George is an active baby. He is a very speedy crawler and there have been times that he was able to get in a dangerous situation within a matter of seconds. He is also at the phase of putting everything in his mouth. Here are some tips from the Canadian Paediatric Society on how to baby proof:

• If your baby is on a raised surface, keep your eyes and hands on them. Both of my kids have fallen off raised surfaces – Madi fell off a bed and George fell off a chair. Both of these instances occurred when I was distracted. I was lucky that neither of them were injured.  Now I make sure to always have a hand on the baby when he is on an elevated surface.
• Avoid placing infant car seats or chairs on raised surfaces.
• Make sure the crib mattress is at an appropriate height level for your baby’s age, size and abilities. Once Madi and George were able to pull to stand we lowered the crib mattress. Once your baby starts trying to climb out of the crib or reaches 35 inches tall, consider moving them to a toddler bed.
• Install gates with vertical bars made of wood or metal and make sure you securely attach them at the top and bottom of stairs. Both of my kids love climbing the stairs once they were able to crawl!  We installed gates right away once the kids started cruising.
• Keep furniture away from windows that are open. There has been heartbreaking stories of children falling out of windows.
• Store cleaning supplies, medications, and all other potentially poisonous products such as bleach, detergents and pesticides out of reach and out of sight from children. I put a child lock on all areas of the house that contain these products that are in drawers that could be opened by George.
• Make sure visitors keep their purses or bags out of children’s reach. I made a designated area where we put our jackets and bags that is elevated and makes it difficult for Madi and George to access.

This post was co-authored by Stephanie Liu, MD, MSc, CCFP, BHSc and Erin Manchuk, BScPharm, BCGP.