It is very exciting to see and experience developmental stages of your child. What could be more joyous than watching your toddler trying to kick, crawl and propel round the home every day! But at the same time, it means that we need to take all steps to make our house – child proof.
Making the house child proof will be more along the lines of making your rooms, furniture and other household items child resistant to protect against potential hazards.
When you have your curious little one on feet, added supervision is just as important to keep your child safe. You’d never imagine your child could be this inquisitive that safety devices will eventually get unhinged or figured out by your child.
By starting with a few simple steps, you can manage to make your house safer. Here are the five things you can do to keep kids safe in your home:
- Use safety gates at the tops and bottoms of stairs and attach them to the wall.
- Install stoppers or pool noodle to keep doors from banging.
- Secure furniture to the wall to avoid it from tilting over.
- Store poisonous items out of reach or use safety locks on cabinets within reach. These items include laundry and dishwasher detergents, and other cleaners.
- Install locks on the dresser drawers to prevent them from being pulled all the way out. This extra precaution may also prevent the drawers from becoming steps for little climbers as well
- Keep toilet lids closed and use toilet seat locks.
- Make sure all sharp objects are properly stored, and even locked up.
- Remove all items that can become a choking hazard. The biggest household hazards come from small toys and hard foods that easily block airways.
- Keep furniture away from windows, where possible. They may try to climb nearby furniture to see out of the window just out of curiosity and may also throw away items to get attention from outside the window.
- Remember to read the manufacturer’s instructions and warning labels to make sure you have the right product.
- See the world from a child’s point of view. When you get down at your child’s eye level, you’ll be able to identify items that can be harmful for your child.
- When planning ways to keep your child safe, you will have to review your child’s safety needs often as she is in a constant growth phase.
