Baby's safety requires constant attention

Increasing mobility and motor skills mean you must constantly review safety measures to keep your baby safe.

Safety measures

Our infant safety checklist can help you address these basic safety issues: automobiles, burns, drowning, falls, miscellaneous and deliberate injury, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), suffocation and choking.

Helpful tips

Nuturing your baby in a safe household involves following tips like these:

Playpens should have fine mesh that is no farther apart than 1/4th inch or 6 mm. Both sides of the playpen should be locked in the “up” position whenever it is used. Don't use the playpen if it has torn mesh.

Avoid walkers. Infant walkers endanger your child's health and actually retard the development of walking. They allow your infant to move across the room before she can actually walk. You might think this would help her learn to walk. Actually, walkers slow the development of the leg muscles needed to walk. Walkers also give your infant a premature mobility that can result in serious injury such as falls down stairs.

Safety gates prevent falls. As your infant learns to roll, crawl and eventually walk, you will need to protect her from dangerous places like stairs by using well-constructed safety gates.

Miniblind and Venetian blind cords can strangle. You should not have looped cords on drapes or blinds. Infants have become entangled in them and suffered severe injury. Make sure your vertical blinds, continuous looped blinds and drapery cords have tension or tie-down devices to hold the cords tight and prevent choking. You also should keep playpens far enough away from the cords of drapes and blinds so your baby cannot reach them.

Never leave your baby alone with a pet. Pets make great friends for your new child in later years. But they can be a danger to infants. Pets may experience jealousy or respond with hostility to innocent movements by your infant.

Dress safely. Infant clothing should never have drawstrings around the head or neck. They can choke your infant. Sleepwear should be made of flame retardant materials.

No bathing alone. Infants cannot raise their head above even shallow water. Never leave your child alone in or around a bathtub, sink or other pool of water.