Babyproofing

When to babyproof

• When they’re on the verge of becoming mobile, around 6 months - you want to preempt your baby, since you don’t want to wait to discover they can crawl for the first time when they fall down the stairs!

• Babyproofing doesn’t have to all happen in one-fell-swoop - you can start with the most urgent needs for a crawler (stairs, cabinets, choking hazards) and later tackle areas for a standing/walking baby (oven knobs, toilet locks, windows, etc.)

Where to babyproof

• The more areas you babyproof, the more freedom you can give your baby, which is also liberating for the parents since you don’t have to supervise them as closely 

• That said, if there are certain rooms of the house - like your own bedroom - where you don’t expect baby will often be playing, don’t worry about babyproofing there

• Safety is obviously most important, but aesthetics and convenience matter for your happiness too!

• You can also use baby gates to prevent baby from accessing certain rooms, for instance a formal living room that you’d like to keep more adult-oriented 

Essential

• Install baby gates at the top and bottom of stairs

• Different types of gates work for different stairs arrangements: BabyDan has excellent pressure gates, and Cardinal gates are great too

• If you have a tricky layout and are based in the Bay Area, Alex at SafetyNook is a great babyproof consultant who can figure out a custom solution

• Secure heavy furniture in baby’s room, such as dresser, to prevent tipping over - lots of baby furniture comes with an anchor kit or you can buy separately. If you have a mirror in your room, make sure it is mounted onto the wall, not just leaning against it.

• Add locks to drawers including medicine cabinets in bathrooms and kitchen cabinets with dangerous or fragile items - this also helps avoid pinched fingers

• I’d recommend adhesive “no drill” latches over the magnetic ones, which require you to use a magnet “key” to open - this is a pain if you’re like me and prone to misplacing things!

• For certain drawers or appliances (like ovens) you may need to use a strap lock like this or this (unfortunately less subtle/aesthetic than the hidden latches)

• I like to leave one bottom kitchen drawer unlocked and full of safe items like plastic Tupperware - it’s really fun for babies to have a “yes” drawer where they can pull everything out. But you’ll need to beware of pinched fingers.

• Remove choking hazards including both small objects that can be swallowed (e.g. coins, legos, marbles), and cords that could get wrapped around baby’s neck (e.g. from blinds) 

• You can buy a small device for checking whether or not an object is a choking hazard

• Protect outlets 

• To clarify the dangers of outlets - there is only a risk of electrocution if baby tries to put a metal object in the outlet (paper clip, etc); there’s no harm in just fingers

• So while it’s worthwhile to babyproof in high-traffic areas, I don’t think it’s necessary to cover every single outlet or be super anxious about this at other people’s houses

• For outlets that are not in use, add these plug protectors

• For outlets that are in use and accessible to baby, add an outlet cover box

• My son loved trying to pull cords out which was more annoying than dangerous, but installing this box did the trick!

• If you have multiple cables and/or a power strip, this box or this one can help hide them away

• Put problematic furniture in storage - sometimes there just isn’t a babyproofing solution for certain items such as coffee tables or side tables that can tip over too easily; you’ll have to just put it away until your kids are older

• (if applicable) Pool safety is paramount and the more layers of protection the better

• The most important is installing a fence at least 4 feet high around the pool, with a gate that self-closes and self-latches, so you don’t have to worry about adults forgetting to fully close

• Two additional safety layers include a pool cover and pool alarm

• If you’re on vacation somewhere and there isn’t a pool fence/cover, you’ll need to be hyper vigilant

• The most dangerous situations are actually when there are lots of adults around and there’s a “diffusion of responsibility” where everyone assumes someone is watching

• One strategy our family used in this scenario is what I dubbed the “scrunchie” method - I bought a hot pink scrunchie and explained to the adults that whoever was wearing it needed to have nonstop eyes on our daughter

• If you needed a break, even just to check your phone or use the bathroom, you handed off the scrunchie to someone else

• This allowed for a clear visual indicator of responsibility and intentional hand-offs

Optional

• Windows

• Wedges: if your home is only on the ground floor, you don’t have to worry about this, but if you do have higher windows, a window wedge can prevent them from opening wider than a few inches

• Alternatively you can just decide to always keep your windows closed and locked

• Glass protection: depending on the age of your house, your windows may be made of thin glass that a child could easily break; you can get them reinforced with a special “safety film” (available at SF Tint Shop) or replace the windows entirely with thicker double-pane glass

• Toilet locks like this are effective, but kind of a pain for the adults

• The risk here isn’t about your child’s safety (kids don’t drown in toilets), and more about them dropping items in the toilet, or flushing something down and messing up the plumbing

• Personally, we just tried to keep the bathroom doors closed as much as possible

• Corner protectors can come in different shapes and help soften sharp corners of tables, kitchen islands, desks, beds, etc

• I listed this in optional because the risk isn’t catastrophic, just a bad bruise - if you want to install, I’d focus on high-traffic areas

• Stove Knob Covers like these can be useful if your toddler is obsessed with the oven; however, like all things in life there’s a tradeoff since it’s quite annoying for the adult chefs

Adult habits

• In addition to taking the above measures to babyproof your home, there are small tweaks in your own behavior that can also improve safety

• Make sure knives or scissors go back after use, or at least somewhere out of reach

• Put knives pointy side down in the dishwasher, in case your baby reaches in while you’re loading/unloading

• When cooking, turn pot handles away and/or use the backburners so your toddler can’t reach them

• Get in the habit of closing doors to areas that aren’t as well babyproofed

Worldproof your baby, too

• In addition to babyproofing your baby’s world, it’s also critical to “worldproof your baby” by teaching them safety skills

• Your baby will sometimes be in environments (e.g. friends’ homes) that are not babyproofed, so they need to learn how to handle themselves, though you’ll also monitor them closely

• Show them how to safely get off couches by turning over onto their tummy and go down feet first

• Give them supervised practice going up and down stairs

• Teach them the concept of “sharp” and “hot”

• In addition to securing your swimming pool, enroll your child in swim classes

  • If you live in an area where pools are ubiquitous (e.g. Florida), consider Infant Swim Resource (ISR) lessons that teach babies as young as 6 months how to float