If you have a baby, her safety is your first priority. Unfortunately, many items in a baby’s nursery can pose safety hazards or increase the risk of accidental death.

However, with careful planning and a few safety precautions, parents can easily create the safe nursery. Learn how a few simple steps will help to ensure safety in nursery rooms, including exercising crib safety and using nursery safety equipment, such as nursery safety gates.

Crib Safety

Your baby will spend up to 16 hours a day sleeping during the first few months of his life. Because your child will be spending a lot of time in his crib, it’s essential to exercise crib safety at all times.

It’s important to assemble the crib correctly. Crib safety may be impaired if a crib is improperly assembled or missing pieces, possibly trapping or suffocating a baby.

The space between crib slats or bars should be no more than 2 and 3/8 inches. Larger openings could allow a baby to get his head caught between the slats. Likewise, the cribs headboard and footboard shouldn’t have any cutouts. The corner posts of the crib should not be higher than 1/16 of an inch, so your baby’s clothing won’t get caught.

The crib mattress should fit snugly inside the crib. If you can fit two fingers between the edge of the mattress and the crib, the mattress is too small. To decrease the risk of suffocation and increase crib safety, remove all loose items when your child is in the crib, such as:

• Blankets
• Pillows
• Quilts
• Toys.

In addition, don’t place the crib near a window.

Safety in Nursery: Additional Steps

Nurseries are home to many items that can be dangerous if parents don’t take proper precautions, including the following:

• Changing table: The changing table should have safety straps. All drawers should be within easy reach in the safe nursery. Always keep one hand on your baby when you are changing diapers.
• Crib toys: Never keep stuffed animals in a crib with your child, as they can pose a suffocation hazard. Likewise, remove small toys from the crib because the baby could choke on them. If you have a play gym in the crib, remove it when the baby is 5 months old or can push up on her hands and knees, whichever comes first. No strings longer than 7 inches should dangle into the crib.
• Playpen: The mesh should have a small weave with openings of less than 1/4 inch. Mesh should be securely attached to the top rail and floor of the pen, and this nursery safety equipment should have no tears or holes.

Nursery Safety Gates

Safety gates are an important piece of nursery safety equipment. These gates keep your child out of potentially dangerous areas. You’ll want to place nursery safety gates at the top and bottom of stairways, as well as other areas that might pose hazards to an infant.

You should also set up a gate at the entrance to the baby’s nursery. However, make sure you can easily step over the gate, in case you need to get to your baby in an emergency.