Childproofing The Hall And Living Room
When should I install safety gates in my home?
Safety gates should be installed when your child is mobile, which means if your child is crawling, or if your child is getting across the room because it's rolling. Anytime that your child can get into harm's way on his or her own, then you should have safety gates up and in working order.
Where should safety gates be installed?
Child safety gates should be installed at the stair top and at the stair bottom, always, and they should be mounted into the wall. Safety gates should not be pressure gates. Safety gates are also used in the entrance to a kitchen, or any entrance into the kitchen if you have several ways to get in and out. It's a great way to keep your baby safe if you disallow them access to the kitchen area while you're cooking, with all the dangerous appliances in there. Safety gates can also be used when you're creating a play area in your home. So, you can put one gate in the hallway that leads to the rest of the house and keep your child in that one area. If you want to gate off a fancy living room that has wonderful furniture and pull down hazards that your child would have access to otherwise, safety gates are a great way to keep the room looking fabulous and decorated but not hazardous to your child.
How do I identify a quality safety gate?
You really get what you pay for with child safety gates. You can find some at the retail stores for $40 to $50 that are great for the checkbook but when you get them home and get them installed, they are poor quality: just rickety and they're difficult to open and close and it makes you crazy if it's in a high traffic area. The quality safety gates that I recommend and the gates that I love and use in my own home are gates that are seamless. They are so simple to open and close. In fact, there's one gate that you can carry a baby and a handbag and literally open it with one free finger and kick it closed. So functionality is very, very important in a quality safety gate for busy mothers, and you might want to consult your child safety professional for the gate that would work best in your home.
What type of smoke detectors is best for a home with children?
Most homes have smoke detectors or fire detectors installed in the home already, but I found one smoke detector that is great for homes with families. It's a vocal smoke or fire detector, and you can record your own voice. You can say, "Chloe, Callen. This is Mommy, and we're having an emergency. This is a fire in our house. I want you to stay in your room until Mommy and Daddy come and get you." I just think it's a brilliant way to teach your children to do the right thing in the unlikely event of an emergency.
How often should I test smoke detectors?
Testing your smoke detector often, to make sure that it's in working order and that the batteries are working properly is so important, and one rule of thumb that I use in my household is as often as there is the time change, we check our fire and smoke detectors and see if it chirps properly and if it doesn't, it's time to replace it and install a new one.
What is a "carbon monoxide detector"?
A carbon monoxide detector is a alarm that can sense if there is a carbon monoxide leak in your home. It is important to have a detector because you can't see carbon monoxide and you can't smell it. So, you need to have a specific machine on each level of your home, especially in your sleeping quarters that will alert you if, in fact, there is a leak.
How do electrical outlet covers and outlet plates protect my children?
Electrical hazards in the home are very common because we have outlets all over our home. And the great way to squelch the hazard of electrical outlets is by installing sliding outlet covers. So, what you do is you remove the faceplate of the existing outlet, and then you put this new faceplate on, which has a sliding cover, and it keeps your baby from being able to stick toys, tools, fingers inside the outlet sockets.
How do I keep my children safe from poisonous houseplants?
As a parent, you need to know what type of houseplants you have in your home, and planted in your outside yard area. If you're not sure what type of plant it is, you need to take a sprig of it, cut it off, put it in a ziplock baggie, and bring it to your local nursery and ask them exactly what it is, so that you're not subjecting your child to perhaps a poisonous plant.
How do I protect my children from injuring themselves on furniture?
Children like to climb, so it's important to make sure that every single piece of furniture that you have that could tip and injure your child if your child was climbing up the face of it is anchored to the wall. And there are many different types of anchors that can be used. And it's extremely important you prevent injury.
How do I protect my children from fireplace dangers?
If you like to burn fires in your home fireplace like we love to do, it's important to keep your fireplace safe by installing a protective hearth gate which is a heat-treated gate that is installed all the way around the front of your fireplace that disallows access to the fireplace, to the flame, to where all the cinders and ash are and to the whole front hearth. This keeps your babies safe and still allows you to be able to have a nice, toasty fire whenever you would like. There are also different ways to keep up a fireplace safe, and that is to install a fireplace lock. If you have the accordion glass door installed on your fireplace, these black, very effective, very obscure-looking - you can't even see that it's even there - locks can be installed, and the baby isn't allowed to pull the accordion doors open, making the fire totally safe. However, keep in mind that the baby still can get burned on the hot glass. So my favourite is the hearth gate because it keeps the child completely away from the hazardous fire and allows you to yet still enjoy burning fires in your home. If you have a hearth that has a brick or slate or perhaps marble hearth where your child can walk and fall and cut their head or forehead, it's important to install padding right on the edges so that your baby can't get injured if they fall near your fireplace. But again, is probably the best idea to put a hearth gate around the entire area, making the fireplace entirely safe.
