Making Your House Safe For Exploration

November 22, 2009

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Making Your House Safe For Exploration

by Dr. Benjamin Spock
reviewed and revised by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P.

When I tell parents that their toddler has outgrown the playpen or the crib and that they ought to let her on the floor, they are apt to look unhappy and say, "But I'm afraid she'll hurt herself. At the least, she'll wreck the house." Sooner or later she must be let out to roam around, if not at ten months, at least by fifteen months, when she's walking. And she's not going to be any more reasonable or easier to control then. At whatever age you give her the freedom of the house, you will have to make adjustments, so it's better to do it when she is ready.

How do you keep a year-old baby from hurting herself or the household furnishings, anyway? First of all, you can arrange the rooms where she'll be so that she's allowed to play with most of the things she can reach. Then you'll rarely have to tell her she can't play with something. Whereas, if you forbid her to touch most of the reachable objects, you will drive her and yourself mad. If there are plenty of things she can do, she's not going to bother so much about the things she can't do.

Practically, ways of arranging your house include:
Put child safety locks on cabinets and toilet seats, gates at the stairs, outlet covers in all unused outlets, and furniture in front of electrical cords.

Get all potentially poisonous or dangerous cleaning agents, tools, etc. out of reach and into high, preferably locked cabinets.
Take breakable ashtrays and vases and ornaments off low tables and shelves and putting them out of reach.
Take the valuable books off the lower shelves of the bookcases and putting the old magazines there instead.
Jam the good books in tight so that she can't pull them out.
In the kitchen, put the pots and pans and wooden spoons on the shelves near the floor and put the china and packages of food out of reach. Remember that food graters and plastic wrap or tin foil boxes can cut exploring fingers.
Fill a lower bureau drawer with old clothes, toys, and other interesting objects and let the baby explore it, empty it, and fill it to her heart's content.


RELATED INFORMATION

			Safety: Household

Adapted from Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care
Reviewed and revised June 30, 2000

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