Keeping Your Child Safe At Any Age

Although childproofing your home is not a substitute for parental supervision, it substantially reduces the likelihood of injury. The first step in providing a safe environment for your child is to prepare your home properly. Here are some ways you can keep your children safe in the home, whether you have a baby or preschooler, or maybe some of both!

When you bring your baby home from the hospital, you won’t have to ‘child-proof’ everything right away, since your infant is not able to move on their own. However, a baby monitoring system is ideal, since this will let you know if your baby is in discomfort or pain no matter what room you’re in.

When your baby becomes more mobile, you will have to pay attention to childproofing your home to prevent accidents and injury. For example, you will want to install locks or a window guard on upper story windows to keep them from opening more than three and a half inches. Keep all sharp objects and tools out of reach of little hands. And be sure to keep your floors clean and vacuumed. Toddlers have an amazing ability to find small objects that can end up in their mouths and cause choking.

Lock chemicals up in cabinets. Dangerous chemicals should ideally be kept high enough that the child can’t reach them, but sometimes that’s not an option. You can find inexpensive safety latches or locks to use on cabinets at a hardware or discount store. Better yet, keep your toddler out of rooms that contain hazards. Lock doors if you need to. If you can’t lock the door, you can buy a doorknob cover that will prevent your toddler from opening it.

One of the most dangerous, yet most accessible, areas of your house is the kitchen, so you need to pay particular attention to child safety in this room. Install safety latches on all doors and cabinets, especially where cleaning products and medicines are located. Remove all small magnets from the refrigerator, which can easily be grabbed by a toddler and swallowed. Move all glass items in the refrigerator to the higher shelves. Use the back burners on the stove and turn all pot handles towards the back of the stove.

In the preschool years, teaching your children about social safety is very important as well. Even when your kids are young, you should make sure that they know their address and phone number in case they have to direct the police or fire department to your home. Learning addresses and phone numbers will also help the authorities to return your children home if they are lost for any reason.

Child safety should be the number one concern of every parent, not just in the home but wherever you go. One way to gain some peace of mind when you’re out and about is with the use of a toddler restraint system. A toddler backpack harness is the perfect way to keep your little one close to you while still allowing a certain amount of freedom to explore.

Child Safety Locks – The 3 Most Hazardous Areas Of Your Home

Kids learn because of their curiosity. They are all little experimenters and everything within their world is present for them to discover from. For these reasons we should never aim to stop a baby or toddler from exploring their environment. On the other hand, we do need to keep them secure.

Child proofing your house is a 3 step process. Firstly you need to evaluate where the dangers are, then you need to purchase appropriate child safety locks, and lastly you need to correctly fit the locks.

Here are three key areas which I suggest that you concentrate on while you are considering child proofing your home.

1. Kitchen – The kitchen is full of appealing things for a child. They understand that it is the source of their food. They see that adults spend time inside the kitchen. They also recognize that they are not allowed to play there. For these reasons they want to discover and understand about it. This inquisitiveness, combined with the hazardous equipment of the kitchen means that draw and cupboard locks are pretty key.

2. Bathroom – At first the bathroom may not seem like such a hazardous place. But, a toddler can drown in just two inches of water. A bathroom will in addition often have poisonous cleaning chemicals. Inside the bathroom you ought to have all your cleaning products shut away in a locked cupboard. You also need to have any medicines in a high up cupboard or a locked one.

3. Chemical products – We have already considered the bathroom, but where else do you have chemicals? Do you have de-icer for the car by the door? Do you have shoe cleaners by the shoe rack? Is there hairspray on top of a dressing table? All these require to be found and put away inside a cupboards and draws which can be secured by means of child safety locks.

Now you have assessed your risks you need to get the solutions. Most safety locks are nowadays adhesive, so they do not require screws or drilling and can be removed at a later date. It is best to buy more than you require as it is better to have spares than to compromise the safety proofing which you have decided on. It is also helpful to keep a couple of spares in case you have missed something on first assessment.

