Creating a home that is comfortable and safe to explore protects children from preventable injuries. By proactively identifying and addressing potential hazards, parents and caregivers can safeguard spaces for children to grow and explore. Below are a few suggestions to help guide you in child-proofing your home effectively.
1. Room-by-Room Safety Measures
Kitchen:
- Secure Cabinets and Drawers: For infants and toddlers, consider using safety latches to block access to sharp objects, cleaning supplies, and medications. Keep items labeled as toxic, poisonous, or otherwise hazardous in a cabinet that locks with a key. With children old enough to understand, explain safe handling of items that pose a risk, and which things they should avoid.
- Appliance Safety: Cover stove knobs and keep hot or sharp appliances out of children’s reach.
- Choking Hazards: Store small items like nuts, coins, and hard candies away from places children frequent. Even powdered substances like cinnamon can be dangerous—there is a documented case of a child who inhaled cinnamon, which led to suffocation. Seemingly harmless kitchen items can become life-threatening in the hands of young children.
Bathroom:
- Prevent Drowning: Monitor children during bath time and never leave them unattended. It only takes one to two inches of water for a child to drown, and it can happen in less than 30 seconds—even in a bathtub, sink, toilet, or bucket. Use a safety latch to keep the toilet lid closed and inaccessible to children.
- Medication Storage: Keep all medications locked away and out of sight. Don’t rely solely on child-resistant packaging. Determined two and three-year-olds can sometimes open “child-proof” medication bottles, requiring rushed ER visits. Parents can avoid terrifying, life-threatening emergencies like this by not underestimating a toddler’s curiosity and climbing abilities. Consider using a small medicine box that locks with a key or combination if storing medicines in areas where children may be able to reach them. This is particularly helpful for storing medications that need to be refrigerated, such as insulin. Many young children are capable of opening the refrigerator and climbing up shelves.
Living Areas:
- Stabilize Furniture: Make sure heavy furniture and large TVs are secured in place or to the wall to prevent tip-overs that could cause harm.
- Cover Outlets: Insert safety covers in all electrical outlets that are not being used.
- Window Safety: Use window guards, wedges, or locks to prevent accidental falls. These devices lock windows in place so that children cannot open them far enough to climb or fall out. Avoid using window shades or blinds that use a cord for opening and closing them, or wrap the cords up around drapery/blind cleats. Avoid placing furniture that is easily climbed under windows in order to prevent children from falling through glass.
- Bags, Briefcases, Purses, and Backpacks: Be mindful of where these items are stored. They often contain harmful or poisonous materials such contact lens cleaning solution, an EpiPen, over-the-counter medication, or small items children can choke on.
Bedrooms:
- Safe Sleep Practices: Always place infants on their backs in a crib with a firm mattress and no soft bedding. Avoid sleep positioners, pillows, or stuffed animals, as recommended by California’s Safe Sleep Initiative.
- Toy Storage: Keep toys neatly stored to prevent tripping hazards and ensure younger children don’t access toys with small or breakable parts.
- Doors: Use door knob safety covers to prevent children from entering rooms that have not been child-proofed.
2. Stay Informed About Recalls
- Regularly check the CPSC Recall List for updates on unsafe products including toys, cribs, furniture, and household appliances in your home. Recalled products can pose serious hazards, such as fire risk or entrapment.
3. General Safety Tips
- Install Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors: Place detectors on every level of your home and test them monthly.
- Use Safety Gates: Use them at the top and bottom of staircases, to block off unsafe areas with safety gates or safety fences.
- Maintain Supervision: Even in a fully childproofed home, active supervision is essential—especially in kitchens, bathrooms, and near any body of water.
- Be Prepared: Consider learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and what to do if a child is choking. Save or memorize the California Poison Control Systems phone number (1-800-222-1222) to receive immediate advice for exposure to poisonous substances.
Making your home a safe space for children to explore, grow, and thrive is essential for their healthy development. The ongoing process of childproofing can be insightful and help you measure your child’s abilities and progress as adjustments are made to your home. As parents, anticipate dangerous situations and think through everyday risks they’re better able to avoid preventable accidents and injuries.
For more helpful safety tips—including guidance on indoor and outdoor environments, poison prevention, internet safety, and fire hazards—download our CHS Safety Brochure.
Resources and References
CHS Safety: Protecting Children Through Prevention
https://www.nsc.org/community-safety/safety-topics/child-safety/childproofing-your-home
https://www.osfhealthcare.org/blog/how-to-keep-children-safe-at-home/https://www.nsc.org/community-safety/safety-topics/child-safety/childproofing-your-home