Baby proofing your home

If your baby is turning one you have probably noticed that she is 'moving' alot more than she used to. As she starts to walk it is a good time to review and update the baby proofing you have around your home.

Basic Safety - what could hurt your toddler?

The best place to start is with the more obvious 'danger zone' of your house, the kitchen. you toddler might ingnore the stove ninety five percent of the time, but as soon as you put a pan on the stove it will become irresistable to your little one and her little hand will start to reach up towards it and before you know it she will be just tall enough for her fingers to brush the handle and obviously that is incredibly dangerous.You can buy stove protectors but an alternative just as good is to only use the back rings while your toddler is about. Unless you often use all four rings at once it is probably just as safe and far less annoying. The cupboards will soon be a prime area for exploration, if you have dangerous chemicals such as cleaning fluids (bleach etc) in any of the lower cupboards it is a good idea either to move them or to install little cupboard locks (latches for inside the doors) to stop her getting at anything that could harm her. You can also get alarms which go off if the door is opened, I wouldnt recommend these as if your child is anything like mine by the time they are two they will be repeatedly opening and closing the doors shouting "door door" and an alarm would get irritating pretty quickly.

The next room to consider is your childs bedroom, sometime in her toddler years she will be moving from her cot into a bed and will suddenly be able to explore whenever she feels like it. It's unlikely you keep anything dangerous in her bedroom but its a good idea to make sure that she cannot reach the window, if this is unavoidable make sure it is always locked shut. Many types of window are relativley easy for an toddler (especially an older one) to open and depending on the kind of windows you have this could mean she is in danger from falling. The other main thing to do in the bedroom is to make sure that the plug sockets are covered either by furniture or with plug safety covers. Of course once your toddler is in a bed it is possible that she could just walk out of her bedroom and wander the rest of the house. This can be dangerous especially if you have stairs and so a stair gate either on her bedroom door or at the top of the stairs would be another thing to consider, a word of warning though, some toddlers learn to scale these at quite a young age so dont be surprised if you go upstairs one evening and find your little angel sitting on top of the stair gate with a leg draped down each side and a guilty look on her face. When it comes to the bathroom there are so many dangers in here it might be best to make it a no go zone unless you are with her, close the door. Just in case you (or someone else) forgets you can minimize the dangers in this room by doing things like making sure any medication or soaps etc are out of reach, you can also buy toilet seat clips.

In the house as a whole all plugs in her reach should be covered, wiring should be tucked away as much as possible and if you have any glass furniture you could either buy protective sheets or move it to an area she doesnt go to very often. If you have a fireplace of any kind a firegaurd is essential, there is something about fire that fascinates toddlers and the only real way to keep them safe is to keep them far away from it. Another good idea for avoiding burns is to turn down you radiators, hot radiators and hot water can result in some pretty serious burns for little hands.

 

Preserving your "stuff" - what your toddler might destroy

The simple fact about having a toddler is that things will get broken, things will get scratched and things will get drawn on. Even a model toddler will have off days and they are all by nature clumsy. The first and most important thing you should do is move all the pens - hide them. From now until your toddler starts school keep them out of her reach - get her some crayons and pens by all means just dont let her loose around the house with them. If you leave the pens about you will probably turn around one day to find her drawing all over your brand new washer-dryer with bright red permanent marker (and i speak from experience here). If you ignore my advice go out and buy a steam cleaner, you will need it it the coming years. Ornaments you treasure should be on high shelves, leave the ones you dont really care about lower down. As with most things even if she cant reach it now give her a few months and she will have grown just enough to tap it off the shelf and of course you are really in trouble when she learns that she can make herself taller by standing on top of things. Books are another thing around your house that your toddler wont be able to keep her hands of - at first you will probably congratuate yourself on having such a studious and eager to learn child after a while however you will start to notice dirty little hand prints or torn pages and will begin to wish she would stick to her board books.The only advice i can give here is to move the bookcase somewhere she doesnt go or to just let go of the notion of having tidy books. Computers, video players and dvds will probably have things posted into them, or some things you can buy covers to prevent that, for others you cant - I dont have any advice here!.

Keeping your toddler safe is an ongoing project, she is ingeniuos when it comes to finding dangerous activities, these are some starting points but you will probably find yourself moving things, locking things and replacing things for most of the next three years!