Provide Your Baby With A Healthier Environment

Green Birthdays
A new booklet from the ACNM and Health Care Without Harm contains important information about the environmental safety of the birth place and practical steps to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals. Click here to download this booklet (424k, PDF).

Baby Proofing Your Home
Baby-proofing your house isn't, as it may sound, converting your suburban home into a monastery and declaring vows of celibacy in each of the rooms. Nor is it your goal to protect it from the ravages of infants. It is, however, ensuring your newborn is safe inside her first home. Of course, before your baby even sets foot (and hands) in the house, she will be inside an automobile. So don't forget to purchase a car seat for your newborn.

• Purchase a toilet lock to prevent accidental drowning.
• Secure a soft cover around the bathtub faucet (ours was shaped like an elephant).
• Lock all cabinets containing medicines, cleaning supplies or sharp objects. Better yet, move cleaning supplies to a higher cabinet and put baby-safe items down low.
• Secure pens, scissors, letter openers, staplers, paper clips, and other sharp items in latched drawers.
• Always keep poisonous items in their original containers to avoid improper use.
• Install guards for your stove knobs or the stove front.
• Remove refrigerator magnets.
• Never dispose of hazardous items (plastic bags, matches, razors, poisons of any kind) in a bin accessible to babies and toddlers.
• Set your water-heater temperature to 120º Fahrenheit.
• Use a rubber bath mat or other slip-resistant surface in the bottom of the bath tub.
• Install a latch on the outside of the bathroom door to prevent unsupervised entrance.
• Use door stops to prevent doors slamming on your baby.
• Put sleeves on doorknobs to bar toddlers from dangerous areas, and be sure to use window and door locks.
• Test all painted surfaces for lead, especially in houses built prior to 1978.
• If you have a porcelain, cast-iron, or steel tub, test it for lead.
• Keep blind and drapery cords out of baby's reach. These are responsible for many injuries and even strangulation.
• Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors on each floor of your house.
• Put automatic night lights in strategic places in your home.
• Place non-skid mats under slippery area rugs.
• Install gates (mesh, not accordion style) at the top and bottom of staircases.
• Enclose open deck railings with wire mesh, and use at least four-foot fencing around swimming areas.
• Tie canvas or acrylic panels along open balusters.
• Cover the sharp edges and corners of furniture with cushioned guards.
• Eliminate long electrical cords by keeping them behind heavy furniture, or using outlet strips to consolidate cords.
• Keep appliance cords well away from the edges of kitchen or bathroom counters.
• Place covers on all electrical outlets to prevent electric shock.

Don't use baby walkers. Walkers do not speed up the timetable for walking; in fact, they seem to delay that first step by a few weeks. Many experts consider the walker to be one of the most dangerous inventions ever made for children; at one time, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended banning their manufacture and sale. Although this ban never came to pass, parents should certainly think twice.

Remember, your baby is curious and always learning new things. So while you're keeping dangers at bay, why not make baby-safe items readily available?

How about stocking low kitchen cabinets with things your baby might love to explore? You'll be flabbergasted at how quickly an 8-month-old can unpack an entire cupboard.

*taken from "Safety First," by Tessa Souter, Every Baby magazine, Issue Four.