Baby proofing living rooms

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Baby proofing living rooms

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Childproofing the living room is a great investment for parents because that's where you spend the most time as a family. And I would recommend gating off the living room area so that your child doesn't have access to go down the hallway, either way you know your child is quardened off to one area. So to make this area safe, I would first off start with the fireplace. Fireplaces are very dangerous. There's a lit pilot of flame right there in the room and you don't want to give your child access to that. So putting up a heat-treated baby gate is a wonderful to solution to keep your child safe. Second, I would go to the coffee table. Most living areas have a glass or wooden coffee table. And we all know that child that has the scar on the eyebrow or on the chin, and it's always the culprit coffee table. So pas the edges of the coffee table or some parents opt to remove it completely and replace it with an ottoman, soft cushion. To make it functional, you can use a tray to serve drinks when your baby's not around. Third, I would move to electrical. Outlets all over the room need to be secured. You can use push plugs. I prefer the sliding outlet covers because those plugs can be pulled out in some of the older homes and they can become choking hazards. Also make sure that the cords that you have for any of the lights, coffee table lights, or perhaps over by the entertainment center are secured with a cord cover so that they're all gathered together. And then you can use a power strip cover to make sure that your baby can't get into any of the electrical hazards that are there in the entertainment center. Fourth, you need to look at tipping hazards in the room. Tipping hazards are any pieces of furniture, any accessory, any decor that can fall down on top of your child if your child is crawling up. We want to keep them safe and make sure that all those devices have been safely and properly anchored to the wall. And finally, the couch. How do you baby proof a couch? Well, think about it. If you sit down or your guests sit down, items, coins, gum, candy, anything can fall out of the pockets, get down in between those cushions. And I promise you, if it is there, your little one will find it. And you want to make sure that you find it first.

View Kimberlee Mitchell's video on Baby proofing living rooms...

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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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