CHILD-PROOFING
To grandparents: Safety has changed
Published: Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 25, 2011 at 4:49 p.m.
When Missy Danneberg and her husband Carlo Rossi became grandparents, they moved a crib into the guest room, unpacked the wooden toys used by Danneberg's children more than 25 years ago and went through their Sebastopol house to make it safe for regular visits by their granddaughter, Brooklyn.
Facts
SAFETY FIRST
When it comes to grandchild-proofing a home, Dr. Mark Sloan refers to the same child-proofing list he gives to new parents at Kaiser Permanente. Some of those provisions include:
Use childproof window locks or guards on all windows above the first floor.
Install safety gates at the top and bottom of stairs.
Avoid baby toys with strings, cords, necklaces or balloons.
Don't allow electrical cords or hang cords from drapes or blinds to dangle within a baby's reach.
Put plastic safety plugs in all unused electrical outlets.
Screen off fireplaces and other heat sources.
Unload all guns and lock them up and put ammunition in a separate locked place.
Keep bathroom doors closed.
Put locked cover on hot tub.
Fence swimming pools with self-latching gate.
Use back burners of stove when cooking.
Keep medicines, alcohol, cleaning products and all poisons in a locked cabinet out of child's reach and sight.
Remove all poisonous plants.
Keep medicines and drugs out of your purse and ask visitors to keep their purses out of reach.
It helps that Danneberg has worked with little kids most of her professional life. She teaches child development at Santa Rosa Junior College and is executive director of the Extended Child Care Coalition of Sonoma County.
“I think I have an innate sense for what's safe,” she said. “I've never been into houseplants because so many are dangerous to kids and pets. And I would never have a glass table in my living room.”
Readying a house, not to mention restructuring your life, to accommodate grandchildren does take preparation, said Dr. Mark Sloan, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa.
“Most grandparents are 20 to 30 years removed from when they had their babies,” said Sloan. That was before there were jogging strollers, strict child-safety rules, high-tech car seats, ear thermometers, organic baby food and the latest styles of parenting.
But the goal remains how to best protect the new children in your care and hopefully keep peanut butter off the antique couch.
Sloan's main advice for grandchild-proofing a house is, “Look at everything in your house from a child's point of view, specifically an investigative, red-blooded toddler looking for trouble.”
Among his recommendations: gates for all stairs, covers for electrical outlets that are not being used, guards for the tub faucets, “so they don't turn on the hot water when they're getting a bath.”
A toilet lid lock — “All kids are top heavy and curious.”
No chemicals and hydrogen peroxide under the sink, and Sloan added, “Watch out for the dropped pills. Grandparents need to police the floor” for spilled meds.
Cover sharp edges. “It's not fashionable, but you might want to cut some tennis balls in half and stick them on the corner of your table.”
Check for hazards in the garden — “A little kid can easily reach down a gopher hole to get the pretty blue poison.”
In the garage — “Does Grandpa store his solvents in mugs and Dixie cups?”
And, not the least, “Where's the kitty litter box?”
Santa Rosa pediatrician and grandmother Dr. Kathy Foster said baby equipment and safety measures mark the biggest difference between the time when she had babies and the time her babies had babies.
“My oldest is 42,” she said. “We didn't have a car seat. He stood up in the back seat of the car. Unrestrained. I shudder to think about it. We used those flimsy umbrella strollers, not like the high-tech ones to day. Everything now is more expensive and sturdier. When I had my kids, they were just inventing disposable diapers.”
Grandmother Pat Hendricks in Santa Rosa held onto her children's wooden porta-crib for the grandchildren.
“I saved that thing for 30 years,” she said, “moved it four times and when I cracked it out for the first grandchild my kids said, ‘Mom, that's so unsafe.' I went out and bought a modern pop-up crib with all the safety stuff.”
Dr. Foster's top advice to baby handlers of any relation is, “Don't believe the word child-proof. Keep all medications out of reach and if there are meds in your purse, keep your purse out of reach.”
The most dangerous spot for toddlers, she said, is the bathroom.
“Bathrooms have more hazards than you can count — all of them disgusting,” she said. “Keep the toilet seat down and bathroom door closed, religiously.”
She learned firsthand how toxic some common supplies stored under a sink can be after unplugging a drain with a popular product.
“Some of the powder spilled on the rug. I vacuumed it up and the next time I got out the vacuum the entire thing was corroded and had to be discarded,” she said. “Imagine what that would do to the insides of a child.”
Grandbaby-proofing the Forestville home of Mary and John Grul called for moving the newly upholstered furniture to a less available room, installing gates across decks leading to the driveway and pool and customizing a safety gate at the top of the bedroom stairs to allow the cat a way out but not the two grandkids.
Also, “installing an alarm on the pool that goes off when anything moves the water — so sensitive that it goes off when a breeze comes up,” said Mary Grul, a Sebastopol boutique owner.
Even though she works part-time, she said, “I have the luxury, most of the time, of surrendering my life to their wants and needs without needing to mold them to my schedule. Also, I have the time to apply child-rearing tricks that I read about with my own kids but usually was too worn down to implement.”
Danneberg said there are advances that make child-watching easier - namely, parents being only one cell phone call away.
“There is no place where her parents go where I can't immediately get hold of them. If she's not feeling well, I can call anytime and check with them. And there's 911 to call in case of an emergency.”
Dr. Sloan advises parents and grandparents to post the phone number of poison control center (800-222-1222) on their refrigerator. He said doctors used to advise parents to keep Ipecac syrup, which induces vomiting, on hand to give a child suspecting of swallowing pills or another poison.
“Now we say don't try to figure it on your own,” she said. “Call the poison center and get help. And then grab the pill bottle and go to the ER.”
Hendricks, who has six grandchildren and is a nurse, took a baby CPR class through the American Red Cross. She keeps a list with insurance member numbers, allergies and cell phone contacts on a card for each child.
As for medical supplies, Dr. Foster advised “lots of colorful Band-aids” and infant Tylenol as needed for pain and fever. “But no cold remedies, cough medicine or anything else that is not specifically prescribed. It's taken years to recognize how few meds are helpful and how many are very toxic to children.”
Sloan, who wrote about childbirth in his book, “Birth Day,” sees more and more grandparents coming into his office with their young charges. “Sometimes I get to know the grandparents better than the parents.”
He thinks that's good for everyone.
“With two sets of grandparents, you have four more people vested in a child's well-being,” he said. “And these people have lots of experience.”
Susan Swartz is a freelance writer and author based in Sonoma County. Contact her at susan@juicytomatoes.com.
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