Baby Safety in your Home

Just as soon as your bundle of joy comes home after birth, then baby safety issues take precedence over everything else. To some parents, the safety precautions starts as early as when the pregnancy is confirmed. As expected, babies are so delicate and so precious thus needing every protection necessary. Aptly put, the carefree life that most people live before a baby is born is simply thrust out of the window. Almost immediately, everything in the home and the car has to be baby proofed! In the first four to five months of a babys life, parents can afford to take it easy and only deal with safety issues that would affect the mainly inactive baby. But as soon as a baby starts stretching his arms to reach for things while still seated down, signs that safety measure needs to be enhanced start cropping up. More need for proofing comes up when a baby starts to crawl around the house, walk and run around.

Toys may look like fun to any parent, but they may also be a source of anguish for both the parent and baby if they are not used within the stated age limits. To uphold baby safety, a parent or the care taker should ensure that all toys handed to the baby cannot choke or injure him in any way. Next are the doors, windows and any exit points in the house. These should be fitted with safety chains or catches that will prevent a baby from opening or squeezing through.

If the baby can easily access the kitchen, one of the invaluable baby safety measures includes installing a stove guard, which should prevent the child from touching the knobs on the stove. More to this, parents should always ensure that pot or pan handles are always turned inwards while preparing food.

Throughout the United States, stair cases pose the greatest risk to babies. To ensure that baby safety is enhanced in the home therefore, parents are advised to install stair gates on both sides of the stair case. Such gates should be at least thirty inches high. Parents should also know that babies learn through curiosity. As such, they will try to insert their fingers in power outlets or pull power cords to see what happens. To avoid this, parents should cover all power outlets as well as detach all power cords not in use from power outlets. To avoid a baby tugging on the cords and tipping things over, ensure that the cords are placed out of his reach.

Other baby safety measures include removing plastics away from a babys reach in order to reduce the risk of suffocation or chocking, keeping medicines, chemical, hot water, candy, snacks and dangerous household appliances away from the baby. More to this, any pieces of furniture that can easily fall should be secured to adjacent walls. Parents should however know that no amount of proofing can replace direct supervision of the baby. As such, parents should always try to be in the same room with the baby when he/she is awake.