Those sleepless newborn days seem easy once you have an active, curious toddler roaming your house.

Toddler development milestones include a variety of motor skills, including walking, running a climbing. While it’s exciting to see your little one becoming more independent, it also means you have a lot more safety considerations now that your child can get into things.

Keep reading to learn toddler safety tips that can reduce your little one’s risk of serious injuries at home and out and about.

1. Childproof Your Home

As an adult, you can navigate your house without much danger. But curious toddlers who are becoming more mobile can access potentially harmful things without realizing how dangerous they are.

Use childproofing gadgets to make the home safer. Childproofing usually focuses on limiting access to dangerous areas, softening harder surfaces, and removing potentially dangerous items.

Child gates help keep your toddler out of certain rooms or away from stairs. For rooms with doors, doorknob covers can keep your toddler from opening the door.

Corner guards on coffee tables, fireplaces, and other hard, sharp objects can cut down on injuries. Toddlers are still gaining control over their motor skills, so falling into furniture is common. Softening those hard areas can help.

Using an adhesive mount cabinet lock on each cabinet keeps your toddler away from potentially dangerous items. Even things like pots or small kitchen appliances can be dangerous if they fall on your child, so it’s a good idea to secure all cabinets throughout your home.

Tipping furniture is another hazard with an average of 12,500 kids each year receiving treatment in the ER for injuries.

Anchor furniture, such as bookshelves, dressers, and TV stands, to the wall with brackets to protect your child from an accidental tip-over.

2. Use Proper Child Safety Seats

Your toddler should always be properly restrained in a car seat anytime you drive anywhere. Check the weight and height limits for the car seat to ensure your toddler fits within the guidelines.

The safest spot for your child is in the backseat. Keep your child rear-facing as long as possible based on height, weight, and car seat limits. Many car seats allow for toddlers to remain rear-facing up to age 3.

Rear-facing provides your toddler with the most protection in case of a car accident. Once your toddler reaches the maximum rear-facing weight on the child seat, you can switch to a front-facing car seat. Continue with the five-point harness system as long as possible based on the seat limits.

3. Practice Water Safety

It only takes 1 or 2 inches of water for a young child to drown, which makes any water, even bathtubs and baby pools, a risk. Drowning tops the list of injury death causes in kids ages 1 to 4.

Supervising your toddler at all times around water is the best way to prevent drowning. It’s also important to supervise your child when water is near, even if your child isn’t swimming. In kids 4 and under, 69% of drownings happen when kids have access to water during non-swimming times.

If you have a pool at your home, secure access to it with proper fencing. Limit access to other water, such as fountains and ponds.

Avoid leaving containers filled with water. Empty buckets, bowls, coolers, and other containers that might have water in them.

Never leave your toddler unattended in the bathtub or bathroom. Use doorknob covers to limit access to the bathroom.

When you spend time at the beach, lakes, or rivers, always use a life jacket on your toddler that’s properly sized…
 
Continue reading the article and learn more about kids safety on Daisy Linden’s blog.