By Alan Zahniser
Babies and small children put almost everything they can into their mouth. Upon first learning to crawl, my baby first went to his bottom dresser drawer knob, grabbed it, and then put his mouth on it. He then did the same to his brass closet door hinge. These are two items he could see from his crib. He probably studied them from afar for awhile and was curious to check them out as soon as he was able. When he could, he did.
In these early days of mobility, there is no reasoning with your baby. They do not understand words like “no” yet. They are excited about the opportunity to explore. They are driven only by their curiosity and ability. They have no fear. They do not know about danger yet. There is no pausing to consider possible consequences of their actions. They live only in the present moment. If they have opportunity to get into something of interest, they will go for it. It is up to the parents and caregivers to assure these little ones have a safe environment and are guided only into safe situations.
Cleaners and chemicals are very dangerous to children. Like anything else in this very oral stage, if your baby can access something of interest, even if we know it to be a dangerous chemical, they will try to consume it. Their action can be fatal or cause serious or permanent injury to your precious little one. The risk of such a tragedy can be easily avoided because the problem is very easy to fix.
For your baby’s safety, remove all cleaners and chemicals from your home that are 4 feet from the floor. I call this the “Four Feet From Floor” rule, abbreviated FFFF. Go through every room carefully. Get on your hands and knees and see things as the baby will. Check floors, closets, drawers, cupboards, closets, everywhere. For example, until now it may have been convenient to keep drano behind the toilet. Now you must remove the drano to an entirely different part of the home that will be inaccessible to your baby, such as the basement or garage.
While we teach you how to use fences, doors, latches, and other techniques to provide barriers to certain parts of your home, no safety method is foolproof. You may be getting something out of a bathroom and your quick little one will slip in behind you and get into something bad in just seconds. You may have a guest visit who doesn’t quite latch an important door, and the baby gets into that room and accesses something bad before you realize it. If a cleaner or chemical is around, at some point your little one can possibly get into it. Therefore, please take a few minutes to implement FFFF. You do not want to one day sadly say “if only …” because the FFFF step was not taken. Remove these items far out of the reach of your little one now. Implementing FFFF is one of the most important and urgent steps you can take to protect your child.
While removing the chemicals and cleaners, also remove any other items you do not want in your baby’s mouth. For example, while removing the drano, you will also want to remove the toilet brush and plunger. For every item you see, ask yourself, “Is it OK for this to be in the baby’s mouth?” If the answer is no, remove it.
Move these dangerous items to a centralized safe area, such as the garage or basement. I used this project as an opportunity to better organize these items, putting some items in upper cupboards in the laundry room, and others in a cabinet in the garage. A minor exception was the toilet plunger which we latched safely in the cabinet below the bathroom sink. For this item, we had to weigh out our need for quick access compared to the baby’s small chance of accessing it. We also organized shoe polish items into a plastic box, kept high out of reach. You may also need to reason out where to put certain removed items in your particular space.
For my new centralized cleaning supplies, I tried to organize them into logical groupings. I then used 3″ x 5″ cards and a marker to label each of the cupboard and cabinet shelves. A nice benefit is I can now find cleaners or chemicals easily when I need them. Putting them in one central location is actually convenient. It is an easy habit to remember to return items as soon as I am finished using them in the house. I also found so many duplicate items in my gathering effort that I do not need to buy certain cleaning products again for several years! You may find similar surprises.
For me, the greatest benefit of this project is the peace of mind of knowing my baby cannot get into cleaners, chemicals, and other bad things they should not put in their mouth. I hope you find the same peace of mind when you finish your FFFF project!
Happy Hunting!!! 🙂