Make the home safe for your baby

Keeping your baby safe at home can be easy. There are lots of ways to make sure your home is fun, stimulating and safe as your little one grows and develops.
Thinking ahead to the toddler years will help you to take care of other hazards before your baby grows and finds them first. 


Here are some things to do:

• Cover all unused electrical sockets with outlet plugs.
• Keep cords out of baby's reach. Tack up chords to vertical blinds and move furniture, lamps, or electronics to hide cords.
• Secure furniture and electronics, such as bookcases and TVs, so they cannot be pulled down on top of your baby.
• Use protective padding to cover sharp edges and corners, such as from a coffee table or fireplace hearth.
• Install safety gates at the bottom and top of stairwells or to block entry to unsafe rooms.
• Use safety latches on cabinets and doors.
• Store all medicines, cleaning products, and other poisons out of baby's reach.
• Remove rubber tips from doorstops or replace with one-piece doorstops.
• Look for and remove all small objects. Objects that easily can pass through the center of a toilet paper roll might cause choking.
• Keep houseplants out of baby's reach. Some plants can poison or make your baby sick.
• Set your water heater temperature to no higher than 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Water that is hotter can cause bad burns.
• Closely supervise your baby around a family pet. Pets need time to adjust to the baby.

Protect your baby from falling out of windows:

• Lock all windows – particularly upper-storey windows – with window locks or latches. Latches should prevent windows from opening wider than 10 cm. Guards can also be used to protect the opening.
• Open windows from the top if possible.
• Keep furniture and beds away from windows. This will help prevent children from climbing up to windows.
• Don’t rely on screens to prevent falls from windows. Teach children to play away from windows, and always supervise them while they play.

Make a list of emergency numbers to keep near your telephone. Below are some suggestions for numbers to include:

• ambulance
• fire department
• Poisons Information Centre
• local council
• local children’s hospital
• family doctor
• maternal and child health nurse
• all-night chemist
• trusted neighbours
• relatives
• police

Make photos of your baby playing at home. Write briefly about the measures you've taken to make your home safe for your little one.