Having a baby walking in the home is an exciting experience – for you and the baby. Once your baby reaches the point of stepping out on his/her own, life will never be the same. While walking is a joyous time, a phase of your baby’s life when he/she explores and learns, it can also be a dangerous time. Walking provides your child with freedom to go where he or she wants so now you need to step in to make sure the home environment is safe.
Creating a safe, secure environment will keep your child protected while allowing him/her the opportunity to enjoy walking. After all, you want the experience to be a positive one, not a time of bad memories. When your child first begins to walk, only a few steps will be taken. Therefore, as long as any sharp furniture is out of the way or covered up, as well as toys or other obstacles on the floor picked up, he/she will do fine. However, as the one to three steps become five, six, seven, or more, major changes are required.
I remember shortly after my own son started walking. I was such a proud mother, feeling good about his independence. He had only been walking short distances for a few days so I was not too worried about him getting into anything, as I simply did not think he would even reach his destination to get into trouble. As a new mother – I was so wrong. The first time I left the room for all of 30 seconds, I came back into the kitchen to find him holding a can of powdered Comet with white all over his mouth. As he grinned proudly, I called the hospital’s poison control center. He was fine but it scared me and showed me just how quickly he became mobile.
The key to helping your child learn to walk is making it easy. While some people recommend wide shoes, I say let them go barefoot. Their little toes and feet can feel the floor underneath, giving them a much better grip. In addition, make sure any furniture to include highchairs, strollers, and baby carriers are secure and stable. In other words, anything your baby might use for pulling up should be strong and secure. If your child has a bookcase in his/her room, we suggest you have it fastened to the wall on the backside to avoid tipping.
You also want to make sure reclining chairs are in the up position to avoid little fingers from being pinched. Look for anything that hangs over the table or cabinets that could be pulled on. For instance, the corner of a tablecloth could be within reach. If the child were to pull on it, everything on the table would come crashing down. Place safety latches on kitchen and bathroom cabinets and even with this, you want to move all cleaning supplies up and out of reach.
If you have stairs in your home, a secure safety gate is imperative or a locking door. For some reason, babies gravitate to stairs. Thinking they can tackle them, they take a step forward and topple down, sometimes receiving serious injury. Other important steps to secure your home include turning any pan or skillet handles inward and making sure hot radiators or heaters are off or out of harm’s way.
Additionally, check that window treatment cords, irons, or any electrical cords are out of reach and that dog food and/or bones are up off the ground, as a baby could try to eat the food, thus choking. The best thing to do is walk from room to room, looking at things from your baby’s eye-level. With that, you could see the things that he or she would likely get into, allowing y to make the appropriate adjustments.