A wise person once said, ‘safety does not come with luck, it has to be prepared’. This saying could not be more applicable to anticipating the addition of little ones into your life. While you might not have seen it before, your home is an adventure playground for learning babies and curious toddlers, especially once they find their feet! In this blog, we’re going to walk you through some ways to ensure you are safe-proofing your home to protect your child from accidental falls, bangs, burns and illness incidents.
The ABCs of Safe-Proofing a Home
Before your baby arrives, now’s the time to ensure safety measures that protect the whole family are up to date. Test your smoke alarms, organise an annual gas appliance safety check with a qualified engineer, and ensure you’ve got an audible carbon monoxide alarm in every room with a gas appliance – check these alarms monthly. Have a fire extinguisher and fire blanket easily accessible in the home and plan a fire escape route known by all residents.
Forbidden Grounds
For totally off-limit rooms, due to either hazard or noise-level concerns, fit doorknob covers to stop your toddler getting in during moments where curiosity takes over. While places you’d think a human wouldn’t want to get into, such as toilets and rubbish bins, install safety locks on their lids just in case. In the kitchen, fit safety latches on the fridge, cupboards and draws, especially on those that contain potentially poisonous household products.
Falls
A device well-known in child-proofing is safety gates. Install at the top and bottom of stairs to inhibit falling. Perhaps a consideration that doesn’t so readily come to mind is securing furniture, such as sofas or drawers, to the floor or walls so your ever-strengthening tot doesn’t pull them over.
If your home has balconies or pools, ensure you carry out diligent safety measures. Install fencing over 1m high around your pool with a self-closing and self-latching gate. Any balconies with horizontal or vertical bars should be covered with a material that has a low probability of shattering, such as acrylic plexiglass. Make sure doors leading to balconies have doorknob covers or safety gates.
Sharp Edges and Hazards
Protect against painful knocks and ensuing wails by fitting corner and edge bumpers onto sharp furnishings by the time your baby crawls. Remove or pin to the wall any loose wires teething babies might find. Cover low-level plug sockets to protect wandering hands and fit door hinge guards to mitigate against trapped fingers.
Looped blind cords are an acute strangulation hazard, so ensure they’re out of reach or removed completely. To prevent poisoning, remove or seal flaking or peeling paint in the property.
A good way to analyse what is a potential hazard is to go down to baby level and crawl through each room, only at the risk of looking a little silly!
Burns and Scalds
The kitchen is a prime candidate for inducing potential harm. Fit an oven door guard to prevent burns, and a hob guard to stop a pan going flying. Install radiator covers for similar reasons.
To prevent scalds from water, permanently set your water heater thermostat at 120 degrees. For further safety diligence, you can install anti-scalding devices on taps and showerheads.
Finally, if your property has a fireplace, install fireplace gates.
Conclusion
We hope the information provided here can form the basis of a checklist for childproofing your home. Don’t be overwhelmed. With timely planning, ticking off the checklist will ultimately put your mind at ease.
Before you go, a quick disclaimer – this is not an exhaustive list, rather an offering of general information. Although we’ve provided some useful safe-proofing tips, no home can be fully child-proofed, so ensure your little one is supervised at all times.
