In just a few short months (and those months will fly by very quickly!), your new baby will begin crawling and exploring his/her environment. Innocent, naturally inquisitive and into everything, babies are especially vulnerable to injury from accidents in the home. By the time your baby begins crawling it would be very prudent to have your home ready for baby to explore. Waiting too long could result in a baby being injured or worse. You can babyproof too late, but you cannot babyproof too soon.
A trained and experienced babyproofer will help you do a proper job of babyproofing your home. A professional babyproofer will take the time to go through your home with you, educate you about the dangers in your home and show you how to create a safer environment for your baby. Babyproofers have experience dealing with all sorts of hazards in all types of homes, can readily spot hidden hazards and provide products and services to suit your specific needs. Their knowledge allows them to solve problems and devise solutions for even the most challenging situations. A professional will also have years of experience installing various safety products and will make sure the job gets done right the first time, saving you time by completing your childproofing quickly and efficiently and leaving you more time to spend with your family. You should look for a babyproofer who is insured and is a member of the International Association for Child Safety. Members of the Association must abide by a Code of Ethics to maintain high standards and are kept up to date on the latest products, installation techniques and hazards.
You could try and babyproof your home yourself, but you would not be able to do anywhere near as thorough and complete a job as a professional. A professional can save you money by directing you to products that will work best for your needs, helping you avoid going from store to store making trial-and-error purchases and installations. The International Association for Child Safety works closely with manufacturers to develop and enhance child safety products, ensuring that you get only the highest quality products that have been field-tested by experts. Association members have access to hundreds of specialized safety products that you will not find in your local hardware or home supply store and even carry some products that only professional babyproofers sell.
An experienced babyproofer can identify hazards you might not otherwise be aware of. Here are some examples of dangers parents frequently overlook:
Plastic dry cleaning bags. Not only can babies suffocate in them (read the warnings printed all over them), they can also pull pieces off and choke on them. Parents should remove the plastic bags as soon as they get the dry cleaning home, tie the bags in knots and put them in the garbage where babies cannot get to them.
The little rubber tips on the end of door stoppers. Babies can pull these off and choke on them. This is actually the number one baby choking hazard! Replace these with safety door stoppers.
Toothpaste – the fluoride in most toothpaste is poisonous. In the proper amount, fluoride can be very beneficial. But, more than a quarter of an inch of fluoride toothpaste is toxic to a baby. Did you know most rat poisons use fluoride as their active ingredient! If you give a baby vitamins with fluoride in them (or fluoride drops) you must be very careful to use only fluoride free (or “safe to swallow”) special toothpaste for children. You must also be very careful with flavored toothpastes for older children. If you read the back of the tube it will say to “keep out of reach of children”. You should not allow children access to something that tastes like candy and is also highly poisonous. With those toothpastes you should put the toothpaste on the brush for your child and then store it in a location inaccessible to the child.
Baby shampoo - No tears if some gets in the baby’s eyes during a bath, but poisonous if ingested. Many parents mistakenly believe it is safe to leave the baby shampoo on the rim of the tub. Read the label. It will say “keep out of reach of children”.
Mouthwash. Colorful, tasty and most have plenty of alcohol in them. There are plenty of alcohol free mouthwashes on the market.
Do not use tacks or staples to secure electrical cords to walls. They can fall or be pulled out and swallowed.
Wicker. Small pieces of wicker can be picked off and baby will put them in their mouths.
It is important for parents to take whatever precautions they can to minimize the risk of injury to their children. Professionally babyproofing your home is the best way to accomplish this. Even so, a 100% perfectly safe, accident free home is probably not possible. Supervision is not a substitute for babyproofing as it is not possible to supervise and hold on to a baby 100% of the time. Conversely, babyproofing is not a substitute for supervision. For this reason a baby should never be left unattended (the sole exception to this rule being the crib). Professionally babyproofing your home will go a long way towards reducing the chance of injury and brings parents peace of mind.