You might consider home as the safest place for your baby. However, there are many dangers lurking around your house, the place where your baby will spend most of his or her days. They need to be firstly identified by careful examination and then removed or made safe.Baby will become mobile from around 4 months of age when they learn to roll onto their bellies. Following this, they will learn to crawl, then coast and finally walk/run. The checks for dangers should be stage-appropriate as follows:Once they learn to roll, they will still be confined to one room, so you must go down on your hands and knees in that room and look for dangers such as the following:
Ensure they cannot roll into something sharp, hard or unstable such as a piece of furniture in the room.
Keep very small items up from the floor in that room.
Use a playpen to confine them and include plenty of toys. They should get used to one of these early on, otherwise it will be difficult to keep them in one.
Check that there are no dangers in their cot such as very small toys, toys not suitable for their age or baby monitors. Also ensure that there are no items outside of the cot which are within reach.
When they learn to crawl, they will move from room to room so you need to check each room in the house. Some pointers are as follows:
Now is the time to put that stair gate at the bottom and top of the stairs.
Put covers on all idle sockets.
See what is lurking under the furniture.
Protect from hot radiators.
Keep the external doors closed so that they cannot escape.
Put a child-friendly fireguard to cover the whole fireplace.
Keep household cleaning agents and other chemicals up out of dangers way.
Place locks on any cupboards and drawers containing hazardous or sharp materials. Maybe have the saucepan cupboard unlocked so that they can explore it.
Continue to follow the rules set out above for babies who have learned to roll.
When baby learns to coast the furniture and finally walk:
Continue to follow all rules above.
Ensure that all external doors are locked at all times. Toddlers can easily escape within seconds of parents taking their eyes off them.
Keep handles of hot pots facing inwards and preferably only put the pots on the inside rings of the hob.
Do not leave ironing boards open and standing, particularly with hot irons on them.
Keep flexes of irons, kettles and other hazardous electrical items out of baby's reach so that they can't pull them down on top of themselves.
Baby's first year of life is a huge time of change and development. They change from being a helpless newborn to a thriving little explorer and guardians need to watch them closely at all times. Parents also need to be aware of the location of all items in their household, keeping it tidy and organised at all times.