Childproofing Chart and Checklist

We want our children to always stay safe. We don’t want them to get injured while playing or roaming around the house. A child is born and it is the day parents to start planning to make their house as safe for their kid as possible.

What is childproofing?

Childproofing is the same process in which we tend to make our house free of possible injuries and mishaps to the child. A child is kept safe from any sort of injuries in the house and this may require a professional or you can childproof your house by making your own plan.

When your baby starts to sit without support, you should be well prepared for the next most awaited milestone of your child’s growth and that is crawling. That is the time when your baby would try to pull at things or push away things. Now that he/she can reach things that fascinate him/her, you need to keep an eye on your baby more vigilantly.

Accidents can happen anywhere but precaution can prevent serious and dangerous accidents from happening. A house with a crawling baby or a toddler needs to be childproofed in order to make it safe so you can work around the house tension free.

You can either install childproofing equipment yourself or you can take professional help for that. There are different types of things you can use considering your accommodation and budget. But try not to miss the most important things like if you have stairs you need safety gates or window guards etc.

Apart from these installations, do keep in mind small precautions and make them your habit like don’t keep hot or sharp objects within reach and don’t keep electric cables lying on the floor tie them with cable cords. To be sure that you have followed all the standard childproofing precautions, you need to follow a childproofing chart and checklist.

Possible injuries to the child in the house

A home is a shelter to its residents, children included. Even then, there are certain injuries that can possibly harm the kid especially a toddler. These are;

1. Injuries from the furniture
2. Injuries from electric current and electric appliances
3. The danger of drowning in the bathtubs buckets etc.
4. The danger of injuries from the fire
5. Gas leakage and suffocation
6. Injuries from harmful chemicals
7. Injury from the broken glass
8. Injuries in the kitchen
9. Medicine and ingestion of poisons

Childproofing checklist

If you intend to make your house completely baby proof, you need to follow a checklist so that no place and no points are missed.

There are a general checklist and another checklist specific for the baby room and helps in covering all the areas.

This is a checklist which has the list of steps you need to take and equipment you are required to install in order to make your house safe for a child.

Childproofing Chart and Checklist: Download

General checklist for baby proofing

1. There are high chances that a crawling baby starts climbing chairs and may fall from them. Covering the staircases with gates is the first thing to do against it.
2. Keep all the drawers, corners of tables guarded.
3. Keep the chemicals, remotes, pins, beads and other ingestible items out of reach of the children. Keep them in a place higher up where they can’t even climb.
4. Keep smoke detectors and fire extinguishers everywhere and readily functional.
5. All the electrical cords must be kept out of the reach of the children.
6. Keep all the doors and windows properly guarded and make sure babies can’t lock themselves up inside the rooms.
7. You must keep all the combustible material away from the children’s reach.

Baby proofing in a baby’s room

Some special measures have to be taken in the baby’s room specifically. For example:

1. Buy a crib that is baby friendly and avoids the falls and injuries.
2. Keep all the small toys away. Better don’t buy such small toys which a baby can swallow.
3. Keep the cribs or baby beddings away from the windows.

Baby proofing your bathroom

1. Bathrooms must always be locked and kept closed so that children cannot go inside.
2. Make sure that toilets have guards and the faucets and showers have scalding.
3. Keep the bucket or bathtub empty.

Kitchen

1. Keep all the sharp objects and utensil out of the reach of children.
2. Stove knobs must be guarded and the gas cylinders must be out of sight.
3. Trash cans must be properly covered.