Baby Proofing Electrical Outlets; All you Need to Know
To guarantee your baby’s safety at home, baby proofing is a no-brainer. With over 2400 yearly accidents reported due to mishaps involving electricity and with more than 12 fatalities, ensuring your electric outlets are baby-proofed is essential not only for your baby’s overall health and safety but also for your peace.
Children are great observers and seeing you use electric outlets to plug in and remove appliances makes it irresistibly attractive to them. Also because children are inevitably drawn to anything and everything they see, they won’t make a distinction between the open mouth of their teddies and the face of an electric socket.
It is vital that your children, once they are old enough, are educated about the safe use of electricity and appliances but until then, you are responsible for ensuring their safety.
How to baby proof electrical outlets
Our number one recommendation is to install tamper-resistant receptacles. This type of outlet works by blocking the socket opening immediately when the plug is removed.
This safety feature ensures that if your little one goes pricking or prodding the openings with objects or even fingers, the shutters will not release. We advise you to employ the services of an electrician Sydney to get these outlets installed in your home.
Other baby proofing options are:
- Arranging your furniture to hide electrical outlets
If the aesthetics of your home will work with this option, it is the easiest and completely free method that guarantees total safety. After all, your little one can’t go fiddling around with what they can’t see. If this option wouldn’t work for you, however, you could try the others below
- Using outlet boxes
These boxes are made to completely cover your outlets. Furthermore, they also come with room for the plugs of your appliances. There are different types available but we recommend purchasing one with a two-button release system to further ensure that your child is unable to open it.
- Using plastic covers
Plastic covers for electric outlets come in different sizes and shapes. They are also relatively inexpensive given the important task they perform. They have prongs that are made to fit various outlets and can not be easily removed by your child because the prongs tightly fit the openings.
- Using sliding covers
Sliding covers are made to replace your existing cover outlets. Sliding covers work by automatically closing the plug holes once you remove an appliance’s cord.
Ensuring that your home’s electric outlets are properly baby-proofed protects your baby from harm. Because the process of baby proofing can be overwhelming and exhausting, knowing the easiest and fastest ways to achieve safety for your child as explained in this article helps to boost your confidence and reduces stress.