What to Expect the First Year (87 page)

• Don't sit your baby on a countertop. Besides the potential for a tumble, those curious fingers could quickly end up reaching for something they shouldn't (like a knife or a toaster).

• To avoid spills that burn, don't carry your baby and a hot beverage or dish
at the same time. Be careful, too, not to leave a hot cup or dish at the edge of a table or counter, near your baby's high chair, or anyplace else where small hands can reach it.

• Keep garbage and recycling in tightly covered containers that your little one can't open and rummage through, or under the sink behind a securely latched door.

• Clean up all spills promptly—they make for slippery floors.

• Store kitchen detergents, scouring powder or soap pads, silver polish, and all other potentially toxic kitchen supplies out of your baby's reach.

• Don't store food and nonfood products (like cleaning products) together. It's too easy to confuse or inadvertently switch them.

• Don't leave a cleaning or utility bucket or other container of water standing around and within reach of your baby. A baby can drown in just a couple of inches of water.

The bathroom is full of fascination for a curious child, but it's also full of potential risk, which means your baby should always be closely supervised in it. One way to keep it off-limits is to put a hook and eye or other latch or lock high up on the bathroom door, and to keep it latched when not in use. But don't count on locks—inevitably, there will be times when the door is left open. Make your bathroom baby-safe, too, by taking the following precautions:

• If the tub isn't nonslip, apply nonslip decals or use a rubber bath mat.

• Use nonskid bath rugs on the floor to minimize falls and to cushion your baby when they do occur.

• Latch all bathroom drawers and cabinets. Among the many bathroom staples you should keep behind latched doors: medications (including over-the-counter or homeopathic ones), vitamins, mouthwash, toothpaste, hair products, skin care products, cosmetics, razors, scissors, tweezers, clippers, and bathroom cleaning products (including the toilet bowl brush and the plunger).

• Never use a hair dryer or other electrical appliance near your baby when he or she is in the bath or playing with water. Always unplug and safely store the hair dryer, curling iron, and other small electrical appliances when they're not being used. Keep in mind, too, that the cords themselves present a strangulation hazard. For optimum safety, put these appliances away promptly after using (and don't put them down for a moment when you're using them around your baby—or use them while you're holding baby).

• To prevent severe or lethal shocks, make sure all outlets in the bathroom (and kitchen) have code-mandated ground fault circuit interrupters (they'll have the little reset buttons).

• Keep the water temperature in your home set no higher than 120°F to help minimize accidental scalding. Young children have thin skin, so water at 140°F can give a child a third-degree burn—serious enough to require a skin graft—in just 3 seconds. If you can't adjust the heat setting (if you live in an apartment house, for example) install an anti-scald safety device (available from plumbing supply stores) in the tub, which will slow water to a trickle if it reaches a dangerously high temperature. For additional safety, always turn on the cold faucet before the hot and turn off the hot faucet before the cold. And routinely test bathwater temperature with your elbow or whole hand, swishing it around to make sure the temperature is even throughout, before putting your baby in. Or invest in a tub thermometer (sold with other baby bath supplies). If you're planning to install new bathroom faucets, a faucet with a single control is safer than separate hot and cold faucets.

• Consider a protective cover for the tub spout to prevent bumps or burns should a child fall against it.

• Never leave your baby in the tub unattended, even in a special tub seat (most aren't recommended, anyway, since kids can topple over in them). This rule should be strictly followed until your child is at least 5 years old.

• Never leave any amount of water in the tub when it's not in use. A small child at play can fall into the tub and drown in just a couple of inches of water.

• When the toilet isn't being used, keep the lid closed with suction cups or a safety latch made for this purpose. Again, just those couple of inches of water pose a drowning risk to a small child who topples in.

While your washer, dryer, detergent, stain remover, and other laundry products are indispensable when there's a baby in the house, they could be harmful in little hands. To reduce that risk:

• Limit access to the laundry room or area. If it has a separate door, keep it closed and latched. If not, secure the area with a gate, if possible.

