Danger Zone

A friend of mine asked about some tips on babyproofing the home. I was too lazy to do that earlier and had some accidents happen to my baby before I got a move on. Once baby starts crawling, mommy has to make sure the house is danger-free. The key thing is to think of all of the things baby can see at eye level and that there is nothing around that would cause accidents. If in doubt, why not try crawl around the house to be sure? Could be fun! It's important that all rooms in the house are babyproofed, from the kitchen (most accidents happen there), bathroom, bedroom and living room. Or if you have a mansion, that includes the library, veranda and gym. To make your life easier, I came up with a list of safety precautions you can follow.

1. Since babies has the habit of putting things in their mouth, there should be no pins, buttons, coins, scissors, nail clippers, knives etc. lying around.
2. Keep baby away from plants and flowers that could be poisonous. My daughter loved digging her hands into the soil of our indoor plant so I had to transfer this to our balcony.
3. If you like your liquor, keep it is in a safe place or better yet, leave it in a cellar. We don't want baby to start drinking at this age.
4. My baby loved touching sockets. Babiew are just curious about those lil holes and could get into a lot of trouble! Make sure to cover these sockets so no one gets "shocked" later on. Purchase some socketcovers at Mothercare or Toys R Us.

5. As much as possible, don't let baby into the kitchen. He or she can get burnt really bad by hot water or worse, the stove. This happened to me when I was a baby and had to be brought to the hospital. Thank God there were no scars from that incident!

6. Some homes have lil gates by the kitchen door that are for sale at Toys R Us, Bumps to Babes or any babystore. These gates also can be used if your house has stairs or other areas you don't want baby to enter.

7. Keep bathroom doors closed so baby does not play with the toilet seat or get into the bathtub on her own.

8. As for doors, my neighboor uses door stoppers so that her child does not hurt her fingers. My baby's fingers were stuck once and her grandma freaked out after seeing them a bit deformed. Good thing they are back in shape now!

9. Keep windows closed so baby does not fall from them. Or if you have a balcony like us, make sure she does not go there by keeping sliding doors closed at all times.
10. Some moms put cushions around sharp edges of the table to make sure lil baby's eyes or other parts of the face doesn't get poked! Since you don't want any your narra furniture ruined by newspapers or ugly foams. Mothercare sells these transparent protectors (they kind of remind me of those gel retainers... eeks!).

11. I saw my baby playing with the washing machine door once and put her head inside it. Just be safe and not let baby near this as you don't want to see him or her in the wash later on...
12. Store all medicines, paint, gasoline, lighters, fertilizers, charcoal in the right place.
13. All bookshelves, paintings and mirrors should be secure on the wall so you don't see them falling on your baby one day.
14. My daughter's fave thing to do is press the buttons on the TV and DVD players. One of the video shops I rent from charged me HKD150 for the scratches on the DVD after my baby played with them. Not good!

A friend of mine went to first-aid classes so that she is prepared for any emergency! I guess I'd just have to call her if anything happened to me or my baby. If you don't feel like attending one, make sure you have all the emergency numbers saved on speed dial instead. I'm crossing my fingers that you don't need to use them anytime soon! Good luck!