Safety Station: Babyproofing Without Breaking the Bank

Have you got a baby on the way and want to get a head start on child safety? Or maybe your babe has just gotten mobile, prompting you to do a last-minute trip to the store for a gate? Here are some ideas to help you babyproof your home without breaking the bank.

Find Danger Zones

To learn some facts and useful information about childproofing your home, try the a Safety Quiz on the BC Children’s Hospital website. There are lots of obvious hazards that are easy to spot — stairs, stove, electrical outlets, power tools, knife drawer — this is a snap, right? But there are a lot of potential hazards you might not think about until disaster strikes, when your attention is elsewhere for a few seconds.

To find potential sources of danger, see things through your baby’s eyes: try getting on your hands and knees, then crawling around your house. Or invite a friend’s toddler to come over and follow them around. Undoubtedly, the little tyke will point out many things you hadn’t thought to babyproof. Make a list of the spots you need to change.

Cheap-to-Free Safety Solutions

Once you’ve identified danger zones, look at your list and think about ways to fix each one. Not every issue requires an expensive product to ‘fix’ it. Take stock of your toxic cleaning products: do you really need them? Many cleaning jobs can be done with non-toxic products like baking soda, vinegar and dish soap. The ones you can’t do without can be moved to a secure place well out of baby’s reach.

Rather than buying dozens of baby latches for each cupboard in your kitchen, try rearranging what’s inside. Leave a few doors un-babyproofed and store your plastic containers, pots and pans in those ones, so your little one can drag them out for easy entertainment. You may not need to buy a hundred outlet covers if you rearrange your furniture a little. To keep long cords (on blinds and curtains) out of baby’s reach, try a binder clip to keep them up high. If you have doors without latches, like sliding doors, bi-fold closet doors, or cabinets, you can install a simple screw eye and hook at a height easy for the big people in the house to reach, but impossible for little ones to open. Barrel bolt latches are also handy for keeping doors closed when you need something a little sturdier than the screw eye and hook.

If you need quite a few gates in your home, you can build your own basic ‘guillotine’ style ones, with a plywood piece that slides into well-secured tracks on either side of the doorway. If you’re a little more handy, plywood, two-by-fours, a barrel bolt latch and some door hinges can make a sturdy gate for your deck or the top of stairs. Safety doesn’t have to cost a lot.

For the Gadgets

BC Children’s Hospital gift shop is home to the Safety Station, a great place to pick up gadgets that will help keep your little ones safe. You can find baby gates, a number of solutions for covering electrical outlets and cords, catches for drawers, doors and many more useful items. Don’t let the phrase gift shop make you think this is an expensive place to shop — they have very good prices on the items they sell. The shop is open until 7:00pm weekdays, but if you need advice, the Safety Station experts are there 9:00am to 3:30pm Tuesday through Friday, and 10:00am to 4:00pm Saturday.

Got any other creative solutions for child safety on a budget? Leave us a comment and tell us about them!