Every baby-proofing list I was given as a young mother was organised by room. Kitchen, bathroom, stairs. It is the wrong axis, and it is why people either do far too much at four months or get caught out entirely at nine.
Babies do not get more dangerous room by room. They get more dangerous ability by ability. Nothing much changes for weeks, and then in the space of a fortnight they can travel, or they can stand, or they can climb, and the whole house reorganises itself around what they can suddenly reach.
So this is the same list everybody gives you, sorted by the only thing that actually matters: what the baby has just learned to do. Do each stage while they are still in the one before it. The transitions are always faster than you expect — a baby who has never rolled can roll for the first time on a changing table.
Get on the floor and crawl the route they crawl. Every room, at their height, slowly.
You will find things no checklist can know about: the cord behind the chair, the coin under the sofa, the loose bit of trim at the bottom of the cupboard, the dog’s bowl, the bag of shoes. Ten minutes on your hands and knees is worth more than any list on the internet, including this one. Then do it again at each new stage, because the view changes when they stand up.
Sorted by what they can newly do
Ages are rough and babies ignore them cheerfully. Use the ability, not the month.
They can move without going anywhere.
This is the stage of falls from height rather than hazards at floor level. The new fact is that a surface they were safe on yesterday is not safe today, and the change usually arrives without warning.
Never leave them on a raised surface — changing table, bed, sofa — even for the second it takes to turn round. Change on the floor when you can.
The crib is bare. No pillows, bumpers, soft toys or loose blankets.
Bouncers and seats go on the floor, never on a table or counter.
Start the floor sweep now, before you need it. Small objects, coins, older siblings’ toys.
Horizontal travel. The whole floor is now in play.
This is the big one, and it is where most of the actual work is. Everything at floor level is now reachable, and everything reachable goes in the mouth.
Stair gates at the top and the bottom. The one at the top should be screwed into the wall rather than held by pressure.
Outlet covers, and trailing cords shortened, tucked or run behind furniture.
Low cupboards latched — especially anything under a sink, which is where the cleaning products almost always live.
The toilet roll tube test. If an object fits through the tube, it is a choking hazard and it does not belong on the floor.
Pet bowls, litter, plants and shoes moved. This is the category everyone forgets.
The hazard line rises about three feet overnight.
They stand by hanging their whole weight on whatever is nearest, which means furniture is now a hazard because of what it does when it is pulled, not because of what is on it.
Anchor the furniture to the wall. Dressers, bookcases, televisions. A chest of drawers with the drawers open is a ladder, and it will tip.
Nothing hot on a low table, and no tablecloths — a tablecloth is a handle that brings everything down at once.
Corner guards on the coffee table, or move the coffee table out for a year. Moving it is cheaper and works better.
Oven and dishwasher doors — both are steps as far as a new stander is concerned.
Lower the crib mattress the week they first pull themselves up in it, not the week after.
Now they have hands free, and they have watched you.
The last stage is the one people stop preparing for, and it is the one where the reach gets long and the problem-solving starts. They saw how you opened it.
Windows. A screen will not hold a child’s weight. Window guards or restrictors on anything above ground level, and furniture moved away from under the sills.
Blind and curtain cords tied high and out of reach, or replaced with cordless.
Assume the stair gate will be climbed eventually, and watch for the first attempt.
Chairs are transport. Anything safe because it is high is only safe until a chair is dragged to it.
Front and back doors — a bolt at adult height is the simplest thing that works.
Babies do not get more dangerous room by room. They get more dangerous ability by ability.
Rebecca
Four things that never wait their turn
These do not belong to a stage. They apply from the day you bring a baby home, and they stay true long after the gates come down.
Button batteries and magnets.
The small coin-shaped batteries in remotes, key fobs, greeting cards and toys, and any small strong magnets. Both are genuine emergencies if swallowed, not wait-and-see situations. Keep them locked away and taped shut in anything you own.
Water, at any depth.
Baths, buckets, paddling pools, pet bowls, toilets. Never leave a baby in a bath for a moment, empty anything that holds water when you are finished with it, and do not rely on a bath seat to hold anyone up.
Medicines and detergent capsules.
High and locked, including handbags and bedside tables, and including the visitors’ ones. Laundry capsules look exactly like something worth biting.
Nothing here replaces watching them.
Latches and gates buy you seconds, and seconds matter. They do not buy you a room you can leave. The hardware is a backstop for the moment you look away, not a substitute for being there.
Do not buy the whole aisle at once. Buy for the stage you are entering: outlet covers and latches at crawling, anchors and corner guards at pulling up, window restrictors at climbing. The multi-packs are the sensible way to do it because you will always need more latches than you counted, and the gate at the top of the stairs is the one item I would never buy on price.
Baby proofing kits and latchesSome links on this page are affiliate links — if you buy through one, HowTo: Family Edition earns a commission at no extra cost to you.
This is the piece where I want to be careful. A checklist written by a grandmother is not a safety standard — product instructions, current guidance from your pediatrician, and your country’s child safety authority all outrank anything on this page, and gates, anchors and restraints only work when they are fitted the way the manufacturer says. If you think a child has swallowed a button battery, a magnet, a medicine or a cleaning product, or if they have had a fall you are unsure about, that is an emergency call rather than an internet search — keep your local emergency and poison numbers somewhere you will not have to look for them. And it is worth doing an infant first aid and choking course before you need one. I have had four of these houses over thirty years and I still keep the numbers on the fridge.
Do the next stage, not all of them. Then get back on the floor and look again, because they have already learned something new since you started reading.
Rebecca
August 2026
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