September is National Child Safety Month - Child Proof Your Home

September is National Child Safety Month. This will be the perfect time to check around your home for potential safety hazards. You can begin by “viewing your home” from the eye level of your child by getting down on the floor and taking a “crawling tour” of your home. By seeing what your child sees everyday will give you a better perspective of potential safety hazards for your child. Making a home safe for children is a critical task for any parent of young children. You will want to look for sharp corners on tables, electrical cords and sockets, and cleaning supplies that could be poisonous for your child.

As you take your tour of your home on your knees, think about how many places your child will end up in the course of the next three years. Sooner or later, your child will find his way to every corner of every room in your home. The more remote the corner, the more likely it will be out of your sight but directly in the sight of your toddler. A book shelf looks like a good place to climb but could be very dangerous for a young child and topple over on him. Table cloths look like something to pull on or to tug on but whatever is on that table will fall onto the child. These are things that grown-ups don’t think about as being a safety hazard, but remember you are looking for trouble spots at your child’s “eye level”.

One of the most common causes of child death is choking. Smaller objects must be kept where your child cannot reach. Remove small objects from tables, floors, and areas your child can reach until he is over three years of age. Brittle, breakable and chewable food items are also dangerous at this age as they too can become a choking hazard. Another frequent cause of child death is strangulation from cords on lamps, TVs, computers, or curtains. The best ways to prevent cords from getting wrapped around your child is to shorten them to no more than 6 inches or to tie them up out of reach of your child.

No child under the age of three should be left unattended and free to wander the house for even as little as five minutes. No matter how careful you have been in baby proofing your home, your child can find the one thing you left undone. Be cautious around radiators, fireplaces, and wood burning stoves, as well as, around buckets of water or tubs. You can give your child more freedom to move around your home if you follow the suggested safety precautions and monitor your child as much as possible. It is impossible to prevent all accidents and falls of small children but being mindful of the areas your child will be crawling or walking into will help to monitor potential trouble spots. Have fun with your little one and enjoy these early years watching him grow and learn about his world.