As your toddler becomes more mobile and more curious, everyday items around your home can soon turn into hazards you hadn’t previously considered. From sharp corners on living room furniture to that cupboard full of cleaning products under the sink, child-proofing your home is an essential step in keeping your little one safe as they start to explore. Here are a few ways to get started.

Safety catches
Keeping cupboards and drawers securely closed isn’t just about access to harmful chemicals. From kitchen knives and electrical items, to glass bowls and even heavy boxes of food, our kitchens can pose many risks to our children. Using safety catches on floor-level or reachable cabinets takes away their access to these dangerous items. Don’t forget about your appliances – add catches to ovens, fridges, freezers, washing machines and dryers, too.

To satisfy their inevitable curiosity, you might consider leaving one cupboard unlatched and filling it with safe items like empty containers or non-breakable plates and bowls.

Furniture
As they start to find their feet, toddlers will pull themselves up on furniture, so it’s important to make sure any free-standing items are secured to the wall or floor so they don’t fall on your child. You can buy anti-tip brackets and strips in DIY stores.
It’s also highly likely that your child will start to bump their head on the corners of tables, so cushioning them with corner guards can help to reduce accidents.

Baby gates
You should block off access to stairs at the top and bottom – and any other areas of the house you don’t want your child to access unsupervised – using baby gates, until your child can confidently walk up and down stairs without help.

It’s also a good idea to install a bannister guard if the gaps in your bannister are more than a couple of inches wide. This can help to avoid any limbs getting stuck, or little bodies squeezing through the gaps.

Plug sockets and cables
The latest advice around plug sockets is simply to leave them alone. Once a staple device in most homes, it’s now been found that plug protectors can actually increase the risk of electric shocks and fire hazards, as they override the built-in safety features of UK sockets. Keep the sockets switched off when not in use, cover with large furniture if you’re concerned, and as soon as your child can understand, teach them to leave sockets alone.

Cables can give electric shocks and they are also a strangulation hazard, so make sure you tie them up and hide them out of reach.

Windows
Window restrictors attach onto a window frame and limit how widely you can open them – enough for ventilation, but not enough for little ones to climb through. If you need window coverings like blinds, try to opt for cordless ones or use wind-ups to tie up cords and reduce the risk of strangulation.

The general guideline is that if your toddler can reach it, bump into it or fall from it, you should consider how you can baby-proof it. Whilst this isn’t an exhaustive list of the potential risks you may have in your home, hopefully it will get you on the right track and help to avoid any accidents.