Lastly you are left with fitting the child safety locks. These are not generally complicated, but try to fix them when the children are not about as you ought to have them fitted properly and you really don’t need distractions. You can always ask a friend or relative to come and install the locks for you,you will be surprised how many people will be happy to assist.

Once you have child proofed your home you should have a greater peace of mind and be able to concentrate on positive play and communication with your baby or toddler.

See about Extra Wide Baby Gate at http://babiesandinfants.com

Keep Toddlers and Children Safe Around Your Dogs

There are many reports in the media of children and toddlers being injured by dogs. Although they don’t mean to, and are devastated when anything bad happens to their pet, children can also hurt their dogs.

Here are some suggestions that will help keep your dog safe around the youngest members of your family.

1. Make sure children’s toys are all packed away. We all know that children can be a bit messy. They often leave their toys lying around the home. The problem with that is that dogs also like to chew things. Although it’s very annoying to have a favorite book or doll destroyed, some children’s toys can potentially be a choking hazard for dogs. There have also been many cases of dogs needing toys surgically removed from their intestines. This is very expensive surgery, and a major operation for your dog. Children’s toys can not only hurt your dog, but can also hurt your wallet! Remind your children regularly to tidy up after they’ve been playing.

2. Make sure that you supervise your child regularly around your dog. Children can love a dog too much. They can pull tails and ears, and poke fingers in eyes. They may even cuddle them a bit too tightly. Although this can hurt your dog, it’s a greater risk to your child. Your dog may snap or bite to defend himself.

Children love to pick up and carry their dogs, and this too can be a recipe for disaster. Dogs can feel very insecure when they’re in the air and may squirm and wriggle. If your child drops their dog, it can result in a broken leg, and again a costly vet bill. This is more of a problem with young children, but all children need to be encouraged to let their dog keep all four feet on the ground.

3. Teach your child that some foods are very bad for dogs. Children love feeding the family dog, and will often sneak some leftovers from their dinner under the table for their pet. Although it’s not likely that a child will share chocolate with their dog, foods such as cooked bones and extremely fatty foods are not safe for their pet. If you teach children how and when to feed their dog, and allow them to help prepare their dog’s meal, there is less chance that they will feed them inappropriate food.

Safety is important with respect to your family dog- both the safety of your children and the safety of your dog. If you use common sense, and follow these suggestions, your dog is much less likely to come to any harm.

Dog Fence DIY brings you this guest post by our staff veterinarian Dr. Susan Wright. Dog Fence DIY has a variety of pet containment systems to choose from. Be sure to check out the Innotek 5100 system for the best available price. For more dog fence information see here.

Features to Look for In Child Safety Gates

Although it is a long journey from infanthood to toddler but busy as you will be in looking after and enjoying your bundle of joy, time will pass without your realizing it. The infant who was sleeping for most of the day will start crawling and then stand up on feet. That is the time for which you must prepare for and it should be before your baby starts exploring the new world and crawling to out of bound areas. Child safety gates are an important part of childproofing your home.

Childproofing is providing a safe environment to your child for protecting against dangers that your child is not aware of. Baby safety gates are meant to prevent your little one from moving to places that are not safe like the stairs, kitchen, bathroom, or any other area you think is potentially harmful to your child.

Types of Child Safety Gates

Child safety gates are of two types and classified according to how they are mounted. The first type is the traditional heavier version that can be mounted on walls and furniture. The other is pressure gates.

Child Safety Gates: Pressure Gates

As the name suggests, these depend upon pressure to stay in place. These are easy to install and do not require any hardware. These are also generally less expensive. However, pressure child safety gates may sometimes be knocked out of place with a light punch.

Child Safety Gates: Hardware Mounted

These are sturdier and require you to mount them on a wall or furniture. You can install them in less than an hour by sinking in few screws for mounting. Considering that it is a matter of your baby’s safety it is worth the trouble.

Features to look for in Child Safety Gates

* You should take care and avoid buying safety gates that do not display ASTM/ JPMA certification. Check for the certification for the particular product that you are buying. Child safety certifications are not given to brand names but to individual products.

* Make sure that you are buying the right size. The gate may be adequately high for use now but remember that your child will be growing taller. Choose a taller model so that it provides long term safety.

