Safety Tips for Your Growing Baby

Strategies for safety

Safety Tips for Your Growing Baby Accept it early that many babies are born with an independent spirit and those that are won't always accept your gestures, words, or warnings. Once you understand that you can't control a baby, you're on your way to happy parenting.

However, safety is so important, and you can control your baby's surroundings. In this day and age, preventive maintenance is key.

My first son, Michael, never questioned anything. He played happily with toys that were safe and avoided any area that was threatening. Then Brandon came along. Brandon, the more typical of the two, was the first one to notice, at an early seven months, that the cable cords behind the TV could be reached easiest by climbing straight through the bottom of the VCR shelf. And when I said, "No!" he would head in the other direction at about 90 miles an hour with a grin on his face that I can't describe without laughing. He knew he shouldn't be doing what he was doing!

I realized early on that I needed to come up with a strategic plan that would allow him to be safe while still encouraged to explore and be adventurous. It was exhausting, so I'm happy to share it with you in hopes it may make your life easier.

  • Trust the fact that your baby will try to imitate you as often as possible as he grows. This means you should be careful how and what you do in front of your baby. For example, use caution opening and closing a door, don't stand or lean on your stove, etc.

  • Take a CPR class now to relieve your mind and protect your baby. Classes are offered year-round from your local Red Cross and other community service providers.

  • Keep baby away from waterbeds, pillows, soft couches, and the like. Anything soft like this will be dangerous because of the gaps, which create an area for baby to get wedged or stuck, and where baby could suffocate.

  • Use safety gates and teach baby to stay within designated perimeters as soon as she starts to scoot. This will teach her to respect boundaries. This becomes more and more important as she grows, especially when she begins doing things like playing in a backyard without a fence.

  • Think to bring along a small portable gate when you visit other people's homes. You'll see as baby begins to move that if you don't have one with you to confine her, your visits may only last about five minutes.

  • Once baby can reach a mobile, take it down, because it becomes a strangulation hazard. Never tie anything to a crib or attempt to make a homemade mobile. These things are just accidents waiting to happen.

  • Keep telephone lines and blinds and curtain cords up high and out of baby's reach, because they are choking and strangulation hazards, too.

  • Don't leave either side rail of a crib in a lowered position. There is just no purpose in doing so for baby at this age.

    • More strategies for safety

  • Never leave your baby unattended for even one single minute. This includes and is especially true for leaving your baby around other babies and pets, and/or unattended on couches, beds, and changing tables, in car seats, and in the bath. Babies have been known to drown in one and a half inches of water. That's another reason why making a crib enjoyable for your baby is so important. It can become your safe harbor; because as long as it's safe, you can leave her there for short periods of time while you do other things, like take a shower.

  • Remove or fix uneven floorboards. Babies learning to walk have enough challenges, on top of the fact that this is a trip hazard for everyone else in the house.

  • Be sure to check your baseboards for wooden splinters—and be especially aware of outdoor decks. If your baby gets a splinter, try soaking the area in warm water and pulling the splinter out by hand with a massage, or watch to see if it comes out naturally within a day or so. A larger splinter can be excruciatingly painful, and those need to be removed immediately.

  • If you have an outdoor porch, check to be sure it is enclosed by vertical spindles that are no more than two and a half inches apart, because baby may get caught in or fall through anything wider. Don't take a chance!

  • Keep all loose change in an out-of-reach place and check your floors over and over again each day, because these types of small objects are very real choking hazards.

  • The rule of thumb is to keep nothing smaller than baby's fist within her reach. Actually, I'm going to call this the rule of fist.

  • Use childproof covers on all unused electrical outlets.

  • Install safety latches on cabinets and drawers. They are inexpensive, easy to install, and they will give you so much peace of mind.

  • Purchase safety doorknob covers as an alternative to replacing your locking doorknobs. They fit over your regular doorknob and baby can't maneuver them, so that's one less worry.

  • Be sure there is no electrical outlet near the crib. As the baby grows and the bed level is dropped down, the lowest level for a crib is about the same level as outlets. This will be hazardous later because baby may play with the outlet or try to put things in it. Moving the bed later could affect your baby's sleeping, so just position the crib in a different spot now.

  • Make your life easier for now and just remove tablecloths. Baby will begin to pull on them the minute he starts to move.

  • Use only car seats that are age-appropriate for your baby. Place the seat in a rear-facing position in the backseat. There are lots of mirror items on the market that you can buy and situate in the backseat so baby sees himself and so you can view your baby easily using your rearview mirror.

    • Still more strategies for safety

  • Once a car seat has been in an accident, it's considered unsafe and shouldn't be used again. Even though it's wonderful to pick up good bargains like this at garage sales, you have to be especially careful, because you just never know what the product has been through in its lifetime.

  • Keep hot beverages out of baby's reach by at least an arm's length. You may not realize how much your baby is learning and how quick she will be when she begins to grab at things she wants.

  • Put all toxic substances, cleaning supplies, vitamins, paints, furniture polish, medicines, and so on in high cabinets, even if you have latches on the lower cabinets.

  • Some plants are also toxic, so read about them before you buy them and keep them high and away from baby. Consider using plant hangers.

  • Be sure to keep a list of your plant names (especially those outside in your yard) near the phone in case of an emergency. If you have to call poison control, it will help immediately to know what plant you're talking about and will save time—at a time when every second counts.

  • Post emergency numbers, including the poison control center, near all telephones in the house.

  • Never leave anything plugged in near a sink, bathtub, toilet, or any other source of water.

  • Bathe baby in the tub and not the sink at this age. Having baby anywhere near the hot water valve is just a bad idea.

  • Consider padding any edges at baby's height, including coffee tables, end tables, sharp chairs, and so forth. Some babies will learn to be careful around such dangers and some just won't. Trust your judgment.

  • Fasten shelves, especially unstable ones, directly to the wall so shelves cannot fall over on top of baby and hurt her. Once your baby starts to make her way around the room, she will pull herself up on furniture like this and it can be extremely dangerous. Use wall anchors and/or screws and be sure they fasten deep into the drywall. Wall anchors and screws are easy to use once you get the hang of it and they are much sturdier than using plain nails. Visit a hardware store for details.

  • Remove closet doors in your baby's room for now, especially the folding kind that pinches fingers. You'll see that once you've taken them off, you will have more room for things like toys or bookshelves, and you've also created a cozy and safe play area for baby as she grows.

  • Simple things like doors opening and closing can be hazards to baby soon because her finger can get wedged in if she leans on it. Anchor doors open with something heavy or keep doors tightly shut around baby, especially once she begins to crawl.

  • Check all toys, new and used, for warning labels, loose parts, worn joints, and broken edges. You can also look up toys that have been recalled easily on the Internet.

  • The most important safety tip I can share with you is to be sure you create an emergency plan and tell your entire family and caregivers what it is. Take time and learn how to open and close each window and make a plan on where to meet (at the mailbox, perhaps) and what to do in the event of a catastrophe.

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