The Parenting Journal

Approximately 2,400 children are treated in U.S. emergency rooms each year for electrical outlet injuries (CPSC). That number is preventable. And the type of cover you choose matters more than most parents realize when they’re standing in the hardware store...

The dining room doesn’t look dangerous. That’s the problem. There’s no open water, no stairs, no obvious drop. What there is: hard edges at exactly toddler-head height, a tablecloth a curious two-year-old can yank with both fists, glassware at arm’s...

Most parents reach for a playpen out of necessity. You need two free hands. You need two free hands. The baby needs to be safe. The playpen solves that equation. But somewhere between "occasional safe zone" and "all-day solution," something...

The call from the living room came three days after my younger daughter took her first independent steps. Not a cry, just silence. I found her standing at the open cabinet under the bathroom sink, holding a bottle of drain...

The laundry room is one of the most hazardous rooms in your home, and it rarely makes the top of the babyproofing list. In my experience, parents spend hours on nursery safety and cabinet locks in the kitchen, then leave...

Every year, about 3,300 children age 5 and younger are treated in U.S. emergency rooms for window fall injuries (CPSC). That number doesn’t include older kids, and it doesn’t include falls that ended worse. Windows in homes with young children...

Opening a baby registry can feel overwhelming: 400 items, zero context, and a due date closing in. The registry becomes a wish list. It should be a safety plan.Room by room is the approach: start with space, not brand or...

Every parent knows roughly when their child "should" be walking. The milestone charts are everywhere, on the pediatrician’s wall, in the baby apps, in the well-meaning questions from relatives. So when your child hits 14 months, then 16, then 17...

The home office is one of the most dangerous rooms in the house for a toddler, and most parents don’t realize it until something goes wrong. I learned this the hard way when my younger daughter, at around 18 months,...