Where to Put Child Safety Locks: 10 Places You Will Need Them
If you’re expecting a child or have a baby who’s about to start crawling, child safety locks are essential. Here are the 10 places to put them.
Looking at your tiny, helpless newborn baby, it’s hard to imagine them crawling around and causing mischief. But as soon as babies become mobile, they’re keen to explore their surroundings. And that means putting their tiny hands wherever they can, and especially where they’re not supposed to.
From trash cans to medicine cabinets, nothing will be out of bounds for your baby, unless you act first and child-proof your home. Following advice about where to put child safety locks will help protect your baby from becoming one of the 800,000 children rushed to the ER every year because of non-fatal poisonings. It will also help avoid spills and breakages, as well as the injuries they can cause.
But where should you install child safety locks? Keep reading to find out the ten places you’ll need them.
1. Medicine Cabinets
You’ll need to take factors such as style, budget, and your child’s age into account when choosing child safety locks. But above all, you’ll want to make sure the locks you choose are effective at stopping your child from getting into dangerous places, like your medicine cabinet.
Prescription medications, vitamins, and over-the-counter pills can look like candy to your baby so it’s vital to keep them locked away with one of the strongest child safety cabinet locks possible. You should also make sure to keep all the safety caps on your bottles of medications within the cabinet in case your child somehow gets in there. While these caps aren’t impossible for a determined child to open, they will at least slow them down and buy you some time to grab the bottle from their hands.
2. Cleaning Product Storage
You should also install safety first child locks on cabinets and cupboards containing household cleaning products such as bleach, dishwasher detergent tabs, and kitchen cleaners.
The bright bottles, small packets, and spray nozzles of cleaning products are fascinating for babies and toddlers. And, while they might not be able to break into them, chewing on a nozzle or lid could cause them to ingest enough of the product to cause harm.
3. Personal Hygiene Cabinets
The personal hygiene products you keep in your bathroom can also be dangerous for small children. Items like nail polish remover and hair dye contain toxic substances that can cause accidental poisoning if ingested. Plus, the glass bottles of premium skincare products and perfumes are easy for your child to break and cut themselves with. Make sure to keep these products out of your child’s reach with child safety cabinet locks.
4. The Oven
While keeping cleaning supplies and medications locked away might seem obvious, you might not have realized that your oven will need a lock too. After all, child safety door locks don’t just keep children from taking items out of drawers and cabinets, they also keep children from getting into dangerous places.
A toddler could use the oven handle to pull themselves up or open the oven door if they’re strong enough. Even if this wasn’t their intention, their curiosity may lead them to crawl inside to investigate, and possibly when the oven is on. Placing a safety lock on your oven will help avoid your child burning themselves while your back is turned.
5. Kitchen Drawers
We’re often distracted when we’re in the kitchen doing things like cooking. But, since babies and toddlers like to follow us around, there’s a good chance they’ll be in there with you whenever possible.
As such, placing child safety door locks on the kitchen drawers can stop your child from getting into trouble if you’re busy. Ideally, you should move sharp objects like knives and scissors to higher drawers. You should also keep plastic bags away from children as they can pose a suffocation risk. Although, if that’s not possible, or your child is tall enough to reach even the highest drawers, safety fist child locks will keep their hands out.
6. Small-Object Storage Areas
We can often forget about the drawers and cabinets in other rooms of the house. But these can often contain small items that may pose a choking hazard for small children.
Placing child safety cabinet locks wherever you store small items such as batteries, buttons, coins, and paperclips will help avoid the possibility of your toddler putting these items in their mouth.
7. Liquor Cabinets
A curious child might mistake colorful liqueurs for sodas or fruit juices and drink some. Since alcohol can be poisonous to small children, it’s important to keep your liquor supply locked away with child safety cabinet locks to stop this from happening.
8. The Toilet Seat
There’s nowhere an inquisitive child won’t put their hands, including down the toilet. Although the real danger here is the possible drowning hazard if a baby were to fall in headfirst. Since babies can drown in only a few inches of water, safety first child locks that keep the toilet lid shut are a must.
9. The Trash Can
If the trash can in your kitchen sits on the floor it’s likely within your child’s reach. As well as being tempting for a curious toddler, the spoiled food, plastic bags, and sharp objects all pose a threat to your child’s health and safety. If it’s not possible to move your trash can to a locked cupboard, placing a lock on the lid will help keep your child from getting into the trash.
10. Sliding Doors and Windows
While door handles might still be out of your child’s reach, sliding doors and windows can be easy for them to open with a push. If your home’s sliding doors open out onto a balcony or a yard with a pool, installing sliding door child safety locks will help keep your children from wandering into these potentially dangerous areas.
Likewise, adding child safety window locks to windows above pieces of furniture will help avoid the possibility of them climbing on top of a table or bed and falling out of an open window.
Where to Put Child Safety Locks
As this guide shows, you’ll need to think like a curious toddler to work out where to put child safety locks around your home.
By considering the cabinets, drawers, and other areas within your child’s reach as well as the household items that might catch their eye, it’s much easier for you to protect them. And, with the help of child safety door locks, you’ll ensure that accidental poisoning, choking, drowning, burns, and other household accidents are far less likely to happen in your home,
For more parenting tips and lifestyle advice, be sure to check out our other blog posts.
