Walking Safety

The early days of your child’s walking career may be exciting, but they’re often not pretty. Expect plenty of spills, crashes, and maybe even a cut lip or some black-and-blue marks as your baby blazes her first trails. While you can’t keep her from falling — learning to get up is an important part of the process, after all — you can set the scene to cushion the blows, both to her noggin and her ego, with these walking safety tips.

Double your childproofing efforts

You probably babyproofed before your child turned into a crawler, but now that she’s upright and ready to cruise, go through the house again. (Get down on your knees occasionally for a real toddler’s-eye view of possible hazards.)

• Lock away any harmful liquids or cleaners, and secure the cabinets that you don’t want tiny fingers exploring. (But leave the cabinets with the plastic storage containers and pots and pans accessible so that your toddler can play with them as you go about mealtime prep.)
• Remove roadblocks. A lot of things can derail an unsteady cruiser or beginner walker. So stash the throw rugs for now and minimize the clutter that could trip up still-clumsy feet.
• Set up baby gates at the tops and bottoms of stairs, install window guards on the windows that are above ground level, and secure or move any piece of furniture that could tip over when grabbed by grasping hands (such as bookcases).
• Pad all sharp corners that could bonk your child in the head; if you have a glass-topped coffee table, see if you can replace the top with a more baby- and toddler-friendly material. (If you can’t, think about storing it until your child is older.)
• Remember to leave doors and drawers shut — babies and young toddlers can wander out the door or climb into a drawer (and cause a dresser to tip over). Get some childproof doorknob covers for the front and back doors (and any room you don’t want your child toddling into — like the bathroom).
• Cover any heated surface like radiators, heaters or furnaces, and put a grill around a fireplace — the last thing you want is your little cruiser burning her hands.

Despite your best efforts at childproofing, there will be bumps and tumbles — not to mention tears. Try not to display too much disappointment or worry when she has an inevitable stumble or even makes a thunderous thud. (Do a quick check for injuries beyond normal bumps and bruises, and alert the doc if a bad bonk to the head is followed by vomiting or sudden drowsiness.) Otherwise, offer something casual like “Oops! That’s okay!” Then remind her how to pick herself up, dust herself off and start truckin’ again.