Keep your baby away from nursery hazards.

It’s exciting to plan a nursery — just imagine all the cuteness in one room! Don’t forget though, you should also plan around safety measures. Experts remind us of basic safety issues to make sure your baby won’t fall prey to nursery hazards. Safe Kids Worldwide reports, home accidents send almost two million children to emergency rooms every year. Don’t let your baby be part of that statistic.

Crib Notes

Choose a crib that adheres to government safety standards. Slats should not be more than 2 and 3/8 inches apart — so your child can’t get her head stuck between them. Avoid cribs with cutout designs on some panels. Consider going the chic, minimalist look. Simple cribs without decorative knobs are safer. Those decorated corner posts can snag clothing and lead to injuries — including strangulation.

There should only be two things in your baby’s crib: a firm, tight-fitting mattress and a crib sheet. It’s tempting to make it look cute and cozy with lots of blankets, stuffed animals, and pillows, but these are all suffocation hazards for kids under 1 year old. Nix bumper pads too. The Journal of Pediatrics found that suffocation risks outweigh a bumper pad’s benefits.

Safe Decor

Art work is great for sprucing up a room and adding punches of color. If you want to hang some in the nursery, stick to lightweight canvases. At all cost, avoid heavy picture frames or mirrors that can injure your baby in case they fall. Another option is to paint on the nursery walls themselves. A wall-painted mural can definitely add some character to the room, with no fear of it falling on to your baby. Just make sure the paint used is lead-free and contains no volatile organic compounds or VOC.

No Furniture Tip-Overs

Install braces or anchors to secure tall or heavy pieces of furniture to the wall. No matter how stable a piece of furniture can be, a young child wandering around near it can pose serious danger. Young curious explorers can use dresser drawers as “ladders” to climb up and if it does topple over your child can be seriously injured. So consider installing safety latches on low drawers to prevent this.

Be Cord-and-Outlet-Cautious

Arrange the nursery so that the crib, playpen, and other low-standing pieces of furniture are away from the windows. If they’re too close, your baby could reach the window cords — a major strangulation hazard. He could also climb up to the window and fall through the screen.

As for electrical outlets, use plug protectors so your child can’t poke things into them. Use the kind that covers the entire outlet plate. My determined toddler was once able to wiggle out those individual protectors. Keep electrical cords out of your little one’s reach by tucking them behind furniture or investing in cord shorteners.

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