Before you go out and buy all the baby proof safety products for your home, READ THIS, it could save your baby!
You’ve got the cot, change table and all those adorable baby clothes ready for bubs arrival but now you’re stressing about how to baby proof your home. As tempting as it is to buy every safety product available on the shelves, take a minute to see if they are recommended by other parents and if you really need them. These tips to baby proof your home should help!
Keeping them safe – Baby proof & toddler proof
Baby proofing and toddler proofing your home doesn’t have to be stressful or confusing. Depending on your living quarters and your furniture style, what you need to baby proof will alter slightly. Here are some general tips to consider for both babies and toddlers.
- Lay down and look around – this will show you what your little one sees. Is there anything at eye level that looks appealing to inquisitive little minds? Common things include: power points, cords, plants, cleaning chemicals, etc.
- Cupboard and drawer locks – while at first you might not need these, once those little fingers get jammed into drawers you will be reconsidering. Not only that, think about where you store your cleaning chemicals. If you are anything like me, it will be under the kitchen sink. If you only lock one cupboard shut – let it be this one!
- Cover power points – power socket protectors are the quickest and easiest solution to this. Toddlers are attracted to power points and when they see parents putting things into them, they will often try to mimic that action. Using power point protectors are such an easy way to prevent accidents. *I have used Dreambaby power point protectors for my kids when they babies and toddlers because they were easy enough for me to remove but they couldn’t pull them out.
- Put up that baby gate – if you have stairs in your home this is an essential item! Depending on the layout of your home you may need a baby gate at the top and bottom of the stairs. If however, your toddler doesn’t need to go upstairs at all placing the gate at the bottom will be enough.
- Door knob covers – not all houses will need these but a lot of parents get peace of mind from them because they know their toddler will not be able to open the door. Ideal if your main door has a knob handle.
- Mount furniture to the wall – whenever possible mount your large and heavy furniture to the wall. This will prevent your child accidentally pulling it over on top of themselves.
- Blind cords – ensure your blind cords are out of reach. Tie them up high or use a blind cord safety kit. These are pretty cheap and can be found in most baby shops and hardware stores.
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Safety plugs in the power points
Get one of those electic cord tidiers. It keeps all the cords together and you can screw them to the skirting boards so bub can’t pull at the cords.
Mounting furniture and TVs to the wall is of paramount importance. I had a tv fall on me back in the day when it wasn’t even a thing and it wasn’t pleasant! Thankfully I was lucky! Toddlers are quick even for the most conscious parent and I just wouldn’t risk it!
Cupboard clips on all cupboards with medicine, cleaning products or sharp utensils in
Using quality products like dreambaby to keep bub safe
The furniture securing it
Most parenting and product websites have childproofing checklists. Printing off ones from different organisations gave me lots of different ideas on how I could make our house a safer place for our family.
If I cannot reach it, neither can the child!
Keep everything thats heavy/sharp/not for babies up high where they cannot reach them and if possible hidden so not to encourage climbers!
The information is great!
If you don’t have a deadbolt or top lock on your front door/sliding door.. any door you don’t want your toddler opening. I used the dreambaby multipurpose latches and stuck the to the architrave and door. Easy to attach, no drilling, superstrong, And up high so the kids can’t reach. Been a life saver whilst renting as we can’t install locks.
Dreambaby Baby Gates EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!
my computer lol
Remember it is based on skill NOT chance – Parenting requires skill, so leave nothing to chance. If you think it may happen, even if only a slight chance, do something about it.
These would all be great as bub is starting to crawl.
Mounting furniture and TVs to the wal
Well I’m not sure about you guys but my youngest babe, my girl, is into freakin’ everything! ANYTHING remotely dangerous she will seek and destroy. At this point I’m thinking it’ll probably be the easier for both of us if I lock her in a cage while I still can… not really but seriously, her poor little fingers in between any drawers, not to mention my poor kitchenware something smashes every week!
Get down to baby level and assess your entire house yourself! You know your kids and what they’ll get into so trust your instinct!
Try to find somebody to watch your toddler for the afternoon whilst you toddler/baby proof the house. Toddlers are crazy clever, if my almost two year old sees me do something he can quickly work out how to reverse engineer it and undo/remove/unlatch/unhook it!
The other thing…however tall you think your toddler is and how high he/she can reach, double it! Toddlers are like elastic they stretch and can get a hold of whatever it is you don’t want them to!
This would be so helpful for us toddler proofing our living room, it would make the space safe so I could quickly take bub upstairs and out her down for her nap whilst knowing my toddler is safe! Peace of mind would be priceless!
Secure furniture to the walls.
Bubblewrap … bubblewrap all corners to ensure that your little ones won’t get hurt should they ever bump into one!
The cord on the blinds is such a dangerous thing for toddlers. They love to play with it and disaster could happen within seconds. It’s such an important thing to make safe!
I am so tempted to say don’t show them how to do anything! But honestly the best hack I got for #1 was to us toilet rolls as blind cord guides to reduce the choking hazard risk. By putting the cords inside several rolls ( one roll can make 2 channels if squished and stapled) the cords can still function and they cords can’t wrap very well around little heads. It buys you the time to get the job done properly and toilet rolls were easy to access.
all saucepan handles facing inwards so that they cannot reach,
hot is something from baby i teach
sit high chair in kitchen so they can see
while cooking for the family
Safety plugs in power points and keep chemical in high place kids can’t get to.
We had very sharp kitchen benchtop corners, so I made my own cardboard protectors!
Make sure blind cords are out of reach and use socket covers.