Baby Safety Tips For The Home

Topics: Health & Safety 

Age Range: Preschool 

As a parent of a new baby, you want to ensure that their home is as safe as it is comfortable and loving. While supervision is the best way to keep your baby safe, there are things you can do to help prevent accidents. Here are some baby safety tips for the home.

• Understand the most common causes of injury and death for children in the home, which include: fire, burns, suffocation, choking, drowning, falls, poisoning, and guns.
• Identify the areas of your home where these risks are most prevalent. For example: areas with water such as the bathroom or kitchen, or areas where your child can injure themselves severely in a fall like a staircase.
• Install smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors and replace the batteries regularly.
• Ensure your baby’s crib is safe and in good repair. Check it thoroughly before your child uses it. Visit Nemours KidsHealth for a list of crib safety tips.
• Use window guards that prevent infants from slipping through, but can be easily opened by adults.
• Ensure your child can’t climb onto a piece of furniture and access a window.
• Install a baby gate at the doorway to your child’s bedroom as well as at the stairs.
• Avoid using accordion-style baby gates, as an infant’s head can become stuck.
• Remove tripping hazards from the floors and around the stairs. This can include loose rugs as well as items such as toys, shoes, bags, and cushions.
• Ensure that top-heavy furniture such as bookcases or TV stands are anchored to the wall.
• Put floor lamps behind other furniture.
• Move dangling cords out of your infant’s reach.
• Attach protective padding or covers to sharp edges of furniture like the corners of coffee tables.
• Use child-resistant handles and locks for doorknobs and cabinets.
• Ensure that your infant cannot get into medications or cleaning supplies. Store these items high up and, if possible, in a locked cabinet.
• Move pet dishes off the floor when not in use.
• Investigate the poisoning risk of your houseplants, and keep them out of reach.
• Use safety covers on electrical outlets that aren’t being used.
• Since infants can put items in their mouth very quickly, ensure that there are no choking hazards on the floor or within your child’s reach.
• Ensure that all garbage cans are inaccessible to your infant.
  
• To avoid falls, don’t place car seats and infant chairs on raised surfaces.
• If you have a gun, ensure it is always kept locked up, with the ammunition locked away separately.

As always, ensure that your infant is supervised at all times, and keep a list of emergency numbers in an easily-accessed place. For even more baby safety tips for the home, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics’ website.