Childproofing - Before Your Baby Arrives

In all the excitement that comes with bringing home a new child, couples and single parents alike can sometimes forget that there are specific items that must be taken care of to ensure the safety of their child. Do not be one of those parents that does not do everything they can to provide the best safety and care for their newborn and growing infant. Take the time to make a simple and easy checklist that will allow you to provide all the necessary steps to ensure the best chance of a healthy child.

• Smoke and Monoxide Detectors: Making sure your house has ample detectors is an important first step. Having monoxide detectors is of utmost importance because carbon monoxide leaks can happen seemingly without warning and the gas is not always detectable. Carbon monoxide can lead the brain damage or death if detected too late. In an infant or newborn it is even more likely to cause severe damage. Smoke inhalation is also more damaging to newborns, as their long capacity is smaller and thus easier to stifle. Ensure you have working detectors for both monoxide and smoke is one of the first steps that should be taken in any house welcoming a new human into it.
• Cool Lights and Fire Extinguishers: Speaking of smoke, where there is smoker there is often fire. Avoid fire hazards like hot-burning night-lights. Instead, use cool lights that give off no heat imitations and thus are much less likely to cause a fire. If you do decide to use hot-burning nightlights, keep them away from anything flammable, like curtains or furniture covers. It is also smart to keep a fire extinguisher in your house and in an easily accessible area so that if a fire starts elsewhere in your home, you are able to put it out quickly and safely.
• First Aid Kit: It is important to keep a standard and baby first aid kit in your house. Items in a child’s first aid kit are always those with items that pertain directly to an infant or young child’s needs. This includes, but is not limited to, child’s ibuprofen aspirin, a child’s thermometer, aloe gel for burns and scratches, and non-sting applicants for other injuries. It is also very important to keep a first-aid kit that applies to adult injuries, for if there is an incident where both your child and you are injured, you must be able to remedy your own injuries to then capably turn your attention to your child’s needs.
• Poisoning Prevention: Keep locks on all low-level cabinets to avoid children from finding their way into them. While an infant is stationary, the day comes quickly when they can move around on their. Being prepared far in advance helps you avoid later oversights. Take the time to check all labels around your house and utilize a child-health book to check for any ingredients in household washing, rinsing, and food-preparation materials that could be a danger to your child.

Having your own child is a wonderful and busy time in anyone’s life. Making sure your house is prepared for the responsibility of caring for that life is of utmost importance.

Childproofing - Toddlers and Beyond

As your child grows from an infant to a toddler, it can become increasingly difficult to keep track of all you have to do to ensure his or her safety. Your child is much more apt to roaming around the house and attempting to explore anywhere and everywhere he or she can. While this can be an entertaining and exciting time as a parent, it can also be a difficult one to keep safe. Keeping in mind some simple-to-follow steps to provide the best safety for your child will ensure you never have to take a trip to the hospital.

• Be Vigilant: Any parent will tell you that you cannot be vigilant of your child 100% of the time, especially when they begin to become an explorer. There are times when you are not able to keep an eye on them every second, whether it is because you are making dinner, distracted by someone at the door, or in the middle of a house project. While it is certainly best to do what you can to keep an ever-wary eye, having protective covering on edges and locks on doors is your next best bet.
• Impact Protection and Locks: Toddlers love to roam around, but most still do not exactly have their “land legs” and are prone to stumbling and falling toward, or even into, items around the house. Adding rubber or soft-plastic coverings to sharp or blunt edges around the house can help protect your child. While these protective edgings will still result in small boo-boos and injuries, such is a welcome alternative to fractured skulls and impact laserations. Locks are also a useful way to avoid problems when the toddler sneaks out of your line of vision. Providing a sturdy and dependable lock can save you a lot of worry and grief for those small windows of opportunity to for your child.
• Remove Choking and Strangling Items: Draw Strings and Cords, pointy objects, small decorative items like glass rocks or fake fruit, are all items that should be removed with toddlers around the house. Strings can easily become tangled. Decorations that are bite size or easily bitten into can become a choking hazard for children who mistake them for candies. It is also important to remove any decorative items like small statues or busts that can be knocked over or picked up by children. Often children will attempt to use them as toys and can hurt themselves.
• Doors and Windows: Make sure doors have doorstoppers or holders, and windows have proper locks and holders as well. Children not only will find their way out of a house but can also injure their hands, fingers, or even heads while poking their heads out doors and windows. The door is where accidents can easily occur as well. Doors are a pathway and thus the child can be knocked back by an adult that is entering the room.

There are plenty of rules and way to avoid unnecessary injury, and these tips are just a few ways to avoid particular injury. Use common sense to avoid common accidents and ensure your child’s safety.

3 Tips on How to Buy Childproofing Products

Almost every parent needs at least some forms of childproofing material or products in his or her house. Children are inquisitive and explorative, which while often a great quality can also mean getting into items or ignoring dangerous situations. In order to avoid unfortunate and unnecessary accidents, childproofing gear is often utilized. Childproofing items can be found any room in the house and whether it is the kitchen or on the back porch, knowing what to look for in a childproofing device or object is important.

• The Living Area/Front Room: When it comes to protecting the area where kids are most often, it is more about active protection. This means placing plastic or rubber safety corners on sharp corners and edges of items. There are a couple of important concepts to keep in mind when buying such items. First, make sure that the edging or protective edging is made of durable material. Why is this important? It is because children are often intrigued by the edging or cornering and will attempt to take it off. Make sure your material can handle a child’s initial interest in the material. If it can be easily removed, then it likely should not be purchased.
• The Kitchen: In the cooking area, it is more important to have latches and locks that work properly. Underneath the sink or in the cupboards are not only foods, but sometimes items like baking soda or detergents that can be dangerous for your child. Depending upon the age of your child, locking devices can be either simple or difficult devices. Make sure that just like your living-area devices; the kitchen locks can withstand the prying and inquisitive hands of your children. Also, make sure that the locks, while difficult for your child, are not too difficult for you to easily navigate past. After all, you do not want to keep yourself out of your cabinet underneath your sink.
• The Bathroom: For the bathroom, safety devices should be both to lock out children from the cabinets, as well as protect them from slips and falls. While the locks should be the same as in the kitchen, the items used in bathrooms to protect from falls should be thoroughly looked into before buying. Make sure no-slip floor mats and bath-heath protectors are capable of withstanding considerable use. You do not want to purchase an item that can easily wear out over time. Also make sure the connective property of the lock and productive system will not be compromised by consistent water exposure. Your bathroom can often become filled with steam that can sometimes compromise adhesives that hold on locks. Children will, as stated before, attempt to pull of protective devices. Make sure any you use have a gripping quality that does not slip easily when wet; else, your child will likely remove them.

Your child’s safety is of utmost importance, and knowing what types of items to purchase can mean the difference between a carefree day and a trip to the hospital.