The truth about childproofing your home.
Years ago, you would most likely be laughed at if you asked for a toilet lock at the hardware store, or if you wanted to hire a professional babyproofer for your home. These days there is every contraption available that you can think of to help keep your toddler safe. Of course we still need to watch them with our super human hawk-eye abilities, but to make our lives a bit easier, and to keep our precious bundles safe, there are few easy and inexpensive ways to make this happen in your home.
Anchoring Shelves:
A goal for child proofing, is to not cause permanent damage to our homes, or as little as necessary. You may need to anchor any heavy shelves or units to the wall, as baby will quickly attempt to scale these and could pull the unit down on themselves. There are some who swear by using a simple chain lock that runs from the shelving unit to the wall, as you can still pull them out a ways for cleaning purposes.
Wrapping Blind Cords:
Buying inexpensive plastic blind cord wraps to wrap the cords on your blinds, is a must do for child proofing. These can be transparent and easily screwed into the wall, and will also keep your blind cords neat and organized.
Covering Electrical Outlets:
Electrical outlet plugs are available at any baby store, hardware store, or even dollar store. This is the best inexpensive investment you can make to pop into your electrical outlets and keep baby safe from electrocution…..trust me….it happens!
Gating Staircases:
Make sure to install baby gates for the top and bottoms of your staircases. This is where the focus of your investment should be. Do not use tension gates at the top of your staircase!
Latching Drawers and Cabinets:
There are great strap and latch systems that can be purchased to stick on to the outside of drawers, and other systems that can be used on the inside of drawers to stay out of sight. Cabinet doors can be held closed with a sliding latch mechanism, which are also available at baby stores and hardware stores. In a pinch, a cookie cutter shape can be pushed over two cupboard knobs to keep adventurers out!
Covering Door Knobs or Door Edges:
Door knob safety covers can be fitted around the knobs of inside doors, and this ensures that only adults will be opening them. If you do not want to purchase knob covers, pool noodles can be cut and placed around the top edge of the door so that they will not be slammed shut on little fingers.
Latching Oven Doors and Knobs:
Oven door safety latches are a great product for baby proofing your kitchen area, as are oven knob covers to prevent toddlers from reaching up and turning stove elements on.
Bathroom Baby Proofing:
Of course you can make the effort to keep your bathroom doors closed at all times, but if you know you are bound to slip up, these are great products to use. Toilet seat locks keep baby from falling in or putting treasures inside the toilet bowl. These can be found with a potty seat combo, which is great for toilet training. Bathtub non-slip mats are a must, and faucet covers are perfect for keeping little heads safe from bruises. Remember to turn the main water temperature for your home down as well. Another inexpensive trick, if you do not want to buy a toilet paper guard, is to put an elastic around your toilet paper roll so that baby isn’t tempted to unravel the roll!
Other great child proofing ideas include; fireplace fences (these can be set up around gas or wood fireplace areas to block out baby), window guards, table and counter corner protectors (pool noodles can be great for this too), and pool fences (which are set up around outdoor pools). It doesn’t need to be costly to babyproof your home, or take up too much of your time. However, it will certainly help to keep your little one safe, and also give you some peace of mind. Parenting is the hardest job out there, and we need to take the help that we can get…..even if it’s from a pool noodle!
