Safety in the bathroom

As your baby grows, he’ll associate the bathroom with splish-splashing, rubber duckies and good fun (that’s when you’re not trying to wash his hair!). So it’s no wonder, that as he starts crawling around the house and pulling himself up on furniture, you’ll find him in the bathroom.

I remember laughing, as I found my 9 month old daughter in our shower, full of gummy smiles and proud as punch that she’d managed to crawl all that way. Then there was the time that my eldest son (who was about three at the time) decided to play warship-warship in the basin and forgot to turn the tap off. My bathroom and bedroom were ankle deep in water and my paramedic husband was fuming; not because the carpets had been ruined, but because Ciaran could have turned the hot tap on.

Innocent fun, I thought. Clearly, I hadn’t seen the hidden dangers.

My husband has good reason to be paranoid. He’s pulled several babies and toddlers lifeless bodies from buckets, toilets, baths, fish ponds and swimming pools.

It takes only a few centimetres of water to drown a baby.

So what should you do to kiddy-proof your bathroom?

• Keep the bathroom door closed. If your baby can’t get into the bathroom, he can’t get hurt there.
• When running a bath, make sure that you always, always turn the cold tap on first, then the hot tap.
• Never leave your baby in the bath alone, even when he’s in a bath-ring. It takes just a few seconds for him to fall over and drown.
• Place a non-slip mat in the bath for your baby to sit on.
• Never leave water in the bath.
• Make sure that the taps are closed tightly
• Place a face-cloth or towel around a hot tap to prevent your baby from burning himself
• Put a child-proof device on your toilet lid. That way your toddler can’t open the toilet lid and fall in. You can find this device in most baby stores.
• Keep your bathroom floors dry. As your baby crawls into the bathroom and slips on a tile, he could bang his head on the floor or on the edge of the bath
• Keep all medicines, bath supplies and razors out of reach
• Remove all keys and catches to prevent your child from accidentally being locked in the bathroom

Lynne O’Connor
Mum to Ciaran (10), Braedan (6) and Ava (2)