Every baby is curious – and as soon as the offspring can crawl or even walk, they make their surroundings unsafe. Cupboards , shelves and chests of drawers can then become climbing frames – and thus also real dangers. To avoid accidents and injuries, you should make your home safe for children. No problem with our checklists! Also see wall clock for kids.
Basics for a childproof apartment
Most accidents involving children do not happen on the road, as many believe, but at home. Adults often find this difficult to understand because they have a completely different perspective than children and babies. The best way to make your apartment childproof is to move through your home like a child. Kneel or lie on the floor and ask yourself: what is within reach? What looks interesting? Where are possible sources of danger?
Your checklist for more security at home
By taking the child’s perspective, you can get a good first impression of how to childproof your home. The following checklist will also help you:
- Install smoke detectors: This is not only about the safety of your children, but that of all family members. Smoke detectors should ideally be in every room – with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom.
- Safe cables: To make your home childproof, you should lay all cables in such a way that your child cannot reach them. You can route them under the ceiling and around door frames using cable clips, or simply hide them behind furniture.
- Secure sockets:Without exception, all sockets should be provided with a child safety device. If possible, always unplug the device when you are not using it.
- Pinch protection for doors: Pinch protection prevents your child from getting their fingers caught in the door. Corresponding protection is also available for heavy cupboard or sliding doors .
- Secure stairs: A baby gate ensures that your child cannot fall down or climb the stairs at an unobserved moment.
In the next step, you should also make your furniture childproof so that accidents do not occur here.
Make furniture childproof in five steps
Furniture also holds unexpected dangers, because children like to think of it as a climbing frame and want to discover everything. When buying shelves and cupboards, pay attention to child safety – especially in the children’s room, only stable, durable furniture should be available, which can also withstand a lot of weight and cannot tip over so easily. With the following checklist, you can not only childproof your home, but also your furniture:
- Always fix furniture to the wall with an anti-tilt device:This way your furniture cannot tip over if your child climbs on it. Anti-tilt devices such as angles are supplied with almost all furniture and attached to the wall and furniture. You can also buy them later at the hardware store.
- Remove the bottom shelves from the shelf: This prevents your child from using the shelf as a ladder. With many pieces of furniture, you can move the shelves flexibly. In addition, only buy particularly stable furniture for the children’s room to make your apartment really child-proof.
- Secure drawers with locks:The drawers can then no longer slip out and children’s hands cannot be crushed. In addition, the contents of the drawers remain where they should be. There are even invisible variants that are attached inside the drawer – this way your furniture stays beautiful and you can easily remove the security later.
- Attach felt, plastic, or foam caps to edges and corners: Protected edges and corners are essential if you want to childproof your furniture. Otherwise, children may hit their heads and injure themselves. A transparent edge protection made of plastic is hardly noticeable. In the children’s room, however, colorful, eye-catching caps are also welcome.
- Keep favorite toys within reach:Don’t store your child’s current favorite at the top of the shelf – otherwise they might try to reach it by climbing. Heavy toys belong at the bottom so they don’t fall on your child’s head.
More tips to make your home childproof
If you have worked through the tips above, a large part is already done. Now it’s about how you can childproof certain rooms in your home.
- Kitchen:Secure the stove with a stove guard to protect your child from burns. Special clamps prevent children from turning on the hotplates. The oven door can be secured with an oven lock, the same goes for the dishwasher. Overall, you should stow large and heavy things (e.g. saucepans) and knives out of reach and set up a cupboard with “toys” within reach for your child – such as plastic cans or wooden cookware.
- Bathroom: Here the main sources of danger are slippery tiles and poorly stored cleaning supplies. Lay out non-slip mats and make sure that all cleaning products, shampoos, nail polish, aftershave etc. are out of reach – for example in lockable ones bathroom furniture – are.
- Living room: There are usually several electronic devices in the living room. Once you have childproofed all the cables in your apartment, the most important thing is that nothing gets broken: Don’t just place the TV on a sideboard, but mount it on the wall or choose custom -made TV furniture of sufficient height. Plants in ceramic pots are also a typical source of danger in the living room.
One piece of advice at the end: You can never childproof an apartment so that nothing can happen. You should therefore always watch out for your child and say no if, for example, your child pulls on a locked drawer or reaches into a socket, even if it is secured. There may not be a fuse in the home of relatives or friends. Therefore, children should learn to recognize dangers and protect themselves as early as possible.
