Creating a Safe Home For Your Little Ones To Grow Up In

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As soon as you become a parent, your child becomes the world to you. You want to provide the
absolute best for them and you want to protect them at all costs. It’s not all too surprising that we
tend to wrap them in cotton wool every single time we leave the house with them. There are so many
dangers and hazards outside that we really do need to keep a constant eye on them in order to ensure
that they don’t run into trouble. But it’s important to remember that there are a whole host of
potential dangers and hazards that exist within our own homes that we need to protect them from too!
Now, you can’t keep an eye on your child twenty four seven. You are bound to have to look away for
a few moments at some point or another - and anyone with young children will be able to tell you, it
only takes moments for them to explore and get themselves into a pickle. The good news is that your
home environment is a lot easier to monitor and regulate than the outside world. So, it just takes a
little planning, organisation, and safety checking to create a comfortable and safe home environment
for you and your little one to relax in. Here are a few areas that you might want to focus on to get the
ball rolling in the right direction!

The Whole Property

There are certain things that you need to do to protect your whole property and everyone inhabiting it
or spending time in it. These are rather broad sweeping, but they could be some of the most important
changes that you make to your home, so let’s start here. First of all, you should ensure that you have
smoke detectors with alarms on each floor of your property. Preferably, you would have one in each
room, but generally, one per floor should suffice (depending on the size of each floor of your home, of
course). Smoke detectors will be able to alert you to the presence of fire relatively quickly after it
establishes itself. This can give you the opportunity to evacuate yourself and your little ones from the
house if there is a fire present. You should also ensure that all walkways in your home and exits are
clear and unblocked. This will give you a clear and fast route out of your home if disaster strikes.
Another type of monitor that you should ensure your home is fitted with is a carbon monoxide monitor.
Carbon monoxide is often referred to as the “silent killer”, as it odourless, invisible, and extremely hard
to detect naturally. A carbon monoxide detector, however, will alert you to changes in the carbon
monoxide levels in your home and will set off an alarm should they rise dangerously high. Again, this
will provide you with the opportunity to evacuate your home and call for help if necessary.

The Kitchen

The kitchen can be a dangerous place for children - there are all sorts of dangerous objects in here
that you can’t necessarily get rid of, as they are essential for running your kitchen. So, try to keep your
kids out of this area, especially when you are cooking. Of course, they are still likely to wander in at
some point or another, so there are extra steps that you can take to remove a few dangers from their
reach. Store any dangerous equipment or utensils on the work surfaces that are high up and out of
your child’s reach. Place locks on cupboards at lower levels, so your child can’t get in and help
themselves to food - plastic wrappers can be a real hazard. Also make sure that there aren’t any
chairs or steps that your little one can use to climb up to the worksurfaces. If any of your appliances
have leads to plug into the wall, make sure that the leads are kept towards the back of worksurfaces,
so your child can’t pull at them and find a kettle or toaster falling down on them.

Your Backyard

If you have a backyard space, this is great for your children. It gives them a space where they can
explore and play outdoors. This exposes them to a whole host of new sensational experiences.
However, it can expose them to dangers too. You really do need to keep an eye on your backyard
and regularly check it for changes that could prove dangerous for your child before letting them out
to play each day. Start out by surveying the space. You want to keep an eye out for large or sharp
rocks that could have made their way into the grass. You will also want to keep an eye out for dead
animals - sometimes cats can drop prey that they have caught in your garden, or an animal could
have died naturally from disease while passing through. If you find anything, you can call
Pest Control to pick it up and remove it for you. Avoid using poisons and other forms of repellents to
keep wild animals from entering your garden - your little one could pick them up and consume them
yourself. Instead, simply make sure that there is no food in your backyard to draw animals in. Once
you have checked that all of the ground space is clear, you should turn to checking out your fences
and gates. You need to ensure that there aren’t any cracks or splinters that your little one could
catch themselves on, and you also need to ensure that there aren’t any gaps in the fences that are
small enough for them to crawl or squeeze through. This will help to secure the perimeters.

The Bathroom

Many parents tend to think that there isn’t a whole lot in the bathroom, so there isn’t much that can
harm their children in this space. But you still need to be vigilant. If you store medicine in the
bathroom, make sure that it is in a locked cabinet well out of the way of your children’s reach.
If you have razors, make sure that these are locked away too. The same goes for any toiletries
and products that your child might mistake for juice or something edible. You might also want to
invest in a non-slip mat to place inside the bath when your kids are bathing and a bath mat on the
floor for when they exit (allowing them to dry their feet as soon as they step out). This can reduce
the chances of slips and falls.

Their Bedroom

Kids rooms can get pretty messy at a pretty fast rate. Toys end up flung around the entire floor. But
encourage your children to clean up after themselves once they are done playing. Placing toys back
in their proper place can help to reduce the number of falls your kids have and it can significantly
reduce the amount of crying induced by accidentally standing on Lego bricks. Invest in some sort of
toy chest or other storage space, so your kids can easily toss all of their toys in with minimal fuss
and hassle.

There are always going to be potential dangers present anywhere that your child goes. But at least
you can monitor and minimise these dangers within your own four walls. So, implement some of the
above steps into your household regime in order to protect your children as best you can!