North States Blog

When your baby starts crawling for the first time, it’s a magical time as a parent, but it can also be scary — your once-stationary child is now on the move. Crawling babies can get into all sorts of mischief, from climbing the stairs to knocking over lamps to swallowing hazardous objects.

To make sure your baby stays happy, healthy and safe while exploring their newfound world, our baby experts have laid out five things to know about safety when your baby starts crawling.

 1. Cover sharp corners with pads or guards

You can’t protect your newly crawling baby from everything — bumps, bruises, they’ll happen in time — but you can certainly mitigate and even prevent the more serious injuries. To make sure your baby isn’t bumping their head on sharp corners or tables, we recommend investing in soft corner guards or form corner guards. Both to help prevent bumps and bruises from turning into serious cuts.

 2. Keep small objects out of reach of crawling babies

Listen up, clutter-prone parents: you don’t have to be Marie Kondo — let’s start with just keeping the house clean. It’s always important to keep small objects and choking hazards out of reach for young children — but it becomes paramount that you keep your open spaces free of dangerous clutter once your baby starts crawling. Investing in cheap storage containers and developing organizational routines can help you keep your baby safe. On top of keeping areas free of dangerous objects, when your baby starts roaming, that’s the time you’ll always need to keep an eye on them. Never leave them out of your sight if they’re crawling around on their own. While cleaning your home may not spark joy, a happy, healthy baby sure will.

 3. Lock cabinets with hazardous materials

To make sure your little one isn’t getting into anything dangerous — like cleaning solutions, detergents or alcohol — it’s important to purchase babyproofing cabinet locks once your little one starts roaming. Cabinet locks ensure your baby can’t get into any chemicals or other hazardous liquids, but they also give you a peace of mind.

4. Make sure you invest in quality baby gates

When your baby starts crawling, they’re going to crawl nearly everywhere. That’s why it’s crucially important that you invest in and strategically place reliable, sturdy gates throughout your home. When browsing for new gates, look for ones that have locking mechanisms and have high consumer-safety ratings.

Photo Credit: Amy Kim

5. Keep all plugs and cords out of reach

If it’s electric, your baby is probably going to try and meddle with it. From outlets to electric cords to lamps, your baby will likely try and get their hands on anything they can — and the consequences can be serious. 

For outlets, the easiest and simplest solution is outlet caps — but you can also invest in sliding plate covers, which allow you to leave covers in place while you have something plugged in.

And as for cords, it may not be pretty, but taping down excessively long cords is your best bet for preventing mischievous hands from pulling down lamps and other objects.

You can’t be too careful with a crawling baby

It may seem like we’re being overly cautious, but when babies learn to crawl, they also learn a newfound sense of curiosity and intrigue, which leads to get into anything and everything they can. Babyproofing your house against the desires of a crawling baby is the best way to prevent a serious accident in the future. To learn more about the right baby gate for you and your family, visit our Need to Know page.