Happy National Baby Safety Month!
Image Courtesy of Google.com
September is National Baby Safety Month sponsored by the JPMA (Juvenile Product Manufactures Association). During this month, manufacturers strive to put out information encouraging the safe use and selection of their products as well as to increase general awareness among consumers about infant safety. I feel that this is not only an important topic to talk about but one that should be more widely advertised. Did you know that it is baby safety month? September is also home to National Child Passenger Safety Week which is sponsored by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). You have likely heard more about THAT since car seat safety and guidelines so often makes the news and are often advertised by local police and fire departments. November, is technically CHILD Safety and Prevention Month but it encompasses many of the same ideas and information and (based on a Goggle search) doesn’t seem to be widely celebrated either! Perhaps there is less information about the November awareness month due to lack of an official sponsor? None the less, baby and child safety are equally important. To do my part, I’d like to share with you some info about my personal child proofing struggles, failures, and successes and some of the solutions that my husband and I have come up with.
When I think of “baby safety” the thing that frustrates me the most is that not every product on the market is actually “recommended” or even “safe.” Granted, those terms can be subjective but you have to be an educated consumer. For example, one of the things that my husband and I registered for (on our baby registry) and bought was seat protectors for our car. They were advertised as being designed to protect our car’s upholstery from damage from the car seat base and/or messes our child might make. We loved the idea and bought two but when we went to get our car seat installation checked at a local fire department, the car seat tech was horrified. He informed us that such “protectors” were completely unsafe and that they actually reduce the friction between the car and the car seat – making your installation less secure. Of course as expecting parents we were also horrified by this news and were glad that we found out before our son had arrived. We promptly took the seat protectors back to Babies R Us and when we explained to the staff our reason for the return, we were shocked to find out that they had a lot of that particular product returned for the exact same reason! It made us wonder why they even sold them if 1) they aren’t safe and/or recommended by car seat safety techs and 2) so many of them are returned! What if we had trusted that we could install the seat ourselves and never found out that we weren’t supposed to use the seat protectors? On this note I also want to mention that Babies R Us’s “car seat expert” actually told me that a car seat could be reclined to any setting based on if we wanted our child to lay back and sleep or sit up and be awake. Please know that this is completely incorrect information! The recline settings on your car seat need to be set to a particular spot for safe installation. Please read the manual carefully or see a certified car seat tech to find out what setting this is for your particular car and car seat. I was appalled that the supposed “expert” at Babies R Us was giving out this terrible advice. All of this said, if you do use a seat protector please don’t feel judged. Each person needs to make decisions for their own child and I’m guilty of doing a number of things myself that would make others cringe. My point is that you have to be an educated consumer and don’t be afraid to stick to your guns. YOU get to make the decisions for your child – no one else. Please read and do your own research before you just buy a product or just an expert in a store who may not really be an expert at all. My own parents call me “Ms. Safety” and think that I go over the top but to me, it’s just being the best parent that I can be.
The other product that I routinely see people register for is crib bumpers and baby stores always have them displayed on their cribs with elaborate crib sets. They look beautiful on the cribs and I admit that they were enticing. The also seem like a good idea in that they are meant to protect your child from banging his or her head against the crib rails. However, bumpers are actually highly recommended AGAINST! In fact, when my husband and I went to Babies R Us to start our registry we attended a short “registry orientation class” and one of the first things they told us was not to register for bumpers. But, of course they were on the store’s registry suggestion list and they were sold and displayed on the store cribs. Why do stores do that? The staff and the store literally contradicted the materials that they handed us (with the store’s logo on it) and what the store was advertising. We did not register for the bumpers but I did find at a few months old, my son would routinely get his legs stuck between the slats of the crib. He would get really upset and struggle to get them unstuck. It got to the point that I was worried that he would actually break a leg so I started researching options. That was when I discovered mesh crib bumpers and according to the research that I did, mesh bumpers are a better option although still not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics due to not enough research on them yet. As with regular bumpers, there is a potential suffocation risk but mesh bumpers allow airflow and therefore, in theory, would allow an infant to breathe through them in the event that his or her face was pressed up against it unlike regular bumpers. Nonetheless I also know people who used regular crib bumpers, loved them, and never had an issue – so I’m not saying that you are a bad parent if you use them. I chose to use the mesh bumpers and I know people who thought I was endangering my child by using them but for us it was the right choice. My point here is that there are alternative options and it’s important to do your own research because stores often send mixed messages.
Mesh Bumper: Image Courtesy of Target.com
One thing that never changes (no matter what the so called experts say) is that babies grow into curious toddlers – and toddlers are good at getting into things that they really shouldn’t. My child in particular seems to be particularly obsessed with hazards. Much to my horror he literally loves exploring outlets and enjoys pulling cords. I’ve actually caught him prying my outlet covers out of the outlets and attempting to outsmart my attempts to childproof our house. When my son became mobile, my husband diligently nailed down some speaker wire, he had hooked up, to our baseboards with wire tacks. To our dismay, our son still noticed it and got his little fingers under one little section. He gave it one hard pull and the tacks and nails when flying – not exactly child friendly! We couldn’t believe it. After some research and some serious brainstorming, we invested some time and money into some “wire molds.” Basically this genius product is plastic tubing channels that you can run wires though and then secure to the wall. My son occasionally manages to take the corner covers off but for the most part this product has hidden (and protected) our wires from curious hands and made our home more attractive. I highly recommend them. I also ended up needing to buy covers that completely cover my outlets rather than plugs that just plug into the outlet holes. So far so good!
Wire mold: Image Courtesy of Homedepot.com
Childproofing our drawers and cabinets also became a challenge and to be honest, some were literally unable to be locked. For example, my sons’ dresser is built in a way that I cannot attach a child lock which is a major bummer considering that his new favorite game is to take all of his clothes out of it. But, at least we were able to lock areas with really hazardous stuff –like the bathroom drawers. We choose to use stick on magnetic locks (that don’t cause any permanent damage to the wood itself and have been happy with them for the most part. We also invested in child-proof door knob covers and pinch protectors because my son loves to slam doors. Do you have a child like this?
Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
I think the key to child proofing is to know what kind of child that you have and to “child-proof” to their needs. Is your child a climber? A cord puller? An outlet licker? (Just kidding on that last one… I hope!) My point is that sometimes child-proofing takes several tries. I know that we are on our fourth or fifth try and we need to keep adapting our methods and our expectations as our son grows and figures out our latest solution.
Regardless of what kind of child you have though I’d also like to recommend that you secure any heavy items like dressers, televisions, bookcases, etc. to the wall. It may seem unnecessary to some but there have been so many news stories about children being crushed and I personally would rather be safe than sorry. We bought some strong generic furniture straps on Amazon and have been very happy with them. You can find the link here but I’m sure there are many others that are great.
Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
This month I ask that you take a few minutes to think about YOUR child’s safety. Do you have concerns about your child’s bedding? Are you worried about what they might get into? If you have concerns take a few minutes (or days depending on the issue) and see if you can brainstorm some solutions. Stuck? Reach out to a mommy board and ask! Or better yet post here and see if any moms have any solutions for you. After all, many heads are better than one right? Please share your ideas and successes so that others can benefit. You might just save a child’s life and a parent’s peace of mind. Need some ideas of other great products to add to your registry? Check out my past blog post about things to register for here. Happy safety month!