7 Tools to Childproof Your Home
Babies and curiosity… an unavoidable (and often cute) duo.
As parents, you would do anything to keep your child safe. But babies grow into toddlers… and just as they grow, so does their curiosity. Young children love learning about new things hands-on. But sometimes “hands-on” can be dangerous. Especially when children are crawling and grabbing with little knowledge of their surroundings.
Luckily, a few people realized the dangers posed by everyday household items and invented some nifty gadgets to help you childproof your home:
A toddler’s mindset—“If it can be opened… why shouldn’t I open it?”
Whether it’s a cabinet, drawer, oven, or other kitchen appliance, if it opens, expect your child to try opening it. There’s no denying that a child’s desire to explore is incredibly adorable. But unsupervised exploring can end up with squished fingers and unexpected hiding places. Not to mention, according to Mom Loves Best, thousands of children ingest harmful substances found in drawers and cabinets. Safety latches childproof all places in your home where dangerous items can be grabbed or fingers can be squished.
Tap water scalds are serious business, not only for your children… for you too! Scalding hot water can leave you with third-degree burns… in some cases, scalds are even fatal. Your child should not be exposed to dangerously hot water temperatures. For this reason, there are anti-scald devices. If you don’t have the ability to adjust the temperature on your water heater (or just want a solid back-up to your water temperature settings), these are perfect for regulating temperatures or even maintaining temperatures when the water temperature fluctuates.
According to the Consumer Protection Safety Commission, one child dies per month because of entanglement in window blinds. For this reason, cordless blinds and shades were created. Cordless blinds and shades are sleek and stylish, while also making your home childproof! There are less small plastic ends and long dangling cords… everyone wins!
And best yet, this also increases safety for your pets. Long dangling cords can be very tantalizing for cats and dogs. With cordless systems, you keep kids and pets safe.
Here’s some trivia… off the top of your head, what things are relatively the same height as a toddler or small child?
If you said tables, cabinets and dressers… *DING, DING, DING* you’re a winner! These things are around the same height as a toddler or small child. These things also have corners and sometimes relatively defined edges. As an adult… a bump to the head hurts (sometimes a lot). As a kid… a bump to the head hurts and can be traumatic. Of course it hurts, but if a kid runs into a corner or edge hard enough, they can seriously injure their head. Corner bumpers are soft plastic or rubber pieces that attach to the corners and edges of your table. They absorb the impact and create a softer landing surface on dangerous areas of your furniture.
For more on edge bumpers and furniture safety, check out our contribution to this article on Porch.com, Safeguarding Your Kids at All Stages - you can also get a wide range of additional child safety tips for kids of all ages.
There are certain areas of your home that your child just shouldn’t be. But kids are sneaky, and can be moving around exploring, even when you aren’t aware. One of the best ways to ensure that your child doesn’t have access to restricted rooms in your home are baby gates. Whether it be a door to the outside, staircases or garages, baby gates are great for providing a safe barrier between your child and the places you don’t want them to go. Be sure that the baby gate you choose is difficult to climb. After all, the purpose is kind of defeated if they can crawl over the gate.
Some restricted areas of your home are kept behind closed doors. But for a curious kid, a closed door is exactly what he wants to see behind. Not all doors have locks, or need to be locked, so find the perfect balance in doorknob covers! They simply make the knob a little too complicated for a child’s patience. Therefore, when they can’t get it figured out, they move on. Just make sure the doorknob cover isn’t too complicated… or else the door will be childproof and adultproof!
Electrical outlets are, unfortunately, an easy place for small fingers to get in. And once a finger is in the socket, your child can easily receive a shock, or worse, be electrocuted by the outlet. Luckily, there’s a plug to the problem… literally! Outlet plugs are a childproofing necessity. These little plastic pieces fit perfectly into every socket. They’re easy to remove as well, so when you need to plug something in, just remove the outlet plug and voila!
If we’re being honest, there’s a million gadgets to childproof your home and increase the safety of the environment. These seven, however, are essentials to making sure your everyday items aren’t dangerous to your child. More happy babies at the end of the day… what more can you ask for?
