New home design aspects for home to be child-safe

[cocraze]

Hi all,
anyone can share any tips on things to look out when designing your new home, to make sure that your new home is child-safe?

We are renovating our new flat soon, so need to take note of design aspects so that we don't end up with something that we would regret/need to remove...

I thought of a few so far, appreciate if anyone else can add on useful tips?
1. Reduce/eliminate use of mirrors/glass;
2. Reduce/eliminate sharp corners on furniture;
3. Cover electrical sockets/site them out of reach for your baby/toddler;
4. Install grills on windows;
5. Latch handles on cabinets;
6. Keep wiring/electrical cables/curtain cables away from children's reach;
7. Pad cabinet doors that are in child's room so that slamming noise is reduced;
8. Site built-in oven higher so that child does not get burned by touching the oven door;
9. Keep chemicals/cleaning liquids safely locked away to prevent child from accidentally coming into touch;


Qns:
What sort of handles do you choose for your kitchen cabinets/wardrobes, esp. the lower ones?
How high above the floor should you site your built-in oven?

 

[PinkDiamonds]

I don't have handles on my kitchen cabinets, just pull out. But I think either way the little girl will figure out how to open them anyway. Basically the kitchen is out of bounds for her so (sometimes) she knows she's not allowed to go in.

My oven is around waist-level. I don't think it will make sense to put the oven any higher because it'll become very difficult for me to take things in and out. Imagine I have to stretch to bring a hot tray out and I lose grip, it'll be worse. So I'd rather have the oven in a comfortable level.

My girl knows the oven is out of bounds. I bring her to the oven while it's on and let her touch it. She knows it is hot so will not go near it. Same thing for my pots and pans. I let her touch them while they are hot so she knows that she cannot come near.

During our renovation, we didn't plan properly how we want to arrange our furniture, and we overlooked the number of power points we needed. So in my living room I have an extension cord/plug in the corner. My girl ventures to that side of the living room, but somehow she doesn't touch them at all.

So if you overlook some things, don't fret!

However when we went furniture shopping, I did look out for "safer" furniture. My coffee table is oval-shaped, while my dining table is rounded-corner. but my tv console still has corners, so I just have to keep extra eye when she goes there (and she not supposed to anyway!).

By the way, certain type of flooring is very hard (like marble), which will make falling down very very painful. I'm not sure if this matters to you, you may wanna consider your flooring type too.

On another note, once you place your furniture there'll be a number of things which will inevitably make ur baby curious. Like my internet router is on my TV console, and my PS3, etc, my baby will still venture there and touch. So just need to bear this in mind.

 

[camom]

1) Make sure non-built-in funiture are properly fastened to the wall, else a pull might cause it to topple over.

2) Keep dangling cords to the minimum. If really need to have, try it put it higher so that it's out of the reach.