If you are getting ready to welcome a new baby into the family soon, then you may feel pretty excited about that. Perhaps this is your first, or maybe you have gone through this process before. Either way, you will need to think about getting the house and car ready for the new arrival.
That means getting a new car seat for the infant, or you might reuse an old one if you still own it from a previous child. Correct car seat usage reduces injury risks by 71%-82%, on average, so you can’t ever neglect this important step.
After you have made sure that you have your vehicle prepared, you should next look at the house and get ready to babyproof it. This process might take a little time, but you can tackle it together if you have a spouse or partner to help you. If there is not a spouse or partner in the picture, then maybe other family members can lend a hand.
Take All Poisons or Toxic Materials and Put Them in High Places
First, you may want to consider buying a house babyproofing book or watching some helpful videos on YouTube. You can find a ton of books and videos that discuss this subject in detail.
Next, you can make a list of things that you will want to do to make sure that you don’t forget anything. You can take inspiration from the videos you have watched and books you’ve read, but it also helps to walk around the house to see if there’s anything you forgot.
Then, you can start the actual babyproofing process. You may want to begin by taking all poisons or toxic materials and putting them on high shelves. This includes things like cleaning fluids, dishwasher pods, and so forth.
If you don’t want to put them in high places, then you can put childproof locks on the lower drawers and cabinets. You can often buy them on Amazon or at some brick-and-mortar store locations. You want the kind that will thwart any toddlers once the child reaches that age.
Make Sure You Have Locked Up Any Weapons
If you own any firearms, make sure that you put them in a locked safe. You can also keep the ammunition separate from the guns if you want to take additional precautions.
If you have any other weapons, whether for hunting or that you personally collect, such as swords, knives, etc., you will want to lock those up as well. You’ll need to do that with any kinds of bladed weapons.
Cover All of the Electrical Sockets at Ground Level
You can next get guards for all the electrical sockets. Like the childproof locks, you can buy those on Amazon, or certain in-person stores carry them as well.
You can buy them individually, but you will often save a little money when you purchase them as a set. You can put them in any electrical outlets at ground level, closing them off from little fingers. If you have ones up on the kitchen counters or anywhere else an infant can’t reach, you can probably ignore those till the child gets older.
Install Baby Safety Gates at the Head of the Stairs
You can also install baby gates that will go at the tops of all of the staircases in your home. You can sometimes get them as sets, or you can buy them individually.
You will usually find some of the better-know names in this niche make ones that cost a little bit more, but they have warranties, and that’s often useful. These gates look much like pet gates that serve the same purpose. You can leave them on during the infant and toddler years.
Mount or Otherwise Secure Any Heavy Furniture
You can next get mounts that you will use to secure any heavy furniture in the house. These mounts can usually anchor cabinets and similar furniture items to your walls.
This way, your child will not tip any of them over while they are learning to walk. If you have a large TV, you will probably want to make sure you’ve mounted it securely to the wall. Modern TVs don’t have the huge backs on them that they once did, but they’re still pretty heavy, especially if you buy one that’s 70 inches or larger.
Put a Lock on All of Your Toilet Lids
Some new parents don’t necessarily think about it, but there’s always a drowning possibility with toddlers and toilets. You can get locks for the toilet lids that will hold them in place as well.
An adult can easily unlock the toilet when they want to use it, but a toddler can’t. You should feel good that you have those in place as your child starts to get a little bit older and enters the Terrible Twos.
Install Babyproof Guards on the Windows
Finally, you will want to install guards on all the windows, especially the ones on the second or third floors of a house. These will allow the window to open, but only a couple of inches.
You can keep them on there until your child gets old enough where you don’t think falling from the window poses any more danger.
All of this might seem a little much if you’ve never had a baby before, but if you hear about the accidents that can take place, you’ll probably feel good that you took these steps. You can gradually start to remove some of these precautionary items as the child grows, but that’s probably a few years down the line.
For now, it’s best that you follow all of the best practices that this industry developed over years of testing and research. If you’re not sure about anything, speak to the child’s doctor. They will likely have some recommendations, including what brands you may want to use for the car seat, baby-safe doors, and the like.
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