Once your baby grows into a toddler and is tottering about, your life will be non-stop! You will need to constantly be on your toes running around after them to ensure that they don’t trip over or run into anything! It may be very tiring at times, but life with your little toddler will definitely be a whole lot of fun!
At times all of this can cause quite a bit of stress and worry because you will always need to know where your toddler is and what they are doing to make sure they are safe. There are some things you can do to childproof your life, though, that will make your home and day-to-day routine a lot safer for young children. Here are some great tips.
Get A Safety Gate
One major worry that all parents have is that their child will sneak away when they aren’t looking and try to get upstairs on their own. They could end up tumbling down the stairs! Even worse, if they are upstairs to start with, they could end up falling down the whole staircase. This could cause some serious injuries. One way you can prevent any accidents from happening is by fitting a safety gate. Ideally, you should have two – one at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom. This way, kids won’t be able to get onto the staircase at all. The locks on these gates are child proof, so you don’t have to worry about your toddler figuring out how to open them!
Fit A Child Seat In Your Car
It is now a legal requirement that all children have a fitted child seat to sit in whenever they go on car journeys. Even if you are just going for a short drive, it is still necessary to have a proper seat. This is to ensure that small children, toddlers, and babies are securely protected and are not at risk of being choked or injured from seatbelts. You’ll be able to find toddler and baby seats of all sizes in your local mother and baby store. You can also order them online, but it is usually recommended that you buy yours in person. This way, you can take your child with you and figure out which size is best for them. It also gives you the chance to ask the shop assistant any questions you may have.
Child Locks
I’ve already briefly mentioned that safety gates will have childproof locks on them. You’ll be happy to hear that these brilliant locks can be bought on their own and placed around the house on a variety of doors. For instance, you might want to place yours on to all of your kitchen cabinet doors to ensure that your child doesn’t get up to mischief by getting all the food out of them! You might also want to add some to any other floor-level cupboards in your living room, bedrooms, and bathroom.
Keep Medicine Out Of Reach
Almost every family I know has a first-aid kit or medicine cupboard. Even though these may not contain very strong medicines, it is still important that you keep all tablets and liquid medications out of the reach of toddlers and young children. You never know what your child might quickly grab while your back is turned, and if they take and ingest some medicine, they might need medical attention. Even if they just swallow some everyday cough medicine! Ideally, store all your first aid and medical equipment high up, far away from them. It is also worth locking the door of your medicine cabinet, just in case.
Baby Monitors
Most of the time, you will hear whenever your child has a problem through the night and will wake up. For instance, they might wake up and be scared of the dark, or need a drink of water. I’m sure they will start crying or shouting for you as soon as they wake up during the night, something which I am sure that you will hear. However, just to be on the safe side, it is a good idea to install some baby monitors into your home. These are usually placed in your child’s bedroom and your bedroom, but you can also get mobile ones so that you can place them in any room if you want to use them during the day. The mics in the monitor in your baby’s room will pick up any sounds and play them to you in your bedroom, which will wake you up.
Keep An Eye On Volume Levels
Your young children and babies will have very sensitive ears. So, it is crucial that you always protect their hearing and make sure that they aren’t ever exposed to noises and sounds that are too loud. Even though you might think that your TV and radio are currently at reasonable volume levels, these could still be too loud for young children’s ears. It’s always worth turning them down a couple of settings. If you have trouble hearing the TV once it has been turned down, you can always put subtitles on TVs and movies.
Be Prepared For An Emergency
We don’t like to think about them but, unfortunately, emergencies do happen. Even though these may only be a very rare occurrence, it is still necessary for you to prepare for them. You don’t have to do much to prepare for an emergency, just taking some simple measures like gathering all your emergency contacts into one space will be a big help. It will prevent you from all the panic that comes with not being able to find your doctor’s phone number, for example! If your child has to take medication or might need to use an inhaler, EpiPen, or other emergency medication, make sure you always know where they are so that you can quickly get them.
Smoke And Gas Alarms
You should, hopefully, already have smoke and carbon monoxide alarms fitted into your home. If not, you need to get those as soon as possible! Once you have had them installed in your home for a year or so, it is important that you regularly check the batteries to ensure that they still work. Alarms with empty batteries won’t work properly and will cost lives. If the alarm works, but it sounds a lot quieter than what it normally does, it probably means that the batteries are almost empty. It’s a good idea to replace them so that the alarm is working as effectively as it should be. Then your family can sleep soundly and safely!
As you can see, there isn’t too much to childproof your home – so what are you waiting for?!