• Keep the washer and dryer doors closed when you're not loading or unloading. If your machine gets very hot during use, make sure your baby can't touch it.

• Keep bleach, detergents, stain removers, dryer sheets, and other laundry products in a latched cabinet and store them promptly again after using. When containers are empty, rinse them thoroughly, then place them in a baby-inaccessible recycling or trash bin. Detergent and stain removing pods are especially appealing to little ones, and easy for them to pop into their mouths—make sure those are never within reach.

Most family garages (and greenhouses, workshops, sheds, and
hobby areas) are chock-full of toxic products, sharp objects, and other potential hazards:

• If your garage is attached to your house, keep the door between the two locked at all times. If the garage is separate, keep the garage door closed. And, keep any vehicles in the garage locked, too.

• If you have an automatic garage door, be sure that it's one that automatically reverses if it hits an obstacle (such as a small child). All automatic doors manufactured after 1982 are required to have this safeguard—if yours doesn't, get a retrofit kit to upgrade your door. Adding a resilient rubber strip along the bottom of the door offers additional protection because it has a cushioning effect. Check your garage door periodically by lowering it onto a heavy cardboard box or another expendable item to be sure the reverse feature is still operating. If it isn't, disconnect the opener until it's been repaired or replaced.

• Store paints, paint thinners, turpentine, pesticides, weed killers, fertilizer, antifreeze, windshield washer fluid, and other car-care products in an out-of-reach cabinet. All hazardous products should be stored in their original containers so that there is no mistaking their contents. Be sure the directions for their use and safety warnings are visible. If you aren't sure what's in a particular container, dispose of it as you would hazardous waste.

• As an extra precaution, don't let your baby loose in the garage (or a workshop or other dangerous space), even for a moment. Carry your baby to and from the car.

Though most injuries to infants occur in the home, serious ones can also occur in your own backyard, or someone else's, at the local playground, or on the street. Clearly, you can't babyproof the world (though there will be times when you'll wish you could), but you can easily prevent most outside-the-home accidents:

• Never let a baby play outdoors alone or snooze in a stroller or car seat outside alone.

• Check public play areas before letting your baby loose. Be alert for dog poop, broken glass, cigarette butts, and anything else baby shouldn't touch.

• Be sure that porch and deck railings are sturdy (check them regularly for deterioration or damage) and spaced so that young children can't stick their heads through or fall through the sides. Any outdoor area with a precipitous drop should be inaccessible to young children.

• Don't allow your baby to crawl around in deep grasses or anywhere poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac might lurk, or where he or she might sneak a snack on some poisonous plant. This is also the kind of locale where ticks may be biting (
click here
). Keep an eye on baby, too, when he or she is in the stroller or playing near flowers, leaves, shrubbery, or pine needles. Baby can easily grab a handful of leaves or petals and stuff them into his or her mouth (or get pricked by a pine needle).

• If you have a sandbox, keep it covered when it's not in use (to keep out animal droppings, leaves, blowing trash, and so on). If the sand gets wet, let it dry out in the sun before covering. When filling the sandbox, be sure to use play sand or ordinary beach sand. And always carefully supervise a baby in a sandbox, ending the play session if baby starts to sample the sand or throw it.

• If you have an outdoor fireplace, fire pit, or barbecue grill, make sure to keep your baby away from it while it's in use. The fire should be attended by an adult from the moment it's lit until it's been doused and is completely cool. With a charcoal grill, supervise until the coals, if any, have cooled and been disposed of (remember that coals that aren't doused with water stay hot for a long time after the fire itself is out). If you use a tabletop grill, be sure to set it on a stable surface that your baby can't reach or overturn. If you have a propane grill, make sure your child can't access the controls, gas tubing, or tank valve.

• In hot weather, always check metal parts on playground equipment, strollers and car seats, and outdoor furniture before letting your baby come in contact with them. Metal can get hot enough, especially in a scorching sun, to burn a young child severely with just a few seconds of contact. Blacktop or asphalt can also get hot in the sun, so don't let your baby crawl on it or toddle on it barefoot on very hot days.