Baby proofing kitchens

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Baby proofing kitchens

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Baby proofing the kitchen is a must and it will give you so much peace of mind as a mom because you're gonna be in there spending a lot of time preparing bottles and snacks and meals. So I would first off recommend choosing two options. During meal prep, have your child, your baby in a highchair so you know your baby's safe and they're not reaching and grabbing and getting into things or getting into harm's way as you're pulling that pasta bowl from the stove over to the sink. Or choose to gate off your kitchen, if you have that option; it's a wonderful one to keep your child out of this unsafe environment altogether. But just as long as you have sight, supervision over your child, you can see them on the other side of that gate, supervised. The first thing in a kitchen that is unsafe and really common to all kitchens are the appliances. You have the big appliances like the refrigerator and the dishwasher and the whole oven and stove range. I would recommend locking these with devices you can find at the different retail stores. Another thing with the oven and the stove is those ranges are actually not attached or anchored to the wall. So I'd make sure that you get a professional to go behind that range and anchor that, because if the stove door is open and the child is on top of it, the entire very heavy appliance can come down on your child. There are also some hazards in the kitchen that have nothing to do with appliances and they have everything to do with mommy. I call them human hazards. So as a new momma, you need to make sure that you make some changes. For example, cook on the back burners. Turn those handles in. You don't want little ones grabbing and coming by. Additionally, don't dry your dish towels on that outside handle of the oven. A lot of families do it; I see it all the time. Your little ones, as they're crawling around if you haven't gated off your kitchen, are crawling around, they see that dish towel, they pull down on it, and it comes down to the bridge of their nose and it can be a pretty nasty owie. I would also recommend to change your behaviors during meal prep. For example, you're slicing up whatever it is you're making for dinner, you're interrupted and goodness knows mommies are always interrupted. You need to make sure that this dangerous work area is left safe. If you have that gate, you could just close that behind you. If you don't, you need to make sure that you push everything back so the little ones that come along and they're reaching up can't pull that dish towel down; down comes the knife, down comes whatever it is you're cutting and it makes for a very unsafe environment. Also make sure that any of the coffee maker, rice cooker, or any of the other countertop appliances are pushed all the way back to the very, very back of the counter and all the cords are trained away, again, so the little ones can't grab them. I remember when my children, just moving their hands along the top of the counters just to find whatever they could find. So make sure that the kitchen is boring and they don't find any safety hazards. And lastly, you're going to need to latch all of your cabinets and your drawers in your kitchen, and you need to make sure that those chemicals under the sink are either moved to somewhere high and out of reach or that they are under lock and key or using a magnetic lock. Another tip, don't decorate the refrigerator with magnets. Magnets can be consumed and, I hate to say it but, lethal. Keep the fridge clean.

View Kimberlee Mitchell's video on Baby proofing kitchens...

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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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