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Baby�s and Toddlers, Safety Comes First

New parents and grandparents alike often want the best for the baby or toddler in their life, but sometimes, the price can outweigh quality or safety when it comes to what we use in our lives to treat the children. 

While I have gone through some of the safety thoughts for the baby�s nursery in another article, I want to tell you about more of the safety features, ideas, and tips that you should be looking for when purchasing items for your baby or for your toddler. 

Where are you going to have to be more aware of the items that you are purchasing? At yard sales, garage sales, from ads in the local newspaper, from friends and relatives, and even in discount stores, you are going to have to keep safety first in your mind when you are reviewing prices and features of baby furniture and baby items. 

Many homes use child gates to protect the child from stairs, rooms they should not enter and to keep children out of rooms that are not child or baby proof for their own protection. One thing you have to be sure that you are looking for when purchasing a baby gate is that the openings in the gate are small enough so a child�s head cannot fit through the spaces in a gate. 

Children stick their tiny heads through any type of opening, but you need to be sure they cannot get their head in the gate that you purchased for your peace of mind and their safety when you are using a baby gate in the house.

Another feature of baby gates that you have to be aware of when purchasing a gate is that all gates use some type of force or latch to hold the gate into place. You have to be careful about folding hinges or pressure bars that attach the gate to the door opening. 

Little fingers are going to play with the hinges, the locks, and the gate itself. Hinges that lock into place and pressure bars, which lock into place, are going to be more difficult for the young child to �get� hurt on. Purchasing a baby gate that has additional safety features in regards to their fingers and heads should be first on your mind. 

High chairs are one item that your child is going to use from infant stages through their toddler years. Safety is important when purchasing a high chair that your child is going to use through their growing years. You don�t want to purchase a high chair that is going to fall apart, fall down, or allow your child to crawl out easily and get hurt when they fall to the floor. Purchase a high chair that has straps around the waist of the child, and that will pull up between the legs of the child. The straps should be separate from the tray on the high chair. 

All too often, parents will pull off the tray, covered in food and goo, turn around, and set it on the table and the child falls from the chair. With the straps not attached to the tray, your child is safer while you get the tray off the chair so you can then wash up your child. 

Look for locks on the high chair tray that are more difficult for a child to get off. The easier a child can remove the tray from the high chair their selves while sitting in the chair, the higher the chances are for an accident happening. 

The high chair should be stable, not rocking back and forth when the child moves. Look for locking legs, legs that are not cracked or bent in any shape or form. You can find good used high chairs but you will have to be sure that the high chair is still in great working condition before purchasing it. 

One final piece of furniture that I want to discuss with new parents and those who are purchasing new furniture for babies or small children are playpens. Playpens allow parents so much more freedom and mobility. You can put the baby down in the playpen out in the yard, in the living room or when you are out visiting in someone�s home. A playpen should be made of a small weave material so that fingers, heads, toes, and even arms cannot become entangled in the webbing of the playpen. 

If you are purchasing a play pen made of wood, be sure the slats are close enough together that the child�s head can�t fit through the slots in the sides of the play pen. If you are purchasing a mesh play pen, the siding should not have any cuts, slices or holes where the child could become entangled in the siding of the play pen and get hurt. 

Your children rely on your purchasing and buying decisions for a safe environment. Sometimes those few extra dollars that you are spending on a piece of furniture for the baby are all very well worth it in the end when your baby is safest!