Babies Safety | Bundle NYC

Home Hazards and General Safety Tips to Protect Your Baby

April 7, 2020 in Babies Safety, Tips

Introduction

Home is where we feel safe, an environment that protects us from the dangers outdoors. But it is sad to know that accidents do occur indoors too. Because these hazards are avoidable, dealing with scars from some of these accidents often lead to lifelong feelings of shame. Home safety needs are dynamic, and making it safe becomes a priority when you have a baby.

How do you keep a baby safe inside the house? The first step to home safety is awareness. You have to identify these hazards, then make a conscious effort to reduce or remove them in your home. Provide a safe setting in which your baby can mature and blossom.

These tips will help parents recognize and do away with hazards that could be dangerous to a baby.

Falls

Babies and children are naturally squeamish and curious, which could lead to falls.

Install baby gates as a barrier to the stairs.
Make sure your crib slats are not wider than 2 to 3/8 inches so that the baby does not fit through it.
Always remove toys, shoes, and clothes from doorways.
Make use of a baby carrier. Do not put it on the counter or tabletop. It should be on the floor at all times.
Buy a changing table that has straps.
Never leave your baby alone on a chair, settee, bed where they can roll-off.

Suffocation or Choking Hazards

Anything can be a choking hazard for a baby, including food.

Make sure everything you feed your baby can go through its throat easily.
Remove all small objects that can cause choking if swallowed.
Do not use strings or cords around the baby’s neck or to stabilize a pacifier. Instead, use a clip attached to a ribbon.
Try to clean the floors often to remove dirt, screws, coin, small pieces of plastic that they might want to put in their mouth.

Fire and Burn Dangers

Fix a smoke alarm and have a fire extinguisher in every possible area of your house.
Do not smoke and do not allow smoking around the baby.
If you have a fireplace, install a soft border, or put them in a fenced-in play yard.
Install a carbon monoxide detector if you use gas heat in your home.
Make sure you are not holding hot liquids at the same time you are carrying your baby.
Do not use a microwave to warm your baby’s food/bottle. Dip it in a bowl of warm water to heat it.

Firearms Danger

Guns and children are a dangerous mix. According to the American Association of Pediatricians (AAP), firearm injuries are the leading cause of death in children, and most of these accidental shootings take place inside a home. If you have to keep a gun inside, consider the following tips.

Prevent your child from associating with the gun by keeping it protected from their view and out of reach with a gun safe.
Keep your guns unloaded and store ammunition separately.
Never leave your gun unattended when you are cleaning it.

Bathing/ Bathroom and Drowning Dangers

Babies can drown in water that is two-inch deep. Designers came up with a solution such as baby seats, but these were dangers on their own. They can trap babies underwater if the suction cups disengage.

Never leave your baby alone or unattended in the bathtub with water. Make sure you have everything you need before you start bathing the baby.
Close toilet lids and consider fixing a safety latch for the toilet.
Buy a rubber mat and baby proof your tub.

Poisoning Hazards

Lock up harmful chemicals or anything that would be toxic if ingested by the baby. Examples include soap, detergents, alcohol, disinfectant, medicine, paint, cleaners, drugs, etc.
Make sure your basement or garage is locked when it’s not in use. Keep oils, lubricants, and other car liquids out of reach.

Other Tips to Keep Your Baby Safe

Consider taking a public health class or course in baby first aid, including CPR.
Write out or print out and post-emergency, healthcare providers, and ambulance numbers near your phone. You can save them as speed dial numbers on your cell phones.
Keep magnets, marbles, batteries in containers, and out of reach.
Do not jiggle or throw your baby in the air. It could lead to blindness or brain damage.
Keep sharp items such as forks, razors, knives, pins, scissors locked away
Don’t leave your baby alone with a pet. Pets can bite them and lead to severe injuries.
Boil water and let it cool before adding formula to it.
Baby toys should be soft, tender, washable, and non-lethal. Make sure they are more extensive than your baby’s mouth.
Furniture like stands, bookshelves, and dressers should be attached to the wall to prevent it from falling over.
Fix covers on all electrical outlets.
Fix safety locks on cabinets, refrigerators, doors, windows,
Make sure you are always clean and take care of your health.

Conclusion

Ensure you’re doing everything you can to keep your baby safe. Be alert to all possible dangers. Supervise when you have others around your baby.

If and when you employ a babysitter, ensure that they understand and follow these guidelines and tips. If you are getting a friend or relative who just had a baby to help you look after yours while you’re away, give them these tips you’ve learned and got them personalized baby gifts to appreciate their baby. They’ll feel all the more motivated to look after your baby properly.

