How To Baby Proof Your Home

by Natalie Hoage on November 3, 2011

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My sister is getting ready to have a baby in the next few months. One of the things she has been asking about is baby proofing her house so that she doesn’t have to worry about it once the baby gets here. Now as a mom of three kids aged four and under, our house has been baby proofed for years! But it didn’t all happen at once, even though it sure would have made life easier if it had. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the last few years that I wished I would’ve known before I had my first baby.

If I had it to do all over again, I would’ve baby proofed before my son was born. After the baby comes, life gets crazy and before you know it, baby is crawling all over the place and in to everything! This is one of those tasks you can do while nesting and check off your to-do list before baby even arrives.

Also, remember that no matter how baby proofed your home is, baby can still get hurt. The only way to decrease those chances is by always making sure that baby has parental/caregiver supervision.

So where do you start? On the floor of course! Lie on the floor and see the world as your baby will see it. From there, you can figure out what needs to be moved, repaired, or needs to be baby proofed. If you aren’t sure what baby proofing products you might need, ask your friends and family which items they use or suggest. If you are having a baby shower, you can even register for those safety products.

What needs baby proofing? Exposed cords need wire guards and/or cord control kits and power strip covers. Unused outlets need to be covered. You’ll need to install door knob locks or lever locks depending on the types of cabinet doors you have. Get corner guards for sharp corners and edge guards for edges (think coffee tables, fireplaces, etc). Anchor dressers, bookshelves, entertainment centers, and anything else that a child will attempt to climb on to the wall.

There are many other things to consider as well . . . make sure cleaning products and other hazardous products are in places baby cannot get into (locked cabinets, the garage, stored above head). Consider using baby gates to keep baby in (or out!) of certain areas. Had my children not figured out how to open them, our baby gates would still be up!

Also, think about houseplants. Some plants are dangerous if eaten. To see which plants are safe to have in your home and which are not, you can check out which houseplants or outdoor plants to avoid having from Baby Center.

What other measures have you taken to baby proof your home?

Tagged as: baby proof tips, baby proof your home, how to baby proof your home, which houseplants are poisonous

  • Ruby T.

    We babyproofed as much as we could think of, and still when my daughter started moving around and standing, etc. she fell down so much and so often I was *this* close to going out and buying her a protective helmet!! :)

    Keep a close eye on those moving babies, mommas! That’s the best safety tip I can offer. Oh, and the cabinet locks were a life-saver, too.

  • Ellie

    As a nanny, I’ve worked with both extremes when it comes to baby proofing. I’ve found that the best form of baby proofing is the form we used with the family I currently work for: keep all the dangerous items out of the house (cleaners are in the garage, plants are outside, unstable objects were given away, etc), cover the outlets, and then police your child with the other stuff. We never used cabinet locks, guards on the stairs, etc. At first it was difficult, but with short, consistent commands she learned what was and wasnt okay. She learned how to crawl up and down stairs without falling (in fact she’s only fallen once, down a single step because she was distracted and didn’t remember it was there. and when that happened, she had been going up and down stairs for months). She stays out of the cabinets. She stays out of the drawers. She wont open exterior or bathroom doors without permission. And the list goes on. By constantly keeping her trained to not do the things we didnt want her to do, we never have to worry about what will happen when childproofing items come off. We also dont have to worry when she goes over to other people’s houses.

    I have a friend who is one of those “everything has to be baby proofed” (to the point where the Christmas tree had an actual fence around it, with a three foot space between the fence and the tree. And her floor is now padded with rubber so that, if her baby falls, the baby wont get hurt). When she had her baby stay with me during the day while she dealt with her grandmother’s failing health and eventual death, her daughter was getting into all kinds of trouble because my house is NOT baby proof. However, when the girl I normally take care of is at my house, she associates the same boundaries she has at home with my house and, therefore, has no problems.

    My friend is also a nanny of a family with 4 kids (a 3 year old, twins the same age as the girl I take care of and a newborn). Aside from the “baby cage” (the playpen that is used when the nanny or a parent has to do something like help one of the kids potty train, and cant keep an active eye on the others) and the outlet covers, they also have no from of baby proofing. They have 5 levels in the house, many breakable items, and a large, tall fireplace hearth. The children learn as soon as their mobile what their boundaries are. Because of that, they have never had a problem and their children are just as capable of being in new environments as the girl I take care of.

    Conversely, I took care of twins once who had parents who baby proofed everything. Because they never learned their boundaries past “this gate keeps us from going here”, they were often found in precarious situations. One of the twins learned early on how to climb over the half wall. The other was often found trying to climb up the outside of the stairs. By 14 months, they had figure out that, with team work, they could open the baby gate. They were constantly finding their way around the baby proofed items, and were often more successful at working the locks than any of the adults were.

    One of their friends had parents with a similar mentality and she, by the age of 2, was able to work her way around any of the safety locks. By 3, she was sneaking into the pantry and stealing things or opening the front door.

    I firmly believe that childproofing is more of a hassle than it’s worth. It’s almost like the addition of the childproofing items is like putting a fresh batch of cookies in the cookie jar and telling your kids they cant touch it.

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