So Baby is ready for crawling, but is your home ready for a crawling Baby? Baby-proofing for a newborn is one thing, but making sure your home is safe for a crawling little rugrat is something totally different.
The basics
You may have already covered things like plugging up electrical outlets, using child latches on kitchen and bathroom cupboards that hold potentially hazardous substances, and moving cords Baby could get tangled up in out of reach, but that might have been months ago. Now that Baby has grown taller and stronger and extended their reach since your first baby-proofing happened, it can’t hurt to go through and make sure all earlier efforts are still going strong.
Secured for security
Now that Baby is mobile, there’s a chance that anything potentially climb-able will be climbed: bookshelves, dressers, cabinets, even the TVs that live on top of those bookshelves, dressers and cabinets. Now is your chance to secure these structures to the wall (yes, even the TVs).
Fire and water
Burns and drowning are some of the biggest dangers to Baby at this age. Baby gates in doorways are good for keeping Baby out of hot-spots for heat and water like the kitchen and bathroom without supervision, but an unattended mop bucket or uncovered, working heating grate, or even a hot cup of coffee can cause just as much trouble.
Neither slip nor slide
With Baby just starting to be mobile, they may not always be too steady on their feet (or hands, or whatever combination of body-parts they start using to pull themself around with), which means the stability of the floor is going to mean a lot to them. Non-slip mats under throw rugs can stand in the way of some nasty tumbles, and so can making sure floorboards and carpeting are all secured and even.
Finally
Get down on the floor and take a Baby’s-eye view. Are there any potential-choking-hazard small objects that might have rolled under furniture or into corners? Any object that can fit through the tube of a toilet paper roll can be a potential choking hazard. Is there anything hanging down that Baby could grab ahold of and pull down on themself? Are there any cords or wires they could get tangled up in? The view you get from this angle is the world the way Baby is going to see it, at least for a little while. Now’s your chance to get into their head.