* Spacing of the bars in gates are of equal importance. As a general rule the space between bars should not be more than 2.5 inches or 6 cm. This is to ensure that the child’s head does not get stuck between bars.

* Hardware mounted safety gates are designed for ease of opening but the same cannot be said about pressure child safety gates. You will have to go through the gated area often so do not depend upon having to jump over the gate.

* Accordion-style screen gates are a virtual hazard so avoid buying them even if you get them cheap or second hand.

Depending upon the brand and features child safety gates can cost you anything in the range of $75 and $100, with pressure based models cheaper by about $20/40.

Choose the Right Baby Monitor for Your Baby

Getting your baby to sleep is only half the battle! Once they’re asleep most parents still have concerns that can keep them up at night.

Did you know, most of these concerns can be addressed if you buy a baby monitor? In fact a third of mothers see having a baby monitor they trust as ‘absolutely critical’ to getting a good night’s sleep.

The Tomy Baby Monitor is multi-award winning and a favorite in the UK.

Every Baby Monitor Review has been thoroughly tested to provide the very highest standards of safety and a host of up-to-date features from guaranteed privacy and two-way talk back to remotely controlled night lights, vibration alert and last feed timer, that really do make parenting easier.

When choosing your monitor you need to determine your requirements, from the type of home you live in, and your lifestyle as there are several monitors that will meet your criteria.

* Do you want to ensure that no-one else can listen in to your monitor? Unique to the Tomy Walkabout Baby Monitor, privacy is guaranteed thanks to an inbuilt scrambling device and 65,000 unique combinations in the Walkabout Baby Advance, Classic Advance and Premier Advance and an auto channel hopping selection function and digital audio in the Walkabout Platinum Digital. Guaranteed privacy means that the sounds your baby makes cannot be picked up by any other monitor in the area.

* You might be spending time out of the house such as in the garden? If so consider a Tomy Baby Portable Monitor with a longer range for flexible, portable monitoring. Also consider having a monitor with a vibration alert which is great for more noisy environments.

* Will your baby be sleeping in their own nursery? If so you might want to invest in a Baby Monitor Reviews with a two-way talk back facility which is handy for when your baby only needs a word of reassurance from afar. Also consider one with a night light on the baby unit to give a comforting glow in the dark to reassure your baby.

* Are you concerned that you might disturb your baby when entering the nursery? If so you might want to consider a monitor with a night light on the baby unit so there is no need to disturb your baby using the main light in the nursery.

* You may be concerned that you might forget when the next feed is due during the night? In order to reduce uncertainty about when the next feeding is due, the innovative last feed timer on our top of the range Tomy Baby Talkabout Platinum Digital Monitor will keep track for you.

* On many occasions you may feel that the temperature of your nursery might not be ideal. In order to keep the nursery at the ideal temperature you might want to consider a Tomy Baby Monitor with an in-built temperature display enabling you to continuously monitor the temperature of your baby’s nursery. If you are also worried about temperature variances overnight in the nursery you might want to consider the Tomy Baby Walkabout Platinum Digital Monitor which records the maximum and Minimum temperature the nursery got to during the night.

* What about being able to judge the intensity of your babies sound when not in the nursery? Consider a Tomy Baby Monitor with a sound-sensitive light display which is a display of moving lights which echo the level of your baby’s sounds meaning you can stay alert to your baby’s needs even with the sound turned down and can also judge when you want to react to your baby’s sounds.

* Do you have two small children and want to use two monitors at one time? It is possible to use two monitors at one time however, it is not recommended to have two analogue monitors in close proximity as interference between the two monitors could prevent them from working properly. Using 2 DECT monitors in close proximity is fine and both will work normally with no interference.

You can see that there is a Tomy Baby Monitor for most applications that is why Tomy is the No 1 brand of baby monitors in the UK.

Christina Danzarola is a freelance journalist and has been using a tomy baby monitor for the past 12 months since her daughter Claire was born, which has given her real peace of mind as she was always fearful of leaving her baby on her own even in the next room, but she was able to monitor everything. Check out the baby monitor reviews by visiting the website.