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THE WHYS AND WHEN OF BABYPROOFING
By
Nancy Reynolds
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The
best time to think of babyproofing begins as soon as you know
you will
be having a baby. This is often far from about-to-be parents thoughts,
as
they busy themselves with doctor appointments, preparing the room
and
purchasing the baby paraphernalia. With all the new found pride
and
adventure of bringing a new life into the world, few want to consider
the
thought of their baby ever suffering an injury.
The average person in our North American society is not aware
of the
statistics and how serious the injury problem is. Our pediatricians,health
care
researchers and government officials are aware and work hard finding
ways
tohelp parents become informed. Sadly however, their efforts often
run into
the limitations of health care budget cuts. The irony is, while
study after
study reports preventative measures can reduce health care costs,
the
money for prevention seems to be hardest to find.
An important thing for new parents to do as they go out buying
things for
the baby, is to look up the safety information on baby equipment
with the
different government and social agencies. This is particularly
important
when buying or receiving used items. While the majority of "practically-new"
things would probably not be a problem, just because no one had
an injury
before, (even over several generations in one family), does not
mean that
there is new information which suggests there might be a safety
risk
associated with a product. Now-a-days there are several web sites
with
this information. Keep in mind however, different countries have
different
standards.
The next thing to help parents consider babyproofing is taking
advantage
of visits of friends and relatives when they bring their babies
or two year
olds to your house. Instead of focusing on the conversation with
the
adults, spend some time watching the little ones and what they
are doing. Rather
than inwardly criticising their parents for being bad parents,
because
they are not stopping their children from touching your things,
recognize that
they are teaching you some valuable lessons.
The children's spontaneity and curiosity is only normal behavior
helping
them in the process of understanding the world. Limiting and hounding
them
for doing something wrong, when they do not understand yet, does
not help
them learn. If they are young enough and do not have language
skills, or
have never seen the consequences of an action because they have
not done
it before, how could they understand? While they will need to
understand
someday that is not polite to touch or break other people things,
how
would they know that that clear glass thing on your coffee table
would be so
heavy and difficult to hold up.
Taking another person's word as the sole reason why they should
not touch
in the first place, requires much more self restraint and memory
processing
than they are capable for now. Put yourself in their shoes. Wouldn't
you
want to go pick up and handle that sparkly new thing? The self
restraint
of realizing that it might not be a good idea to touch, comes
with the
consequence and embarassment of your having broken or someone
else
breaking something of yours. Maybe it even hit you in the pocket
book to replace
something or it might have been a priceless heirloom. What's embarassment,
value of money or priceless to a two year old?
What would be easier? Struggling with spontaneous curiousity and
lack of
awareness, or simply remove the vase. People always tell me, "but
they
have to learn." Yes they do, but ordering them not to touch
is not learning.
Learning about vases would involve bringing one out once and a
while and
let them touch and experience it as much a possible ......that
is, with the
exception of it getting broken, of course. When the lesson is
over, best
put it away again, rather than expect that they now completely
understand.
Remember, they still have not seen it break. Also remember, self
restraint, when no one is around to remind you is a complicated
skill, even for
adults.
Taking this all into account, when do you actually start removing
things
to babyproof? Why not before someone gets hurt? Before a little
one starts to
move on their own. Before they can reach out and grab, possibly
pulling
down and breaking something. You have an initial few months before
this begins
to happen. Remember those things, your young visitors went after?
Get down on
the floor to experience what it is like down there. Consider the
numbers
of things you will want to remove to reduce dangers and how much
time will it
take to make the changes. This will vary from home to home.
Removing dangers before they gain the awareness that changes have
been
made, is so much more positive. Growing up in the house with the
gate having
always been there, would make it just another part of the house
rather
than something to go stand and rattle at. Latches suddenly put
on cupboards
they used to get into, could be frustrating and confusing to their
learning
process.
All babies are curious. To some degree, all will poke in cupboards
and
touch things around them. At this stage in their life, it is their
job to
discover and learn about their world. As parents we want them
to do this.
Unfortunately in the process of learning, they might become hurt
because
they do not have enough experience and knowledge. It is our role
to guide
them through these times and help them learn. It can often take
more
patience than most of us want to spend on repeating and explaining
over
and over again. Telling them not to do something seems easiest.
We soon
discover however, they have their own minds and do not always
listen to these
directions.
The bottom line is, no one, at any age, likes to be ordered, finds
it easy
to have self control or comes to understand without doing for
themselves.
You have the experience and the knowledge and rather than worry
or get
angry, why not simply remove what you know might have a risk to
injury
your little one.
Nancy Reynolds, B.A. Psych. has been
in the child safety industry for over 15 years, helping families
with issues such as home safety, CPR,babyproofing and first
aid.
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