When you first become a parent, it can either be very overwhelming because you understand how many things can go wrong, or you can take it very casually since you aren’t aware of all the things that can go awry. Initially, it might not seem like such a problem because you haven’t yet experienced different situations with the child.

For instance, giving the child a bath seems easy in theory but is much harder when you have to do it for the first time. Similarly, there are going to be a number of other situations that might seem straightforward enough, but it is a lot more challenging when you get around to doing it and it can be quite dangerous for the child if it isn’t done properly. Here are a few suggestions on how to tackle those situations.

Sleeping Safety

Many parents underestimate the challenge of putting a baby to sleep and ensuring that he or she remains safe throughout the night. Especially if the baby is sleeping in a separate room, you need to make sure they are in a safe environment and that you have some kind of monitoring system in place. Children can often fall victim to SIDS which most commonly occurs during sleep. One remedy for the situation is to give the child a pacifier at night to ensure their airway remains open. Another good option is to have a quality baby monitor in place. Ideally, the child should be sleeping in the same room as the parents, in their own crib.

Car Safety

Another challenge you will have is getting around town with the child on board the car. You will need to have a baby seat in the vehicle in any case, but choosing the right seat is a challenge. Moreover, a lot of people don’t even know how to properly use the seat they have. The child care specialists at wumblers.com/best-car-seats-for-preemies suggest that the most important thing to have in your child’s car seat is a good quality belt. Ideally, this should be one with a multi-point harness, but the belt itself should be of excellent quality.

Having selected the right seat, you need to make sure it is adjusted properly, that it is buckled into the locks properly, that the belt is not tangled or curled, and that there is minimal slack in the belt. Good seats offer easy adjustability options that tell you exactly how tight the belt is which makes it a lot easier to detect any problems with the belt.

Toy Safety

To children, everything is a toy. They love exploring new objects, surfaces, textures, smells, and anything they can get their little hands on. No matter how much child-proofing you do in and around the home, the baby will eventually find something to tinker with that they shouldn’t be playing with. You should learn about what kind of toys are right for your child at different ages while still being very vigilant when they are playing with their toys. They can easily put something in their mouth, strangle themselves, choke on a lego, or run into a range of other problems. Ideally, you should have a playpen for the child so that they can enjoy their toys in a safe space while you attend to other activities.

Feeding Safety

In the early stages, your child will mostly be relying on milk or very soft baby food. How you deliver the food to them is very important for their safety. With young children, it is important that you don’t give them their milk bottle in bed where they can lay down and drink since this is a choking hazard. Similarly, if you are using a high chair, make sure you have them strapped in to ensure they don’t slide out.

For food, make sure you aren’t giving them things like fruit with the skin on, nuts, hard candy, long strings of pasta, or anything that they could come on. In the early stages, your baby will drink milk and then fall right back to sleep. During this stage, you should give them a few minutes on your shoulder and pat their back till they burp to ensure that their airway is clear and that the milk has gone all the way down into their stomach.

A lot of the things that you figure out for the child’s safety will depend on your particular situation. One of the best things you can do is to clear their environment when they start crawling and remove any objects that could be dangerous such as scissors, lighters, shopping bags, etc. Try to look at the world from their perspective and find hazards that they will have easy access to at their height, for instance, sockets. Providing medical treatment to such small children can be very challenging, so the better you can take care of them the easier it will be.