A Guide On How To Babyproof Your New Home

Bringing home your new baby is a momentous occasion that is to be celebrated and looked forward to, however there is a lot of preparation that needs to be done before your baby arrives. You will need to purchase all the things you need for your new baby and decorate the baby nursery. You will also need to look over your home and make sure that it is completely baby safe.

Making your own home baby safe is one thing, but what about if you have rented a new home? Private Property asked me to cover this topic, because it’s a little more tricky when you don’t own the house and cannot easily make any changes you like.

So if you have found property to rent in Cape Town and you have a baby, here’s what you need to look at to make your rented home safe for your baby:

Safety Gates

Many parents make use of safety gates to keep their toddlers and young children out of areas where they may get injured such as the kitchen or bathrooms. It is also important to make sure that all access to stairs is blocked with a safety gate.

Having a rental home limits the type of safety gate you can make use of as some of them require drilling into the wall to secure the gate. There are some safety gates available that are pressure mounted and require no drilling. While these pressure mounted baby safety gates are sufficient for blocking doorways and the ground floor access to stairs it is not advisable to use them on upper floors to block access to stairs in case your baby manages to push them over, running the risk of your baby falling downstairs.

Baby Playpens

Baby playpens are a great way to keep your baby safe and sound, especially when you are not able to install safety gates in certain places like mentioned above.

Baby playpens come with many benefits and they can be easily moved around to any place in your home where you need to keep your baby safe while playing.

If you have a rented home, having a baby playpen will be very useful for you.

Blind Cords

Many rented homes come with blinds and blind cords are a huge safety concern when it comes to babies and children. Make sure that your baby’s cot or playpen is nowhere near any blind cords that pose a strangling hazard.

A very quick and easy way to ensure that your blind cords are not a safety risk for your baby is to make use of blind cord wraps or windups that provide a way to keep the cords well out of your baby’s reach at all times.

Windows

Windows pose a threat to your child even on the ground floor of your home, but even more so on the upper levels. If you own your home there are many ways to secure your windows so that they are child safe. If you are renting your options are more limited.

There are some window locks available that don’t involve drilling. Another option is to speak to your lessor and ask permission to install safety locks on the windows.

Cupboards and Drawers

There are many things that you are going to need to keep away from little fingers such as cleaning goods, toiletries and medication. It is always a good idea to keep all of those dangerous items high up, out of your baby’s reach.

However there are still going to be plenty of things within your baby’s reach that you will want to keep your baby away from, such as the draw where you keep your sharp knives, the cupboard where you keep glass dishes that could break and cut your baby and other hazards.

There are lots of baby safety cabinet locks that will keep your baby safe – just look for cabinet locks that require no drilling.

Sharp Corners

Whether it be the corner of your coffee table or the corner of your kitchen counter there are going to be many sharp corners where your baby could possibly bump his head.

A quick and easy solution is to buy corner guards which will lessen the risk of your baby getting injured.

Electrical Outlets

Make sure to get plug safety covers for all electrical outlets that are within your baby’s reach to prevent your baby from sticking a finger or any other item such as a pencil into the plug holes.

Unstable Furnishings

Babies are going to grab at anything and pull themselves up, making unstable furniture a risk for injury if your baby pulls the item over onto himself. Make sure that your furniture is stable and secure.

If you have any furniture items that pose a risk you can try to weigh down the bottom or you may need to talk to your lessor to see if you can secure the furniture to the wall to make it completely safe for your baby.

Drowning Hazards

If you are living in a block of flats there may be a communal pool. It should have a safety fence around it to ensure that it is not a drowning hazard for kids.

It is important to remember that while a pool is an obvious drowning hazard that you will look out for young children can drown in very shallow water, including your toilet. This is easily solved by getting toilet lid locks so your baby cannot open the toilet lid.