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Be safe, but, you know, don't overdo it. (National Baby Safety Month)
Published 09.07.2006 | Permanent Link | Comments (11)
September is National Baby Safety month. I was unaware of this because I no longer have babies and there's no way to keep your kids safe, only babies. I think October is actually "National Give It Up Month: Sink Or Swim"
Even when I had babies though, I tried to keep my head on straight about all the assorted baby safety gear one can purchase. I carefully evaluated the usefulness of purchases with a cynical eye.
Take for example, the Thudguard. From the site: "Learning to walk in a world of hard surfaces can turn a special moment into a heart rendering incident in a flash."
Cable news and Parents magazine aren't enough to scare parents silly, we now have products with copy designed to terrorize new parents. Instead of the Thudguard, which leaves all of your child's limbs and delicate chest area vulnerable to serious injury, I suggest wrapping your entire living space in bubble wrap.
I don't think it's entirely silly to be safe with your kids, but I think there's an industry which preys on one of a parent's biggest fears: a preventable accident hurting our baby. With that in mind, it's a little easier to navigate the wide world of baby safety.
KidsHealth.org is a website devoted to health information for children from before birth to the teen years. Their safety section offers lots of articles on baby safety related topics like choosing a safe crib and child proofing your home. Best of all the information is provided without the sensationalism often found when discussing keeping children safe.
As my babies started to be mobile we covered our outlets and locked a few cabinets which could be fatal if gotten into. When deciding what we'd lock up or put out of reach we used this set of questions.
1) Could the babies be maimed or die from playing with this while I'm not looking?
2) Would I be devastated if this got broken?
3) Is there something I can do, short of purchasing a 'safety device', to prevent my child from breaking something or being hurt by it?
If the answer to #1 was yes, we pursued appropriate safety devices, like a cabinet latch for our cleaning supplies. Or, as in the case of the knobs from our stove, we simply pulled the knobs off and stored them in the drawer next to the stove.
Parenthacks is a great place to watch for non-commercial babyproofing. Tennis balls to cushion sharp corners? Brilliant. Wine corks? How elegant.
Probably our biggest safety device as our babies grew was the word 'No'. They learned pretty quick which things were off limits, no Thudguard necessary.
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Melissa Summers was one of five Melissa's throughout her schooling, in her everyday life she is the only Melissa who folds laundry. The name Melissa is derived from the Greek word for Honeybee. The Buzz Off is published weekly on Tuesdays. She writes almost nearly everyday at Suburban Bliss.
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Comments (11):
Zoot said:
We can not really "childproof" our house in the practical sense because we have five pets. If we turned our heads a cat tail could be yanked and a face could be scratched. So - we have kinda adopted the "never take your eyes off the baby" approach which is probably not healthy, but it saves us money on helmets.
Posted on September 7, 2006 12:52
Kate said:
We also found that the word "no" followed by some bribing of smarties and gummy bears helped us childproof our home. Best kind of parenting, that is.
Posted on September 7, 2006 21:24
Paula said:
The thudguard? Oh my gosh....I really think people can really overdo the safety items. I mean hiring someone to come to your house and tell you what to childproof? Really? To me that seems to be a waste of money. But if it were up to my husband my kids would live in a bubble.
Posted on September 8, 2006 08:42
Kismet said:
Hey, I need that job. I'd be great at it :)
~K!
Posted on September 8, 2006 23:54
Nicole said:
The best part is that YOU get to drink the wine first :)
Of course, a couple of weeks ago, we got a bottle of some of our favourite wine, which is normally corked.
And it was a screw-top. Bizarre. And we're such wine snobs that we refuse to drink any wine that comes in a box or with a screwtop.
Of course we drank THAT bottle of wine, but still
Posted on September 9, 2006 13:12
Gary Blackhall said:
Personally, I think the Thudguard is a long awaited product, perhaps a bit ahead of its time. As an children's emergency room assistant, I all to often see baby head injuries so this, if used correctly, could really help reduce the number of lacerations and bruises we see every day.
Posted on September 11, 2006 02:40
erika said:
Yes, but have you seen the Bumper Bonnet?
Posted on September 12, 2006 07:45
Madeleine said:
Personally, I'm very concerned that those parents who don't buy Thudguards are actually ripping the hearts out of their chests (or is it their toddlers' chests?) and cooking them down to make soap.
(They meant "heart rending" not "heart rendering.")
Posted on September 13, 2006 21:58
Gail Mearns said:
I wondered what the difference was between the thudguard and bumper bonnet and it seems to be price and one has impact test approval and the other is just a tie-on cushion! But both will "render" you suspect!
Posted on September 14, 2006 05:36
erika said:
I think the inventor of the Bumper Bonnet strapped a diaper on his/her child's head and thought - now *that's* a great idea!
Posted on September 14, 2006 14:07
jennifer said:
I'm all for childproofing my home, but how on Earth does one "childproof" a hard surface floor? Do you suggest placing cork board over the entire floor while baby learns to walk?
Many babies have suffered serious injuries from smashing their heads once, or after several falls. As ANY parent knows, an accident can happen with you RIGHT there.
The head is more important than a limb in my book. A broken arm will not cause a brain injury or a lifelong learning disability.
And to the parent who gives a baby/child gummy bears, 2 words, NUTRITION SEMINAR.
Posted on March 20, 2008 02:08