Baby Proofing Basics. Vicki Lansky

to run the machine, so your child won’t have a chance to taste it. It’s harmful if eaten.

      

Whether your laundry appliances are in the kitchen or in a separate room, don’t let your child play in or on them.

      

Never leave an ironing board set up or folded up where a child might be able to pull it over.

       COUNTER TOPS, CUPBOARDS AND TABLES

      

Keep work surfaces as clear as possible so you can spot sharp or dangerous objects easily.

      

Don’t sit your baby on a counter where he or she can reach hot or dangerous items. When the baby’s in the highchair, keep hot foods near the center of a table or at the back of a counter where they can’t be reached.

      

Keep appliance cords short by using shorteners that either wrap or wind up. Be especially careful of cords around toasters and other appliances that heat. Cords can be damaged by excess heat.

      

Get in the habit of unplugging all counter top appliances after every use, in case your child manages to reach an “on” switch before you reach him or her. Put outlet covers on unused counter electrical sockets as an added precaution.

      

Get cabinet and drawer guard latches to keep all reachable cupboard doors and drawers off-limits to your baby. This may mean most of your cupboards. Remember that even such harmless-seeming items as toothpicks or bottle covers pose choking and other hazards to a baby or small child.

      

Look into the various kinds of latches available to find the ones most appropriate for your kitchen and best suited to your needs. Most must be installed with screws. Some plastic latches allow an adult to open a drawer wide enough to slip fingers in and release the safety hook from the latch by pressing down on it with one finger. Other latches slide through handles. The pressure needed to keep them closed can be managed by an adult but usually not by a child.

      

Don’t let latches become play items. Given enough time a toddler could learn to open them.

      

Store safe-to-play-with pots and pans or plastic containers in one lower cupboard. Let it be available for play, but be sure it’s as far as possible from the stove and the busiest area of the kitchen.

       GENERAL KITCHEN SAFETY RULES

      

Keep the kitchen trash container with its hazardous sharp, pointed and otherwise dangerous contents, locked up in a broom closet or under the sink. Consider buying a self-locking garbage can or a trash compactor with a key, which, as long as you keep it closed, keeps trash out of reach.

      

Keep all cleaning materials, pesticides and other dangerous substances locked up.

      

Avoid pinched fingers by removing a swinging door between kitchen and dining room. Or secure it in an open position with a hook-and-eye latch or a doorstop your child can’t remove.

      

Never leave an even partially-full bucket, especially in the five-gallon size, on the floor. A curious child might fall into the bucket head first and drown. Don’t feel that this advice is over-precautionary. There are documented cases of such drownings.

      

Use unbreakable dishes and glasses for a young child.

      

Keep a dishwasher latched shut at all times. Knives, glass and detergent-for-tasting are all hazards.

      

Keep pet bowls and dishes out of a child’s reach. A cat’s dish might be kept on a small table or counter not used for food preparation. A dog’s food and water might be put in an outdoor fenced-in area or in the basement or garage.

      

Keep your playpen, if you use one in the kitchen, at least two feet away from work tops and the stove.

      

Put your stepstool away when it’s not in use. It can give a toddler a boost to the dangers of stovetop or counters.

      

Don’t put small magnets on a refrigerator door where a toddler can reach them. Magnets are easy to choke on.

      

Clean up spills on the floor immediately so neither you nor your child will slip and fall. And don’t use a wax that makes your floor slippery.

      

Don’t ever hold your baby in your arms while you cook. The possibilities for disaster are multiple. In the same vein, never carry your baby and a cup of coffee or other hot liquid at the same time.

       KITCHEN STORAGE

      

Store all cleaning materials and other dangerous substances in their original containers. Never store them in familiar food containers such as milk or juice cartons, even though you are sure they are securely locked away where your child cannot get at them. (See last chapter for information on product poisoning.)

      

Keep plastic wrap and all sizes of plastic bags out of your child’s reach, especially garbage and dry cleaning bags. (This warning obviously includes bags stored in bedrooms, closets and the garage, or anywhere else.) When you dispose of plastic bags, tie them in knots. Then they cannot possibly be wrapped around a child’s face or inhaled to cause suffocation.

      

Remember to keep boxes of kitchen wraps out of your child’s reach. Their serrated cutting edges are as dangerous as your knives.

      

Keep all potentially dangerous kitchen utensils in securely latched drawers. Don’t forget such items as apple corers, eggbeaters, vegetable peelers and grape-fruit spoons.

      

Don’t store crackers, cookies or other goodies above the stove, tempting your child to attempt to climb there.