A home with a baby and without a baby cannot be the same. A small baby in the house demands constant care not only personal but atmospheric as well. If you are planning a baby, look around in the house, you will notice a lot needs to be modified once the baby comes.
The house should be well clean and sanitized all the time so that baby catches no infection of illness. Once the baby starts to crawl, you will have to keep an eye. The house should not have anything pointed or dangerous lying around. Taking care of the stairs, windows and so much more needs constant care. This is called baby proofing the house.
What is Baby Proofing?
Baby proofing is just to ensure that everything that your child opens, pulls, or plays with will not hurt him. It is just about making certain changes in the house to make it more secure for the baby. Babies can hurt themselves unknowingly. Parents have to keep a check that they are safe all the time and there atmosphere is safe for them to freely wander around. Doing your bit to secure the surrounding of the baby is allied baby proofing the house.
Why is it important to Childproof your home
Once there is a baby in the house, the whole house needs to transform. Babies love to wander around as they are super-curious to explore their surroundings. Due to this, they can harm themselves from anything that is around. So it is the duty of the parents to make their child’s surrounding safe.
How to Baby Proof House
Many parents want to baby-proof their house but don’t know what to do. Not to worry we are here to help. You will have to baby proof your house room by room and not all at once. And make sure you follow your intuitions.
Every parent can sense anything dangerous for his/her child beforehand. Here are a few baby proofing ideas to take care of:
- Water heater: Children love water. They always want to go to the taps and have fun with water. You don’t want your child to hurt himself;f/herself with hot water. So adjust your water heater temperature below 120 degrees Fahrenheit. You are all carefree if your child running to the bathroom and playing with the water knobs. It is a major step as many toddlers tend to burn themselves with hot water.
- Keep the bathrooms locked and secured all the time: Kids love going to bathrooms. It is a place where majors accidents can happen. Bathrooms can b slippery, toilets have disinfecting and cleaners, there are so many bottles of shampoos, conditioners, and whatnot. A child can drink anything or can slip in the bathroom so it is best to keep the bathroom doors shut and locked all the time.
- Kitchen safety: The kitchen is many children’s favorite area to play and explore. Children tend to open the cabinets and take the stuff out and do all sorts of playful acts.
So to make the kitchen a safe place for your child, you need to make some changes because you don’t know what your child might start doing at the turn of your back. So put all chemical stuff like cleaning soaps, detergents, and other cleaning supplies in the upper cabinets.
The lower cabinet can have the things that are safe for the baby like unbreakable crockery, paper products, plastic bags plastic containers, pots, etc. if you put any insect repellent balls or medicine, make sure to remove them as your baby can pop any such thing in the mouth.
- Living room safety: Living room can have edgy furniture that can hurt your baby. So cover those sharp edges with small cotton balls so your baby can move around freely.
Also, remove any breakable showpieces or frames from our living room. Your baby can harm himself/herself. If possible, put a rug in your living room so your baby can freely wander around and there is no chance of falling down and getting hurt.
Any electric point on the lower side of the wall must be covered. Your baby can put a finger inside and hurt himself. Make sure there are no tiny stones or metal stuff in your house, your baby can swallow one of those assuming it to be a candy. - Safety gates for stairs: Staircase is one major danger spot for babies to harm themselves. If you have stairs at your place then get safety gates for the stairs. You don’t want your child to flip on the stairs. It can extremely dangerous so better keep your child away from stairs by putting safety gates.
- Create a safe play area for your baby: Babies do need a constant check but you have other house chores to do as well. Create a safe play area for your baby to sit in until you are doing other things in the house. Use soft mats and plastic fencing around and just put all the toys and games your child likes to play with. That area can be well-lit, music, and all the fun stuff.
- The small stuff: Above are all the main things but now its time to look into other minute details:
- Make sure your house plants are non-toxic. Some plants are poisonous.
- Keep ashtray empty. Put all sorts of tobacco, cigarettes away.
- Clean your house every day with safe floor cleaners.
- Keep every small object away like paper clips, rubber bands, loose change, or anything that can choke your baby.
- Keep liquor in a locked cabinet.
- Keep cosmetics in a place where your baby cannot find it.
When do you Baby Proof House
Baby proofing the house can take up some time. So its best to start with the job three months before the due date. The initial baby proofing needs just a high level of cleaning and sanitizing. Once the baby reaches the age of 6 to 10 months and he/she start to crawl and begin mouthing, you need to do the second step of baby proofing.
Every parent wants to keep their house a safe haven for their child so they must learn how to baby proof the house. Above are just some basic tips to help you. Do listen to your motherly extinct as it is the best way to cure the baby.