Baby proofing bathrooms

Child Safety Expert Kimberlee Mitchell shares advice for parents on how to properly baby proof your bathroom in order to make it safe for your newborn
How to Baby Proof Your Bathrooms
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Baby proofing bathrooms

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Bathrooms are one of the most unsafe areas in the home and so I would implore with parents to make sure that that door is locked and that your baby has no access to that room unless supervised by you. That said, there are some easy ways to make the bathroom safe when you're in there with your child. First off, the toilet. That is very dangerous but a focal point for your child; they will just b-line to it. And little ones have been known to look into the bowl, and they're top-heavy, so they go in, but they don't know how to straighten back up and stand themselves up. So put a toilet lock on the toilet. While you're there, reach back and grab those two bolt covers on the back bottom side of the toilet. You might not even know that they're there until this moment. Remove them and put them under the sink and save them till later. They are choking hazards; they're the perfect size for your little one to slip it into their mouth and get stuck. I had a client who had a child who had their jaw stuck open with this in their mouth, so I implore with you to make sure you do that. Second, moving into the shower, the bathtub area. Make sure that your water heater is lowered to 120 degrees because you don't want to scald your child. They can turn on the bathtub while they're in there and scald themselves, or later when they go to wash their hands, you want to make sure that everything is safe while they're there. Moving over to the sink, that's where many, many hazards are. And I would say, first off medications are probably the most dangerous item second to the toilet. Medications need to be gathered up and put into a safe. There's a product called a media-safe that I really like. Put your meds in there and lock it up. Don't put them in the medicine cabinet because your child can climb up there. They get onto the toilet, onto the sink, they're amazing Macgyvers and they can get wherever they want. So make sure it is under lock and key. Then I would also take a look at the other items you have under your sink; beauty products, baby oil, toothpaste-- many people think is a benign product. But if your child consumes over a pea-sized amount, you need to call poison control. It says it right there on the tube. So make sure that your dangerous items are either moved out of that cabinet area, and if you can't do that, put on what are called magnetic locks which disallows your child to even open the cabinet a little bit. The trash can, the wastepaper basket, is also an area of much interest to your child. So either put it in a covered receptacle to slow down your child so you can get to them and say, "No no, that's yucky. Don't get into that." Or move it under the sink behind the lock.

Child Safety Expert Kimberlee Mitchell shares advice for parents on how to properly baby proof your bathroom in order to make it safe for your newborn

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Kimberlee Mitchell

Child Safety Expert

Kimberlee's callling is to be a wife and momma to two amazing kids. As a national child safety expert, in the unintentional child injury prevention industry, her mission is to educate parents as to how they can arm themselves with critical informaiton and the best practices to keep their children safe from needless serious injury. She hopes to help curb injury and death due to parents overlooking both common and hidden child safety hazzards in the home, yard, and car. The best protection is prevention....get ahead of the curve and childproof during pregnancy!

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