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How To Enhance Your Baby’s Safety at Home

February 16, 2020 in Babies Safety

Your home might be looking all good and friendly for you, but there are a lot of potential hazards for the little one. One of the ways to keep your baby safe at home is to identify the risks and then remove them to keep the baby safe.

As the baby grows, they learn to climb, open things, turn the water and gas taps on, switch on light bulbs, and do a lot more. As such, you need to modify your home to make it safer for the little one. When the child gets older, you can teach them what is safe and what is not.

Read on to learn more.

Supervise Actively

If you do not install new features such as baby gates in your house to keep the baby safe, actively supervise to ensure that you know where the baby is at all times.

At the toddler stage, someone has to stay close and monitor everything the baby does. At this stage, babies want to be independent to crawl wherever they want. Besides keeping a keen eye on the baby, you need to create safe places for the baby. Start by arranging furniture and everything else in the house in a way that babies get enough space to play and crawl. Anything light enough for the baby to push should be secured with bolts.

Even when you are not near the baby, ensure that you listen to noises coming from the safe place you have created for them. You also need to anticipate the needs of your toddler to provide whatever they need whenever they need it. This way, you can also model the behavior of the toddlers.

Creating a Safe Environment

Are the gas and water taps too low that toddlers can reach them? Are there free-standing shelves and appliances that the baby can pull and cause injuries to themselves?

You can start by restricting hazardous rooms such as the kitchen, utility room, and the staircases using baby gates. These gates are easy to open and close for the adult, but they are challenging to open for the baby.

After creating a safe environment, regularly inspect the room to identify sharp edges on furniture and toys, loose pieces on toys, and anything else that can harm the baby. As the baby grows, they learn new skills, and this comes with new safety risks. The baby gates you used a few months ago might be ineffective as the baby jumps over them.

Use Safety Devices at Home

It is easy to modify your home, unlike when you bring your baby to work. Instead of using gas masks that protect from vertical impact and inhalation of gases, you can include safety devices such as alarms and water sprinklers.

One of the devices you need is use is a smoke and carbon monoxide detector. When properly installed, these detectors will help you identify risks before the baby is affected. With these devices, you need to follow the instructions from the manufacturer on where to place the devices.

Keep the Windows Safe

Furniture and toys should be kept away from windows. You will need to secure all hanging cords and chains from all window coverings to ensure that babies and children do not reach. Ensure that babies cannot reach windows, and if they do, the window should remain closed when the baby is in the house.

Keep Poisons and Chemicals Out of Reach of Children

At the early stage of development, toddlers take everything into their mouths. As such, you need to keep everything that can harm the baby out of their reach. Poisons, chemicals such as soaps and detergents, insecticides, and anything else poisonous for human consumption should be kept out of reach of children.

For starters, if you live in a rented house, talk to your landlord to find out if the room has lead paint. If you can, leave all furniture accessible to the baby as clean plain wood to ensure the baby does not ingest poison. Again, inspect indoor and outdoor environments for poisonous plants. Toys and all play materials should be toxic-free and without paint. Medications and anything else that can poison the baby should be locked away in a room.

Protect the Baby of Hot Water

Before you dip your baby in bathing water, check the temperature of the water using your elbow or the back of your hand. If you have a thermostat, you can set it at 120 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure it is just right for the baby. The skin of babies is soft and very sensitive; the skin will scald at temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Besides hot water, you need to keep hot foods and other hot liquids away from the reach of toddlers. Place hot foods and liquids on a counter taller than your baby. Ensure that cords to the microwave or appliances that might contain hot liquids or foods are not accessible to the baby. Handles to the pots should be turned inward to keep the baby safe.

Ensure they Do Not Drown

Pools, ponds, and lakes near your homes should either be restricted or covered. The swimming pool needs to be covered, ponds should be emptied of water, and if you live near a lake, construct a barrier to keep babies safe. In the house, ensure you do not leave water in buckets, and the bathtub is always empty of water.

If there is an area in your house where you always hold water that can be hazardous to the baby, ensure you restrict these areas with a self-latching gate. In case a child drowns, you need to resuscitate them using CPR.

Conclusion

At all times, you need to be ready for emergencies. Even after ensuring that your toddlers have everything they need, you still need to ensure that you are ready for anything that might happen. Keep emergency numbers handy. As the child grows, teach them not to climb on counters, not to turn on gas and water taps, not to chew everything they come across, and other simple safety tips.