How to child proof door knobs

14 Home Safety Hacks to Babyproof Your Space

Save a ton of money with these clever DIY tricks that make your home safer for your child. Babyproof your cabinets, babyproof your fireplace, create an awesome DIY child-proof door knob, and more with these cheap and easy babyproofing hacks.

When to Start Babyproofing

JFGagnonPhotograhie via Pixabay

As your little one gets close to crawling, it's time to babyproof your home and other places they visit frequently, like grandparents' homes. To start, get on the floor and look at the surroundings from a baby's perspective. See what's tempting to grab and pull on, what's at eye level, and what could injure them. Then, put away fragile items, move cords, secure furniture that could fall over, and put padding on sharp edges.

Every few months, and when your child reaches a new milestone like walking, evaluate your home for additional babyproofing needs. As kids grow taller, the danger zones will change and likely increase. Try these budget-friendly safety tricks you can do yourself:

1. Secure stairways: The railings on staircases or landings on upper floors may look narrow, but they're big enough for kids' limbs (or heads!) to get stuck in. Secure clear plastic or fabric to railings to deter kids from playing on them.

2. Hide cleaning products: Plastic bins with lids and latches that baby can't open are a safer place for cleaning products than under your kitchen sink. If you can store them on a high shelf or out of sight in a tall cabinet, that's even better.

3. Corral cords: Cut a slit down an empty paper towel roll or piece of pipe insulation and thread multiple wires through it to keep them from becoming tangled in your tot's curious hands. You can also use zip ties to pull together cords and then tuck them far away from baby's reach.

4. Cover outlets: Put adhesive bandages or duct tape over electrical outlets if you don't have plastic covers (this trick also works great at hotels and other people's houses!). Avoid cartoon varieties of bandages that will attract little ones' attention.

Renee Servinsky of Sassy Wife/Classy Life

5. Block off the fireplace: Babyproof a fireplace without sacrificing aesthetics too much by covering the opening with a piece of magnetic chalkboard (we love the one above from Sassy Wife/Classy Life). The chalkboard blocks off the fireplace and give little ones a surface on which to draw with chalk and play with magnets (choose large magnets that don't pose a choking hazard).

6. Place dishtowels out of reach: Nix the dishtowel hanging off your oven door handle. Kids can pull down on it and open a hot oven or bonk themselves with the heavy door. Move towels to a higher shelf or put them on command hooks out of baby's reach.

7. Test choking hazards with a toilet paper tube: There's no need to purchase a choke tester. Anything that can fit into an empty toilet paper tube is small enough for your baby to choke on. Keep all those wee things out of reach.

8. Create a TP protector: Babies love to unroll toilet paper as much as pets do. Keep your TP intact and out of baby's hands and mouth with a two-liter soda bottle! Cut off the top and bottom of the bottle and cut a slit down the remaining center piece. Use tape to cover sharp, raw edges and slide the container over your toilet roll to cover it. See the tutorial at My Frugal Baby Tips.

Diana Mattoni of Red Delicious Life

9. Protect with pool noodles: These summertime staples can be used for everything from door stoppers to crib-rail covers that prevent tots from rolling out of bed. They're also good for wrapping around sharp edges, like around the fireplace, to minimize bumps and scrapes.

10. Pad corners with tennis balls: Tennis balls can soften sharp corners where a pool noodle doesn't fit. Cut a few small slices into the ball's core so you can wedge it over items like table corners. It may not look pretty, but this hack is pretty temporary. Before you know it, your toddler will be steady enough on their feet that you no longer feel the need to protect every corner in your home.

11. Shorten pull cords: Use clothespins or twist ties to shorten and hold up pull cords on curtains and blinds to remove this strangulation risk from your home. Command hooks are also handy for keeping cords out of reach.

12. Sock it to knobs: To keep little hands from turning door knobs, cover them with a spare sock and wrap a hair tie or rubber band around the base to hold the sock in place. An adult can still squeeze and turn the handle, but a child won't be able to.

Olivia Snyder of Snyders Tell All

13. Band together on horizontal cabinets: Attach hair ties or rubber bands to keep paired cabinet doors closed. Just loop the tie around the handles and your baby will only be able to open the doors a little bit, not wide enough to slip a hand through.

14. Get a handle on vertical drawers: Slide a yardstick or tension rod (or another long, thin object) through the handles of horizontally stacked drawers, rather than spending time and money on individual locks.

—Whitney C. Harris

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3 MORE Ways to Child Proof a Door Handle or Lever – GlideLok

Today, I’m going to share with you 3 MORE ways to child proof a door handle or lever. If you read my last blog, I shared 3 ways you could make your door handle – or lever – childproof. And today, I’ve got a few more.

Replace your door handle with door knobs

This will work for very young children, because doors with lever handles are the easiest kind to open. All the child has to do is pull the handle, and they’re off. If you have door knobs, on the other hand, it takes some serious dexterity to get them open.

Early toddlers probably can’t do it yet. So, if you have some knobs laying around, this may buy you some time. But ultimately, you’re still going to have to deal with a child who can open your door.

Get a child proof door lock that clips onto the door and locks the door in a slightly open position

This kind of child lock for doors doubles as a pinch guard because the door stays slightly open, allowing fresh air to circulate. You can place it at any height, so in theory, you could place it up high where kids are less likely to reach it.

My biggest issue with this solution is your door doesn’t completely close. There are times, like when a baby is napping in that room, where you probably don’t want the door open, even if it’s not open wide enough for your toddler to sneak through.

For me, the doors I wanted to keep my kids out of, I wanted to stay shut. Not a little open. Shut. That makes a big difference in terms of sound, and the fact that the child can see it’s slightly open just invites them to try to figure out how to get in. Versus, if the door stayed shut – out of sight, out of mind.

