Every year preschool children die from preventable household accidents.
As an aunt or uncle or grandparent, when little kids visit your home, be prepared. Buying child accident prevention gear is a very practical thing to give as baby baptism gifts. You will totally be a rock star for coming up with the idea. Your little extended family members will be safe in your home.
Toddler beds hold back the little explorers for only that long, if you’re at all concerned about where they go once they’re up to their feet, you think about some additional lines of defense. Kids are well known for getting into trouble, and there is much of it to find around the house. The usual suspects are the wall plug, stairs, and all the furniture that come with all kinds of sharp edges.
Once the baby is off to explore the world, you can’t do much about the situation except to make their most immediate surroundings as safe as possible. It doesn’t take a long time to make a list about possible risk factors. Foldable chairs spell trouble, and you better hide the electric sockets very well before they’re discovered. It’s very unlikely for children this young to find two pieces of metal they can put into the sockets, but you never know; they are as creative as they’re curious.
Another common issue is to have the kids’ bedroom on the top floor. While it wouldn’t be a big problem on its own, the stairs often cause some concern. You can’t keep the door locked at all times; you can’t hear what’s going on in the room unless you have a pair of baby phones, too, and in case of emergency there is no time for the key. If you just close the door, the little adventurers are guaranteed to find out about the door handle soon enough.
A rather convenient device to use is a baby gate. It’s like a gate to your backyard, but it’s put in front of the stairs instead. The point is to discourage them from climbing the steps and become victim of a possibly serious accident. There are two major makes, the pressure lock version and the one that you can screw into the wall or door frame. The pressure lock variation can be carried around as needed. While the fixed variation is secured into the door frame or the part of wall before the first step of the stairs. The latter solution gives more robustness and stability; just what you need when you need to deal with a 3 years old full of energy.
As kids grow, they’ll become increasingly creative when it comes to dealing with safety locks. You can’t protect them from themselves forever, but a baby gate can help you buff out the early years until they can safely walk up and down the flights. Keep up to date with current toddler equipment available by looking online.