Easy Ways to Baby-Proofing Your Home

• Having a baby is always an exciting time in a persons life. When you bring your baby home you want your child to be safe in their environment. Here are some tips to child proofing your home.
• Cover all electrical sockets with child proof ones. Children love to stick odds and ends in the sockets!
• Remove all cleaning items out of reach of children. Children will drink these nasty products even though they smell terrible.
• Take off all refrigerator magnets. Sometimes when you close the door they fall off, the baby then can come along and pick it up and end up choking on it.
• Put good locks high up on your doors so the baby cannot get, especially on the basement door where there are stairs.
• Turn down the hot water heater, just in case the baby turns on the hot they won’t get scalded.
• If you have any stairs in the house, install a safety gate so your child doesn’t fall down the steps.
• If you have a coffee table with sharp corners you have a couple of options. Either get rid of it or I have seen fitted sheets made for coffee tables, they cost about 60 dollars. It’s worth it, when you think about it.
• Make sure you have fire and smoke detectors. Also have a carbon monoxide detector in your home.
• Keep a bottle of ipecac syrup in your house, in case the baby does get poisoned. Always call your doctor before giving this to your child.
• Keep hot drinks away from your child, they can get burned very easy.
• Never leave your baby alone in the bathtub. Your child can drown in just a few inches of water.
• Something that many people overlook is mini blinds. The string hanging down can choke a baby, put this string up!!

The bottom line of baby proofing is this, be mindful, use common sense. Get down and crawl around. Look at things the way your baby sees them. You might be surprised at what you will find.