MANAGING INFANTS: BABY PROOFING YOUR HOME

1. Cover your electrical outlets.
   This is one of the easiest things you can do to baby proof your home. To prevent your child from sticking anything into these sockets, cover them up. You can find plastic electrical caps at most mass retailers.
2. Tack up your window blind cords.
   Especially if these blinds are near your baby’s crib. These cords can easily get wrapped around a child’s neck and cause strangulation. The easiest way to remedy this? Take the string and tack the cord above the window.
3. Lock your kitchen and bathroom cabinets.
   Until your child is old enough to understand the meaning of “no” you should secure all of your lower cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom. Because poisonous household items and cleaners are kept mainly under these cabinets, prevent an accident by childproofing them. You can find cabinet locks at mass retailers as well.
4. Pad the sharp corners of your coffee tables.
   Beginning walkers love to pull up. From couches to chairs to coffee tables they are grabbing on everything. The worst sound you can hear is your precious baby bumping their head on a hard surface. Give him extra protection by padding the corners of the coffee tables in your livingroom.
5. Place baby gates at the top and bottom of your stairs.
   Prevent accidental falls by placing child safety gates at the top and bottom of all of your stairways. Falling down stairs can cause severe head trauma in children, so by thinking ahead you are saving yourself a trip to the emergency room.
6. Remove mobiles once mobile.
   Once your child can pull to a standing position on the side of their crib, remove the decorative mobile from their crib. Your young child can grab it and possibly snatch pieces of it loose, thus causing a choking hazard. To prevent this just remove it as soon as possible.
7. Wrap up your appliance cords.
   Oh, how wee little hands love to snatch and pull on things. If you have things like curling irons, vacuums and clothing irons around the house wrap the cords and tuck them up and away from little hands to prevent your child from pulling these things on top of their head.
8. Secure your bookshelves to the wall.
   I cannot stress this enough, secure your bookshelves to the wall. Little crawlers and walkers are also little climbers as well. A lot of bookshelves aren’t strong enough to support a child’s weight. Prevent a tipping over mishap by bolting that bookshelf to the wall or moving it to a room that is off limits.
9. Keep plastic out of reach.
   Plastic can smother. It is as simple as that. Keep it out of reach of your child. If you keep your grocery shopping bags, put them in an area where they can’t be reached. Toss all other miscellaneous pieces of plastic in the trash.
10. If it can fit it in a toilet tube roll, keep it out of reach.
    I know that a toilet tube roll may look like nothing more then trash but it can be used to safeguard your child from several choking hazards. If you have little knickknacks and odds-n-ends around your house, simply pick them up and see if they are small enough to slide easily in and out of a toilet tube roll. If they can, put them up on a higher shelf. Small children will place everything in their mouth at this age, so it is always better to be safe then sorry.