This post was sponsored by Window Covering Safety Council as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.
For those of you who are new here, we have a three-year-old daughter Em, who was born with holoprosencephaly. Because of this, she has been delayed in her gross motor skills, and at the age of three and a half, she is just starting to cruise around our house and get into trouble. Since October she has learned to crawl, pull to stand, and just recently, climb up and down the stairs. She also walks around our house in her gait trainer from time to time, which has opened a whole new can of worms in terms of getting into things she shouldn't. We are fully in the throws of baby proofing our house, albeit, about three years late.
Where to start with babyproofing?
Like most parents, we've found that baby proofing typically happens in stages. Your child finds one thing that poses a risk, you fix it, and then they move on to find something else for you to tackle. This time around, we find ourselves baby proofing things for Em, that we never even thought about with Jay.
Like most parents, we've found that baby proofing typically happens in stages. Your child finds one thing that poses a risk, you fix it, and then they move on to find something else for you to tackle. This time around, we find ourselves baby proofing things for Em, that we never even thought about with Jay.
One of the first things that we did was change out the window coverings in our home. When we moved into our rental in Utah, most of the cords on our window coverings reached all the way down to the floor. It didn't take long for Em to find them, and so we went through and changed the blinds to ensure they wouldn't become a choking hazard for anyone.
When we were in the market for new blinds we headed over to WindowCoverings.org to learn about all of the best rules and regulations for window coverings and keeping your kids safe. It's best to make sure that your window coverings are either cordless, or that the cords are short enough and out of reach of young hands.
Now that everyone is in the midst of spring cleaning, it's the perfect time to change out any window coverings that may be outdated, or posing a risk to any of your loved ones. When shopping for new blinds, be sure to keep an eye out for the "Best For Kids" certification, and seal of approval. The Best For Kids certification program is the first third party verification system of it's kind, designed to help parents and caregivers easily identify products that are best for kids.
What other areas need to be babyproofed?
When we were accessing what other changes we needed to make in our home, we thought about things that were at Em's immediate disposal. Outlets were quick to be covered since there is one right next to her new bed.
With Em's new bed, she now has the freedom to get in and out of bed when she chooses. Should she decide to leave her room in the middle of the night, we now have a gate installed at the top of our stairs to make sure she can't fall down in the middle of the night without Derek and I knowing.
Now that she's using her gait trainer in the house more, we realized she had access to every drawer and sharp knife that she previously didn't know existed. After her rendezvous of opening and slamming every drawer, we promptly dug out our old drawer latches to make sure she was safe when Derek and I weren't looking.
One thing our landlord had before we moved on was a baby lock on the oven and toilets, which is something I've come to really appreciate, and it's one less thing I'll have to worry about when Em figures out that those things exist too!
PSA: Only Use Cordless Window Coverings with Young Children from Window Covering Safety Council on Vimeo.
If you have other suggestions on baby proofing your home, and keeping your kids safe, I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!
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