At home child safety: Important areas for Childproofing

Being a new parent comes with great responsibility. You are now responsible for a little life, to nurture and protect for eternity. Prior to the babies arrival, you’ve probably been nesting, which is our natural instinct to prepare for the new arrival. This means excessive cleaning, organising, setting up the nursery, and in many cases babyproofing your house in preparation.

In truth, newborns don’t do a lot other than eat, sleep, cry and poop. And they are either being held or asleep in their cot or baby carrier. But they can wiggle, and move, and eventually roll over. And that’s when the fun starts as it can catch you by surprise as you no longer have a safe environment for your child.

The largest number of accidents happen in the living/dining room, which makes sense as it’s likely where you spend most of your time. Often these are bumps or breakages, and quite minor.

But the most serious accidents happen in the kitchen and on the stairs. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents estimate that more than 67,000 children experience an accident in the kitchen yearly, with 43,000 under 4. With the second most dangerous place the stairs, with 58,000 children.

Of course not every accident is reported, I’ve certainly not disclosed any, with my hospital trips perhaps being counted which have consisted of:

1. Dislocated shoulder when my daughter was pushed off a play park bouncer by some random girl
2. My daughter injecting herself with an EpiPen, when taking it off her younger brother I may add (avoidable if I knew one was left in the house!)

But there have been others where emergency treatment was not required, which I will go into more detail later.

These things happen not because we are terrible parents, but because we can’t physically be everywhere at once. We can’t have eyes everywhere when other things need our attention like cooking, or with modern society work pressures that dominate our home live. We also put our children in the care of others, which in my experience is when more accidents happen. No-one cannot prevent your child skinning their knee, or falling over, even in dedicated play areas.

The child’s development is critical too, you should be educating and not just protecting and keeping dangers away. Part of our life experience is learning from our mistakes, and sometimes these are needed to truly grasp what someone is warning you of.

So we can prepare for changes and development, and limit the risk and hazards in our homes. And understanding the dangers for each age group or developmental stage is needed, and never under-estimate what these little bundles are capable of as there is a first time for everything. These are below:

In this article, we’ll explore some home safety key areas you should think about when you child proof your home to create a safe haven for your little ones.

Kitchen Areas

The first area you should look at childproofing in your home should be the kitchen, as it is a space filled with potential hazards and dangers for small children, like hot ovens, sharp knives and household cleaning supplies.

In an ideal world, a child safety gate at the door towards your kitchen should do the trick, preventing your little ones from roaming your kitchen unsupervised. But let’s be honest, when we are moving back and forth these are a pain for access when carrying things and ironically become a trip hazard with the low bar on the floor. And the parents conundrum is, if they are not with you, they are unattended elsewhere!

So unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world and it is not always as simple as gating off your kitchen. Plus, your child wants to be near you so will be constantly under your feet, but at least you can see them. Depending on room layout and size, you might be able to keep them in a safe area, which people using inflatable pools for this.

From my own experience, I can tell you that moving babies love to explore and will get everything out the cupboards. Bringing toys in doesn’t work, they want shiny new adventures. My daughter loved the pots and pans, which of course are under the kitchen hob creating a hot water spillage hazard.

My best advice is to have one unlocked that is safe and out the way to keep the occupied, far away from the hot oven. For me I used the plastic cups and plates, but you could put a toy kitchen in so they can watch and copy in safety.  Some of my best safety tips would be able distraction rather than locking them out with baby gates.

So, lets look at what can be done.

• You should look to install child safe locks on low cupboards and drawers to prevent your little one from breaking in. I used the magnetic ones above as look great and work brilliantly for kids. Just note, that in my experience visiting guests will rip these off constantly, although there is an option to make permanently open. They are only stuck on so this makes them lose effectiveness over time when re-stuck but still recommended.
• If you have a high cupboard move all cleaning sprays up there to save the toxic risk. Plus anything messy, so flour and jars obviously. And look under the sink, as washing tablets are soft and squidgy so appealing to little fingers, and easily burst.
• Ensure that any sharp utensils are well out of reach.
• Never leave a small child unsupervised in a kitchen space whilst and oven, hob or kettle is on to prevent burn injuries. This includes things like the iron which has a lovely pullable cord and a heavy object to come crashing down.

Household Furniture

Another common household hazard is the furniture in your home. This could be standing furniture, a marble fireplace, window sills, door handles, things to pull off the wall, a free standing TV to wobble. Both babies and toddlers will hold onto things for support, or can fall easily.

