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10 tips to “toddler-proof” your vacation hotel room or cottage
Leslie Penkunas//July 25, 2019
Your toddler doesn’t take a break from being a toddler when you’re on vacation. Here are 10 tips from Dr. Harvey Karp — a pediatrician, creator of the 5S’s and author of Happiest Baby on the Block — to child-proof your hotel, motel or house rental when you’re traveling.
- Crawl around the floor to find loose staples, plastic bits, buttons, coins. Yes you! Get on all fours! Imitate your baby!
- Check sofa cushions for loose change.
- Close up any electric outlets with tape or little blank stoppers.
- Make sure your toddler can’t pull over any heavy furniture, drawers and/or TVs.
- Hide any dangling cords (like curtain pulls) that can get around a child’s neck.
- Put a bit of paper medical tape and a cotton ball over any sharp corners or hard metal/brick edges.
- Make sure the smoke alarms/fire extinguishers work and you have an exit strategy in case of fire.
- Consider purchasing smoke hoods; in case of fire, smoke is usually the biggest danger.
- Keep your Motrin handy.
- Have the phone number and location of the local hospital, as well as any friends nearby, and your doctor back home.
