Photo: Courtesy Clint Harp
Here, Harp’s top tips for keeping your house safe during those toddler years.
Think hard about your kitchen.Sure, you’ll hide your knives and keep other sharp objects out of reach, but you almost have to get into your tot’s mind to realize what else you need to secure.
“You might think you don’t need to do the pantry, then you open up the door and your kid is covered in junk and made a mess and you forgot you had a big glass jar with your flour in there and it’s busted all over the floor,” Harp shares. “You don’t want to create a world where kids can’t have fun and be adventurous, but there are all sorts of different little things curious minds want to get into, too.”
The obvious fix for most families is a toilet lock (Safety 1st’s is $7.99) andcovers on doorknobs. “It’s real simple and honestly does not make it any more difficult for you to use your bathroom.”
Courtesy Safety 1st
Be careful about picking and placing a gate.“Pressure-mounted gates are good, but they shouldn’t go at the top of the stairs because they lose pressure over time,” Harp explains. “Houses expand and shrink depending on the time of year, and gates can lose strength when your house shrinks, without you even realizing it. At the top of the stairs, use wall-mounted screw-type gates. At the bottom, it’s okay to go pressure-mounted.”
Get rid of all your gear only when you think it’s time.“It’s different for every family,” Harp — whose youngest is 5 and just out of the childproofing phase — cautions. “The best thing you can do is go through and childproof everything at once, then get to know your kids, their responsibility level and how they understand things. It’s different for every kid.”
Harp suggests checking out theConsumer Product Safety Commissionguidelines and deciding what works best for your family from there.
Don’t forget to help the grandparents.If your kids will be spending a lot of time with their grandparents, make sure those homes are secure, too.
source: people.com
