Creating a child-friendly home

Being a new parent can often present you with a whole bunch of new challenges that can leave you feeling unsure, overwhelmed and frustrated. And you might even feel that you are being a little paranoid about your baby’s safety – but one thing is for sure, you will need to make your home as ‘child-friendly’ as possible before the little guy discovers that he is able to crawl, touch and fiddle. Once your baby starts showing signs of readiness for rolling over and pushing up to crawl, you need to be sure your home is equipped with the necessary products to ensure that it is a safe environment for your infant to be.

How to get started

It might seem a little absurd, but getting down on your hands and knees is often the best way of determining where the hazardous areas in your home is because it allows you to see the ‘world’ from your baby’s perspective. Make notes of sharp corners, dangling cords, choking hazards, poisonous plants, cabinets and drawers that are low enough for baby to reach and its content, objects that can be pulled down on your baby and doors that are not equipped with safety gates. You must also ensure that your baby is under constant adult supervision. This is one of the most effective ways to ensure your child’s safety.

Making your home child-friendly:

Cupboards and drawers:

Cabinets, closets, cupboards and drawers may often contain sharp elements, choking hazards and poisonous chemicals and seeing that storage is often a problem in most homes, you might not be able to keep these products elsewhere and will thus need to ensure that your child can not get hold of them.

Safety precaution: 
Buy cabinet locks to keep your cupboards and drawers shut at all times. This may not be a very attractive option, but it is essential for your child’s safety. There are different options in this category, ranging from products that thread through the outer handles, to plastic push up latches and magnetic latches.

Products available
• Dream Baby Spring Latch: Product childproofs cabinets and drawers. Fit to the top and sides of cabinet doors.
• Dream Baby Drawer Latch: Easy to install and secures drawers, so little fingers can’t get hold of dangerous products inside.

Electrical outlets

This must be one of the most dangerous hazards for children in modern homes and unfortunately it can not be moved around as desired.

Safety precaution:
Simple plastic outlet covers are the cheapest option, since they can be found in bulk for a reasonable price. These can be difficult to remove from the outlets, even for adults. Another option is a new outlet plate that has built-in covers that slide away from the openings when they are needed, and close automatically when the plug is removed.

Products available:
• Mommy’s Helper Safe Plate Outlet Cover: This cover is a practical way to help protect your children from dangerous electrical shock. It fits over the outlet like a standard outlet plate. Whenever an appliance is unplugged, a shield slides into position to block open sockets.
• Dream Baby Outlet Plugs: Easy to install and prevents little ones from putting fingers in to plug sockets to avoid harmful shocks.

Electrical cords

Dangling cords are dangerous due to various reasons. Except for shock and strangulation, these objects are also attached to heavy equipment that can be pulled down on your child. It can also lead to trip and fall incidents.

Safety precaution:
Buy zip ties to keep your cords neatly together and out of baby’s way and also get some cable shorteners to keep those easy to reach cables out of the way.

Products available:
• Cable Zipper: The Cable Zipper is a cable and wire management system that utilizes a multi-link cable protector and a zip clip to organize messy, dangling cables easily and keep them out of your child’s reach.

Electrical appliances

There are various appliances that are just the right height for busy toddlers to fiddle with like for instance the oven door, knobs and even the stove plates. Some toddlers may also try to crawl into the tumble dryer or attempt to open the dishwasher which may contain sharp objects. It is important to ensure that your kitchen is a safe place for your child to be.

Safety precaution:
Locking latches, knob covers and covers for stove plates are recommended to prevent your child from fiddling with dangerous electrical equipment. Also ensure that your tumble dryer and dishwasher are always properly closed as these items are not that easy to open. If you are building or house hunting, consider the layout of the kitchen. Some modern homes are specifically designed to keep certain knobs and appliances out of reach.

Products available:
• KidCo Kitchen Safety Accessories: Features a total of 17 safety items designed to make your kitchen area a safe place for small children. Kitchen Safety Kit Includes packs of the following items: On/Off Appliances Locks; Adjustable Locking Straps; Sliding Cabinet Locks; Swivel Cabinet and Drawer Lock.
• KidCo On-off Appliance Lock: Exclusive adult controlled on/off feature. Latch keeps the fridge, freezer or stove closed and automatically locks when in the ‘on’ position.
• Kid-Lok: Product is fitted underneath the knobs of electrical appliances and will prevent children from switching them on.
• Dream Baby Appliance Latch: Prevent children from opening fridges, freezers and other cabinets

Sharp corners

Your baby’s first few steps are anything but graceful and will be characterized by a lot of falling and bumping into things. This can often lead to serious injury, especially when your home and furniture has a lot of sharp corners.

Safety precaution: You may need to purchase or make padded edge covers for those sharp edged areas in your home. Foam or fabric edge covers are readily available and easy to apply.

Products available:
• Dream Baby Foam Edge Bumpers: The foam Corner Bumpers have been developed to protect and cushion little ones from sharp corners around the home.

Doors and stairs

Doors will not keep your child out of trouble for very long and also lead to other dangerous areas inside and outside your home. Stairs always cause great danger and can lead to serious injury or even death.

Safety precaution:
Make use of doorknob covers, so your child will not be able to open the door. Installing a lock on the top of the door where only adults can reach is also a good solution. Consider a pinch-proof doorknob attachment that prevents the door from slamming on tiny fingers.
Install a baby gate at the top and bottom of your flight of stairs. This is also a great solution for other areas in your home and is designed to suit almost any style.

Products available:
• Bambino / Lindam wood & metal baby gate: Keep children up to 24 months away from unwanted areas. Fitted with an easy-close-system, with a double locking mechanism. The product is ready to use and no drilling or screws is required.

Swimming pools

Children mostly love water and are automatically drawn towards it, even if they are told to avoid these areas. That is why it is of utmost importance to ensure that your pool area is equipped with the necessary safety measures.

Safety precaution: It is always good to surround your pool area with a decorative fence and gate. A pool net is also essential to keep baby out of the water when the do fall into the pool.

Products available:
• Pool Protector: An electronic monitoring system that automatically sounds an alarm when a child or pet falls into a non-supervised pool.
• POOLSAFE covers: Provide peace of mind when children are present by being able to support the weight of a youngster, thus preventing potential accidents.
• Aqua-Net: The Aqua-Net system is designed in a way that it is only possible for an adult to remove the net. In the event of a child falling on the net, the child will be supported at the edge of the pool and will be unable to crawl forward on the net.

The 4akid website also has a few other great child-safety tips, from driving with your kids to chilling with the family by the pool.