
Childproofing Your Home (simple steps)
The joy of bringing your new born child home from the hospital for the first time is comparable to the kind of excitement you feel when meeting a celebrity. You know everything will be fine but you just want to make a good first impression. Of course, the baby couldn’t care less about the freshly shampooed carpets and neatly arranged cushions on the sofa, just in the same way your favorite celebrity isn’t going to remember a thing about you the moment they walk away from the selfie, but that doesn’t stop us feeling the need to try to be memorable in some way. It’s a pride thing.
As nicely kept as your home may be, sooner or later you’ll have bigger worries on your hands than wondering whether the vase on the fireplace complements the new clock in the hallway. When baby learns to crawl, shuffle, scoot, and pull themselves up, you’re going to need to childproof your home – a task that could have very different considerations and price tags if your child has a birth injury (have a conversation with a Cerebral Palsy lawyer if you would like more information). But where to begin? After all, the home is a big place, and some baby proofing isn’t all that necessary, is it? Let’s find out.
The obvious primary considerations
If your baby is scooting and grabbing, you need to keep everything out of reach. Literally everything. Not just because household objects might present a choking hazard, but because anything that can be reached will be grabbed and pulled towards the baby, meaning a danger of slightly heavier objects falling onto the child, or even just simply that things like the TV remote might get thrown onto the floor, breaking it or cracking it. For baby’s safety, and for the ongoing longevity of your breakable household items, move everything out of reach.
Attach corner and edge guards to your furniture
These relatively inexpensive guards will help to prevent any injury that may occur from tumbling into tables and furniture. These guards are designed to be as inconspicuous as possible, but many people still think that their home ends up looking too much like a play area with the addition of the guards – remember, it’s not forever, and you can apply and remove the guards as needed when the child is playing in different rooms.
Highchairs need to be placed in plenty of space
Despite the whole point of highchairs being that they offer a safe way for children to eat at the table with adults, there could be issues where the chair is placed too close to something that the child can push or kick away from, resulting in tipping that could see the child fall from the chair. Pay attention to how far the child can reach from their seated position, and make sure that there is no way they could conceivably cause harm to themselves by grabbing at things or pushing away from things (including walls). Childproofing Your Home in simple steps can be easy after all!