With furniture, the two factors you should be mindful of is hard edges, which would hurt if your child landed on it after a trip; and unsecured standing furniture, which could fall over if a curious child tried to climb up it.

Covering up hard or sharp edges and corners on coffee tables and cupboards is easy enough to do with child safe corner protectors and soft anti-collision strips which can be applied to household furniture. This is probably the nastiest one in the living room, as my son can tell you after rocking on a mini arm chair until he fell off and caught his forehead on the edge of the coffee table.

It’s worth looking just watching your baby or toddler move around as you will quickly see what they can get to. I found out the hard way that the fake coal fire was a magnet for a crawling baby to pick up and suck on. Electrical sockets and wires are often an attraction too. You can also literally get on your hands and knees and look what is in reach.

This next one is a big one for me, as can be fatal and not something I ever thought about prior to having kids. Children like climbing, and they can surprise you with their acrobatics. I once came into my kitchen to find my 3 year old daughter on the unit raiding the snack cupboard (she simply pushed a dining room chair over to use). And I’ve also found my son climbing on bookcases to be able to reach higher on occasion.

For taller free-standing furniture like bookshelves and cupboards, you should secure them to a wall with a bracket (which are often provided so no excuse). This will prevent it from toppling over if a curious toddler tries to climb up it.

And this includes chest of drawers, which become very unstable with the bottom drawer pulled out and weight applied. I’d urge you do this, as a child under the weight stands little chance of coming out unscathed and on average two children a year die due to toppling furniture and televisions.

Window Shades

A less common household hazard that you should be aware of is your window blinds. While child safety laws mean that any corded blind must be supplied with safety add-ons like P-clips to keep the cord taut, 2 children a year in the UK still unfortunately die from strangulation caused by blinds cords with many more getting injured as parents or family forget to re-secure the cords after use, or curious children untangle the cords.

So, rather than running the risk of a cord related injury, you can stay on the safe side and swap out any window shades that use cords or chain operations for cordless blinds which are inherently child safe thanks to their crank or wand mechanism, which poses no danger to children.

On this note, be mindful of dressing gown cords, which look like great scarfs. You can prevent injuries by literally securely sewing these to the gown.

Stairways & Trip Hazards

Stairways and smaller trip hazards like wires and raised floors should always be childproofed to prevent any falling injuries. While child-proofing stairways is one of the first areas parents tackle, smaller trip hazards like height differences between rooms and wires across floors may be overlooked.

Starting with the obvious, stairways should have a child gate at the top and bottom of the stairs, so that small children can’t go up and down unsupervised but remember to also put child gates on doors between rooms with a height difference.

Sadly for me, I can testify that stairgate only work if adults close them so you do need to get into the habit of ensuring they are kept closed, however annoying they may be.

Smaller trips hazards like wiring across floors should either be moved out of the way, or covered with floor cable covers to prevent any trips, especially when they’re near furniture.

Medicines & Cleaning Products

Finally, medicines and cleaning products can pose a hazard if your child get’s their curious little hands on them, luckily thanks to various safety regulations most medicines and cleaning products will have childproof lids on them to prevent them being opened, however it’s best to err on the side of caution and ensure they’re kept in child safe spaces.

The best way to go about this, is to either install childproof locks on any cabinets containing medicines or cleaning products that are in your child’s reach or to keep them in cabinets and cupboards high off the floor and out of their reach.

Especially as while cleaning products bottles will have a safety standards cap, bleach sprays will have a nozzle for off and on, which is likely to be left ready to use. And of course kids will have a squeeze when your back is turned.

Ideal world, you will want to keep harmful items out of reach of children where possible in a locked cupboard. But let’s be honest, people will leave pills and medication lying around that are not in bottles, so often we will need to take responsibility for others and stay aware of dangers.

Other dangers and baby proofing products

Naturally there are other dangers in the home and garden, including things like hair straighteners being left on. Anything sharp or that heats up is always a danger. You might want to consider locking the bathroom doors when your toddlers reach the fascination of putting toiler paper into the bowl too.

Outside dangers include side gates out into the open road, paddling pools with water in them, lit BBQ’s, garden tools left out capable of serious damage, and chemicals in the shed or garage. These call for common sense and awareness at all times.

There are a variety of other baby proofing products available to help keep your little one safe I’ve not covered above. These include:

• Door knob covers – these are head height for running children so can easily cause injury.
• Window locks and guards – essential for fully opening windows.
• Slip proof mats for the bathtub and shower, especially with slippery products being used.

Contrary to some advice, you do not need a cover for electric power sockets in the UK thanks to the standard installed shutter safety system (that the outlet covers actually open if used, making it live).