Health and Safety for Your 6-9 Month Old

You spend so much time waiting for your child to come into this world that you want to make sure that they stay safe after they are born. This can be a more difficult task as they get older and learn more abilities. By now, your child will probably be able to eat solid foods, roll over, sit, and may even be able to crawl. These are all things that will now cause a new set of safety rules that you need to abide by in order to keep your baby safe.

The scary statistic is that there are hundreds of children that are under the age of one that die as a result of injuries that could have easily been prevented. One of the biggest issues with children in this age group is their habit of putting things in their mouths. This means that, especially if your child is mobile and able to get where they want to go, whatever they find will end up in their mouths. You need to make sure that the toys that you purchase are not choking hazards. A tip is that if you can fit the toy in a roll of toilet paper easily, this means that it is a choking hazard. This also means that you need to make sure that the floor is always clean of any hazardous substances, including dropped pills, at all times. You need to also make sure that children are not able to access things like cleaning supplies as well.

When it comes to feeding time, you will want to watch what you give your child to eat for solid foods. Some foods might have too much texture or whole food lumps that they may choke on. You should also avoid giving your child at this age things like whole nuts, full slices of hot dogs, and popcorn. These are foods that are choking hazards for your child.

Now that your child is rolling around and maybe even crawling, you need to start baby-proofing your home. This is a good time to start putting up baby gates to limit access to certain rooms and to limit access to stairs to prevent falling. If your child is able to sit up and roll over, it is important that you watch them whenever they are on the couch and do not leave them unattended. They will potentially fall down from these surfaces and get an injury that could be serious. You should also consider putting plug protectors in to prevent your child from sticking their finger in the socket or some other item. A final safety tip here is to remember to use safety straps for your television. If your child is crawling, they will begin to use items to pull themselves up. This can be dangerous is they use a television stand and the television is unstable.

Your number one responsibility is to keep your child safe. There are so many accidents that happen yearly that are completely preventable and you want to make sure that your child does not become a statistic.