Bedroom
- At bed time and nap time, place your baby to sleep on his or her back. Tummy sleeping increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and suffocation.
- Make sure to use a firm, tight-fitting mattress that fits well in the crib and that meets current safety standards.
- Never allow a gap larger than two fingers between the mattress and sides of the crib to avoid the baby getting trapped.
- Never place your baby to sleep on pillows or folded quilts. This can result in death by suffocation. Remove any pillows or thick quilts from the baby’s sleeping area.
- Do not use any crib with any missing, broken, or loose parts. Tighten the crib hardware from time to time to keep it sturdy. Cribs that are assembled wrong, have
missing, loose or broken hardware or broken slats can trap the baby or result in suffocation. - Never place baby’s crib near window blinds and curtain cords due to risk of strangulation.
Bathroom
- Never leave your child alone or under the supervision of a sibling in a bathtub or near water. Children can drown in only a few inches of water in seconds.
- Remember: bath seats or rings or other bathing aids are not safety devices.
- Keep medicines and cleaning products with child resistant lids locked and out of reach of children.
- Child resistant is not “child proof.”
Kitchen
- Do not leave your baby alone in a high chair and always use all safety straps. This will prevent injuries and deaths from the baby climbing out or from falling through leg openings.
- Do not place your baby in any child or infant seat, including car seat carriers, infant carriers, bouncers, vibrating seats, or unsecured booster type chairs, on a countertop, table or any elevated surface. The baby’s movements can cause the seat to fall, resulting in head or other injuries.
- Keep matches, lighters, knives, and cleaning products with child resistant lids, locked and out of reach of children. This will reduce the risk of fire, poisoning, and other injuries.
Around the House
- Use safety gates to block stairways and other dangerous areas. Replace older gates that can collapse and trap babies.
- Keep all small objects, especially round objects such as balls and marbles, away from children. These objects present a very high risk of choking.
- Keep older sibling’s toys out of reach of children under 3 years of age, especially magnets and balloons.
- If two or more magnets are swallowed they can attract through intestinal walls and can cause holes, blockage, and infection which can result in death.
- If swallowed, un-inflated balloons and balloon pieces can lead to death by blocking airways.
- To avoid falls, secure windows with window guards.
- Secure furniture to avoid tip-overs. Children have died when furniture tipped over on them. Secure furniture with anchors to the wall or floor.
- Install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Change batteries every year. Install smoke alarms on each level of your home, outside sleeping areas, and inside each bedroom. Install carbon monoxide alarms outside sleeping areas.
This information was brought to you by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission