Child Safety at the House for New Parents

For many couples, the importance of assuring their new child’s safety is overwhelming. Often times, many things are overlooked and can remain dangerous for their child when arriving at their new home. The leading cause of death for children is injury-related. Often times these injuries occur at home. By carefully evaluating one’s living space, the safety of the new child may remain more secure.

The best advice that someone can give is to attempt to see the house in the child’s view. This may cause you to have to get down and dirty on your hands and knees to completely view everything your child may be able to get into. By being this low, you can see all the uncovered electric outlets, sharp corners and hanging cords that could cause harm to your child. Be sure to cover all these outlets with safety caps and attempt to place furniture in front of those used and not. Guards should also be placed in front of heaters, radiators and fireplaces. Curiosity is often what makes this task so difficult; children are discovering everything and want to touch anything they can.

Evaluations of each room should be made before bringing the child home. Within the child’s nursery, it is important that all hanging toys including mobiles are out of reach. A cover should also be kept on the diaper pail, seeing as a child can easily tumble inside the container. All products containing chemicals such as powders, creams, and ointments should be stored out of reach and away from where the child would be.

Within one’s kitchen it is important to put all cords away from reach. Anything that can be pulled down such as tablecloths is a hazard for the child. Safety locks should be placed on all cupboards. All knives and cleaning supplies should be out of their reach as well. The kitchen should be kept clean considering your child will be at floor level and anything on the floor could be viewed as a toy to them.

The bathroom may be the most dangerous place in one’s house. All medicines should be stored in a locked cabinet along with shampoos and soaps. All appliances such as blow dryers, curling irons or electronic razors should remain unplugged and put away out of reach. The garbage can should be emptied often so that this doesn’t seem like another toy box for your child. Also, please never leave water running in one’s bathtub; it takes a few seconds for a child to drown with a few inches of water.

The time one places in assuring the safety of their house may significantly allow their child to remain more stable in their new living environment. Therefore, careful evaluation of one’s house can be a positive chore worthwhile for new parents.