How to Baby Proof Your Home Before Baby is Born

How to Baby Proof Your Home Before Baby is Born, Crawling baby playing with electrical outlet.

No matter what stage of pregnancy you are in, it’s never too early to start baby proofing your home—even if baby isn’t due for another couple of months!

Here are five ways to baby proof your home to prepare for a newborn before they arrive. It’s best to set aside the time to baby proof the house now so that it’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about after bringing home baby.

1. Baby Proof Furniture with Anchors

Are you already nesting? Nesting and decorating the nursery is one of the highlights of preparing your home for your baby. Because your newborn will spend so many hours in the nursery, it's important to make sure this is the safest room in the house.

In addition to choosing low-VOC paint and cord-free blinds, there’s another way to make the nursery (and every other room in your house) even safer: secure furniture, such as bookshelves and dressers, to the wall. Mommy's Helper Tip Resistant Furniture Safety Brackets will keep your furniture safely rooted in place.

While you are busy baby proofing furniture, don’t forget to grab some Anti-Tip TV Straps, too!

2. Keep Your Changing Table a Safe Zone

You'll probably be surprised at how fast your baby learns to roll over—and the changing table can quickly become a falling hazard. Be sure to select a changing table with a safety rail. The Dream on Me Marcus Changing Table sports a one-inch safety rail to prevent wiggly babies from rolling off of the changing pad.

If you already have a changing table, no worries. Simply grab a changing pad with tall sides and a safety belt, like this Summer Infant Safe Surround Changing Pad.

No matter which pad or table you use, you can continue to keep baby safe by:

  • Keeping a hand on your baby at all times
  • Gathering all essential items before placing your baby on the changing pad

3. Baby Proof All Drawers and Cabinets

Child safety cabinet locks are another must-have when it comes to baby proofing. Although your baby won’t be opening and shutting cabinet doors for a while, there are a few benefits to baby proofing drawers and cabinets before they can even roll over:

  • Installing child safety locks on cabinets and drawers can be a time-consuming task, so it’s better to get it done sooner rather than later
  • Some babies start exploring earlier than others, so it’s a good idea to secure the cabinets so you have no “surprises” later on

If you're wondering which cabinets and drawers you need to baby proof, we've got the answers:

  • All lower cabinets in the kitchen, although some parents choose to leave a Tupperware cabinet open for toddlers to “play” with while they cook
  • All lower bathroom cabinets
  • Any cabinet that contains medicine, regardless of how high or low it is
  • Kitchen drawers that contain cutlery, especially knives
  • Bathroom drawers that contain toothpaste, makeup, or other toiletries

Baby proofing Tip: Spend some time on the floor looking at the room from a baby’s point-of-view. This enables you to see the outlets that a baby would most likely see. Don’t forget to block the outlets on your kitchen island, too!

4. Protect Your Baby (and Home!) with Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detectors

Long before your baby comes home, you can take precautions to keep your baby safe from carbon monoxide poisoning. According to the National Fire Protection Association, every home should have one carbon monoxide and smoke detector installed on each floor.

The Google Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm does double duty and detects both carbon monoxide and smoke, so you only need to purchase one device per floor. As a bonus, it can sync up to your smartphone and send alerts when there’s a problem or the batteries run low. You can sleep soundly knowing Google Nest Protect is hard at work.

What should I baby proof next?

Baby proofing the house before your baby is born is just the first step of baby proofing. Once your baby starts to roll over and crawl, it’s a good idea to go through your house and add more child proofing gear: toilet locks, baby gates at the top and bottom of the stairs, window gates, stove locks, and more.

For now, these five important child proofing products can give you the best start to make your home a happy and safe place for your newborn baby.

You can add any (or all!) of these baby proofing items to your MyRegistry.com baby registry. Don’t have one? It’s amazing — you can add any gift from any store! Create your registry here.

Want to See More Baby Registry Essentials?
Check out our Newborn Essentials Inspiration Board.

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We are a Universal Gift Registry website where people can create a registry and add gifts from any store in the world. If you buy any of the products listed here, we may be compensated. Thanks for reading—we love you!

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