Children are curious little things, and while that’s exactly what makes watching them grow through their initial years such a memorable experience, it’s also one of the main reasons as to why they often end up hurting themselves. A few cuts and bruises are perfectly alright and part of the growing up process, but as parents, we need to be extra careful and make sure that their innate curiosity doesn’t lead to a serious accident.

How to Make Your House Safe for Children

You probably have already started, or even finished, childproofing the house, but since you are reading this, it’s a good idea to go through all the points mentioned just to make sure that you have not missed out on anything.

Choking Hazard

Choking hazards are a serious problem if you have small children as it is a natural tendency for them to put things in their mouth. You will need to keep all small objects out of their reach. Some of the most common things that children up to three-years and below choke on, on a regular basis, include coins, marbles, toy parts, crayons, deflated balloons and safety pins. Unfortunately, edibles like nuts, hard candies, hot dogs, raisins, edible seeds, popcorn and even grapes make the list.

Home Safety

Children are just learning and adapting to their environments, and in many cases, they might find nighttime discomforting. A home security system is perfect for houses with small children. It is great for protecting your household and controllable from your smartphone, and it can help instil a sense of security in children.

Fire

Smoke inhalation and burns are two of the prime causes of child related disasters and that’s exactly why you will need to practice all of the cautions mentioned below to ensure your children’s safety.

• Keep those matches and lighters in a place that’s high enough to be out of their reach
• Keep all flammable liquids like gasoline outside the house
• Install quality smoke detectors everywhere in the house and maintain them regularly
• Own a fire extinguisher or two

Shock

The bathroom is the first place that you want to childproof against electrical shocks because that’s usually where the hairdryers, curling irons and heaters are kept. Simply remove them from the bathroom until your child is old enough or keep them out of reach and unplugged. The last thing you want is for him/her to drop a running electrical device into the bathtub. Also, cover up all exposed electrical outlets with plastic caps.

Poisoning

Just like choking, this is another scenario that will invariably happen if you are not extra careful. Children will always put things in their mouth and that’s exactly why you need to practice the following:

• Avoid using poisonous chemicals like rat killer and insecticides inside the house
• Don’t store any poisonous chemicals inside your home (and that includes paints)
• Put locks on all cabinets so that the child can’t access anything without your permission or supervision
• Make sure the plants inside the house are not poisonous
• All medicine should be locked away and out of reach

This post more or less covers the basics but there’s no harm in being extra careful and covering these few extra points as well:

• If you own a gun (for my US readers), unload it and store it in a locked cabinet, separately from the bullets
• Hot food and drinks are to be always placed near the center of the table and never near the edges

Finally, it’s all about being extra vigilant. It’s true that you cannot really predict the future and mistakes can happen, but as long as you take the necessary time to ensure that your child has a safe environment to grow up in, the chances of any accidents will be cut down drastically. This post is brought to you in collaboration with Ippio.