The other issue with this child lock for doors is you have to remove it from your door every time you open it. Yes, unlocking the device means actually taking it off your door, and then putting it back on again when you need to lock it. So for doors you come in and out of frequently, this would get extremely annoying.

OK, are you ready for the one that actually worked for me to child proof a door handle? Here we go. It’s called …

The GlideLok Top-of-Door Childproofing System to child proof a door handle or lever

This is the PERFECT option if you need to childproof any door handle in your house – including interior OR exterior doors.

It sits at the top of your door, so kids can’t reach it.
It’s made of a super durable metal instead of flimsy plastic like 99% of other child proof door locks.
And it operates easily from both sides of the door. That means you will never get trapped in a room because your child – or dog – accidentally engages the lock while you’re on the other side of the door. It happens – look it up.
It also stays attached to your door even when it’s unlocked, so you don’t have to set it up again and again like the other child lock for doors.

I love the GlideLok so much that my company, Millow Market, became its official online distributor. If it sounds like the GlideLok may be the right fit to childproof your doors, then I’d love for you to check it out today.

How to keep your baby safe at home - Child Development

Ordinary at first glance objects can pose a very serious danger to the baby.

As soon as a small child appears in the house, it is necessary to immediately pay attention to the situation and secure the surrounding area as much as possible. This applies to both your home and the homes of grandparents, where the child will spend a lot of time.

If you leave your child with a grandparent only from time to time, it is not worth doing a complete rearrangement in their home for the sake of the child's safety. Just make sure that they always have the necessary things (they can be put in a bag in advance and left with their parents until the right time).

We offer you a list of the most useful devices that will make your home, as well as the homes of relatives, safe for your baby:

Covers for door handles. To prevent the child from breaking fragile objects in the house, you need to close the doors to the rooms in which they are located, even if you and the baby came to visit for a very short time. Warn parents to close the doors to all rooms where the child is not allowed to enter. But if he can already open the doors himself, use plastic lining on the door handles. So all fragile things will remain safe. These pads should be in your home. Especially on the doors of the kitchen, bathroom, toilet - wherever the baby is denied access without your control.
Caps for electrical sockets. All young children are attracted to electrical sockets: they are at eye level and within reach of the child. To ensure the safety of the crumbs, always have a sufficient number of socket caps on hand. Use caps that the child cannot pull out, but if necessary, your parents can easily pull them out.
Locks for cabinets. Don't worry about the child throwing everything in the lockers - it is unlikely to cause much harm. But if we are talking about medicines, household chemicals or other toxic liquids, make sure that the child cannot get them. Use simple locks that are easy to install. Well suited, for example, latch locks. Lockers can be closed when the child is in the room, and kept open the rest of the time.
Safety barriers. If the grandparents live in a two-story private house, you will need a safety barrier to prevent the child from reaching the stairs. Choose sliding models so that they can be firmly fixed in the opening, and check that the barrier is wide enough.
Removable bumpers for table edge. Self-adhesive rubber bumpers for the edge of the table keep the child safe. But your parents are unlikely to want them permanently attached. Therefore, it is better to use removable models that are easy to remove and do not leave dirty sticky marks on the edges of the table.

When leaving a child with your parents and other relatives, inspect the home for anything that could be dangerous to him. Hide all the wires behind the furniture, tuck the edges of the tablecloth so that the child cannot pull it off the table. If the child stays overnight at the grandparents' house, make sure that his bed is at such a distance from the curtains and curtains that the baby cannot reach them.

Safety for children at home - how to protect your baby from injury

Child safety at home

Nothing is more important to parents than keeping their little ones safe. Our homes can be fraught with many hazards, from spilled chemicals, to electrical outlets and wires, or sharp corners on furniture. Find out how to keep your kids safe at home with our tips.

Look at your house through the eyes of a child - get on all fours and literally crawl around the apartment. This way you can notice threats to the safety of children at home that are not visible to an adult.

Removing obstacles

Young children are active and often run around the house without noticing the many obstacles in their path, partly because they have not yet learned to recognize the threats in their path, and also because they have not yet developed peripheral vision. Secure the apartment on their way to create a safe home for the kids.

Wrap sharp corners of furniture with a soft material such as foam rubber.
Use rubber caps on door handles.
Put all the shoes in the hallway in the closet.
Clean regularly and remove all small items from the floor that a child might trip over, including toys.

Be sure to secure all cupboards and shelving - children start climbing as soon as they start walking, so make sure shelves and cupboards don't tip over under the weight of a child if he decides to try climbing up.

Other child safety measures at home

However, the danger of being hit is not the only threat to the safety of children in the home. Be prepared for the fact that the young explorer of the world will actively show his curiosity, testing the strength of everything that is in the access zone.

Fit special fasteners on the doors of all cabinets - in the kitchen, in the bathroom and in the living room, so that the child cannot open them.
Make sure all cleaning products and any chemical products are in well-closed, secure containers and store them on the highest shelves.
Your child will probably want to help you with cooking - make sure that your child is not left unattended in the kitchen.
Secure all wires and keep small electrical appliances out of sight - pulling on the wire could cause your child to drop them.
The same goes for tablecloths - just remove them for a while for the safety of children while they are small.
Make sure that the bath mat is non-slip and wipe the floors dry so that the child does not slip.
Also pay special attention to cleaning to protect against infections of the baby, who often crawls on the floor. Wipe floors with cleaners like Glorix, and use effective antibacterial bath and toilet products like Domestos. Before using any new product, read the instructions carefully and test it on an inconspicuous area.
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