How to Make a Room Child-Proof and Child-Friendly

When preparing your home for a baby, you need to go beyond the colors of the baby’s room. Apart from the aesthetics, you need to make sure that your home is both child proof and child friendly.

What is the difference between a child proof and child friendly home? The difference is actually pretty subtle. A baby proof home is an environment that’s safe for your child, while making it child friendly means designing it so that your child is allowed to play and explore independently. And the good news is that it is possible to create a safe space for your child to play in.

Here are some helpful tips on how to make your space both child-proof and child-friendly:

Child-proofing a room

Even at the early stages of pregnancy, you should already start exploring the rooms in your home from a baby’s point of view.

• Bookshelves and other items that can be pulled over should be made stable by anchoring them to the wall.
• Move your fragile items onto higher shelves.
• Cover your electric outlets and wrap up your wires and cords with cord shorteners.
• Cover sharp corners with corner guards. In the bathroom, cover your spouts where your child is likely to hit his/her head on the spout.
• Put away lamps and other unstable items.
• Install cabinet locks, especially on the ones in the kitchen and bathroom.

Making a room child-friendly

Once your home is thoroughly child-proofed, you can start focusing on making a space that lets your child play and have fun.

• Have child-sized furniture in the room.
• Decorate with items that are safe to for touching and examining, and even chewing.
• Keep their favorite toys in a basket on the floor.
• Decorate the room in bright colors, which stimulate learning in children.