Parent’s Guide to Childproofing Your Home
One of the most common injuries to babies occurs when the child bumps their head against the corner of a coffee table. You can minimize this risk by purchasing Corner Guards. Corner guards easily snap onto sharp corners of coffee tables, end tables and even kitchen counters. You can also by table edge guards that are similar to the corner guards except they run the length of your table sides. Sometimes you can purchase the table edge guards and the corner guards all in one handy pack.
Fireplaces can be a very dangerous place for children. To protect little noggins against the abrasive edges, use edge guards and corner guards made specifically for fireplaces. You may also buy latches that will prevent your child from opening up the fireplace and getting into the ashes or wood shards.
Baby safety gates are an absolute must for any home. Safety gates help you partition off certain rooms or areas of your home that you do not want baby to venture into. There are several different types of child safety gates, and each serves a different purpose for different areas of the home. For instance, free standing child safety gates consist of several panels that come together to create a play area or play yard for your child, while pressure mounted gates can be used in door ways to rooms and at the base of a staircase. It is important to know the difference between the different types of child safety gates so that you will use the appropriate gate for the purpose it was intended. Gates give parents the peace of mind they need when baby becomes mobile around the sixth to eighth month.
Until your baby is monitors, you may be interested in investing in a baby monitor. Like baby gates, there are many different models of baby monitors on the market. Some are very simple and very traditional, allowing you to hear your baby should he or she cry out in the middle of the night. Other, newer and fancier models, allow you to not only hear your baby, but to transmit your soothing voice back to baby through your receiver. Some baby monitors have screens that allow you to peek in on your baby without ever stepping foot into the nursery. Some of these fancier monitors even use infrared technology so that you can see your baby in the screen even if the nursery is dark.
As sweet as they are, remember that babies will grow, and they will grow fast! They will be on the go and will be capable of getting into just about anything they so desire! This is an even better reason to invest in child safety latches for all of your cabinets and cupboards. This is especially important for those areas in which you store your cleaning supplies, laundry and dish detergents or any other chemical or substance that could be potentially harmful to your child. Always be certain to have extra latches on hand. As I have stated in previous child safety articles, never underestimate your child! Many a child has been injured simply because their parent did not think that their child could reach a certain area or that they would get into a certain product. Be certain that you use safety latches not only on your low and easy to reach cabinets, but also your high ones as well. Do not forget to purchase extra electrical outlet plugs as well. These plugs are simple to plug into the outlets, but very difficult for little hands to pull out! The plugs will prevent your child from sticking anything into an electrical outlet and minimize the chances that your child will receive an electrical shock.
The older children get, the more curious they get. By thoroughly childproofing your home, you can minimize the occurrence of accidents. Remember that it is your responsibility to keep your child safe. Keep in mind that no matter how much you prepare and no matter how much you childproof, accidents are still going to happen from time to time. Childproofing materials were never meant to act as substitutes for the attention and watchful eye of an intuitive parent!
