Baby proofing is absolutely necessary and it would be fair enough if started at nursery.
The job of making the home safe for the baby does not have to wait till the arrival of the baby. Once the baby arrives it will keep you on your toes all the time so that you may not even have time to eat or drink, leave alone do the job of baby proofing the home. The days before the arrival of the baby, when you think much of the time about him, is the right time to make the home safe for him. And this safety concerns have to start from the nursery, which will be the baby’s special home.
Decorating the nursery is the pleasure of most expectant parents. Small things for making the nursery safe, like providing outlet covers for electrical points, and strapping the furniture to the walls, can be done together with decorating it. As you bring in various beautiful things into the nursery, remember to take out of it small things that may be harmful to the baby. Any object that can slip down the tube of a toilet paper will be a choking risk to the child once it starts grabbing things and depositing it into its mouth.
Hazard Prevention Measures
Vintage furniture that is very heavy may not need anchoring, but much of the furniture that is used for a baby nursery might be light stuff. Every piece of it should ideally be strapped to the wall so that it will not tip over when the baby makes his first attempts at climbing on to things. Plug points in a nursery should not be at a low level, but if it is, it should be protected with cover locks that baby hands will not be able to open.
Dangling electrical cords have no place in a nursery. In the case of electrical appliances that are a must, their cords should be tied up and clipped to the wall. Other baby proofing requirements in a nursery is having a safety gate around the heater, if it is kept at floor level. If the heating vent is on the floor, it is better to have plastic vents rather than metal ones. It is also good to have a barrier around it so that the child will not crawl across the vent.
Seasonal Baby Proofing
Winters may require heating arrangements within the room. Then fire protection will obviously be an important concern. A heater within the nursery should be so ingeniously placed that neither its plug point or cord or even anything indirectly connected to it should be within the reach of the child. The gate should be so planned that the child will not be able to throw toys or blankets over it to the heat source and get the things singed.
Every form of extra cautiousness is a form of baby proofing inside the nursery. Incandescent bulbs are something commonly used. Even then, for a baby’s nursery, it is better to use fluorescent lights which will not lead even to the remotest possibility of starting a fire, as they never get heated up. By constant observation, you will also be able to see many more things that pose a threat to the baby’s safety either directly or indirectly. You can use your own creativity to effectively neutralize its harmful side.
