in walkers. The latest trend is a unit that stays still but turns on its axis. This gives baby some mobility and entertainment without having the baby move laterally.
9. Secure the poisons
Lock any potentially dangerous substance in an upper-level cabinet. This includes alcoholic beverages, household cleaning formulas, laundry supplies, medications (including nonprescription varieties like vitamins and adult or children's pain relievers), kerosene, gasoline, bug spray, pesticides, charcoal, lighter fluid, paint and fertilizers.
Tips
What You Need
1. Pad the edges of coffee tables and brick or tile fireplaces
Just a little padding can prevent a big bump, bruise or cut on the head. These corners just at crawling height are risky.
2. Remove the crib bumper pad as soon as your infant can get up on hands and knees
Little ones have been known to use these bumper pads as steps to climb out of a crib and topple to the floor.
3. Secure your entertainment devices
Make sure that cords for televisions, stereos, DVD players and home theaters are shortened. Make sure they are stable and won't tip over if grabbed onto. Bookshelves and entertainment centers should be anchored to the wall if possible to prevent them from tipping over.
4. Cover every electrical outlet in your home
Open outlets are an invitation to danger. Try using the child-resistant outlet covers; the plastic outlet plugs we used to use are pretty easy for little fingers to pry out.
5. Provide screened barriers around fireplaces or any lower level heat source
These can be attractive nuisances to the crawlers in your life, and they are dangerous.
6. Get those safety gates up
Install hardware-mounted safety gates at the top and bottom of stairways with two or more steps. The old pressure-mounted gates generally will not hold a toddler back very long.
7. Install cabinet locks
On your ground level kitchen and utility cabinets, get some good cabinet locks installed. If the cabinet doors have handles, handle locks that wrap around or through the handles are good choices. Otherwise, install the locks on the inside of the doors that you have to push down or pull up to unlock.
8. Avoid moving walkers
There have been many household accidents due to babies in walkers. The latest trend is a unit that stays still but turns on its axis. This gives baby some mobility and entertainment without having the baby move laterally.
9. Secure the poisons
Lock any potentially dangerous substance in an upper-level cabinet. This includes alcoholic beverages, household cleaning formulas, laundry supplies, medications (including nonprescription varieties like vitamins and adult or children's pain relievers), kerosene, gasoline, bug spray, pesticides, charcoal, lighter fluid, paint and fertilizers.
Tips
- Keep appliance, drapery and lamp cords wrapped short. Little ones tend to grab onto cords to pull themselves up. Keep the cords short and protected whenever possible.
- Watch the Plants. Place houseplants out of children's reach; know the names of all plants in case a child eats one of them.
What You Need
- Table corner pads
- Outlet covers
- Fireplace barriers
- Safety gates
Culled and edited. Images: Google
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