What Exactly is Baby Proofing?
I really doubt that anybody would actually not know what baby proofing is. However, just in case some new parents ended up reading this, let me clarify what it is. Baby proofing is not a real dictionary term, but it’s actually a way of describing all of this:
- Your baby can crawl or walk now and can start doing dangerous things so you have to protect her
- Your baby still likes to put things into her mouth which can choke her
- She likes to touch everything so she can knock things over to hurt herself
- Your job is to make your home a safe living environment for her so she doesn’t kill herself when you get distracted by something
In other words, if you didn’t baby proof your home, then your child will have a chance of getting herself killed because she doesn’t know better. This article will focus entirely on how to make your christmas tree safe for your mobile little one.
So How Exactly Do You Baby Proof a Christmas Tree?
Christmas trees are nice and all, but they are also one of the most dangerous things your child can play with with or without adult supervision. It has so many goodies hanging all over it, so of course any child will get extremely excited to get her hands on it. The best thing you can do to make the tree as safe as possible. Try doing the following:
- Don’t use tinsel -For those who doesn’t know what tinsel is. Tinsel are these long strings of pine needle looking things that people normally hang on their christmas tree. It’s very shiny and it comes in different colors. The whole point of it is to reflect the flickering lights around the Christmas tree in order to create sparkling effects. In the past, these things were made of metal, but now it’s made of plastic. Either way, its something your little one can easily tug on and put into her mouth. It’s a definite safety hazard you want to avoid.
- Be careful about glass – You might have a lot of nice looking glass ornaments that you can hang on your tree. However, these can actually fall and leave glass shards all over the place. You definitely don’t want your child to put this into her mouth. Use shatterproof ornaments instead. and also make sure they are not small enough to be a choking hazard. This applies to antiques that you want to hang on your tree. If you have antiques that you definitely want to show off during Christmas, then don’t hang it on your tree. Put it on a high shelf somewhere and stabilize it so that it doesn’t fall over.
- Put your tree in the corner – Your tree won’t feel lonely if you put it in the corner. It’s the best place to be safety wise. The reason is because at the corner, there are already two walls protecting it, so you can at least have the tree “hang on” either of those walls which makes it much easier to secure the tree.
- Stabilize your tree – Your Christmas tree might look rooted, but it’s not obviously. I read somewhere before that even a cat is capable of tipping it over. If a lightweight cat can do it, then your moving child will definitely be able to tug it over herself and turn into a living pancake. If you want to avoid that then make sure the roots are stabilized. You can either screw it to the floor or fill a bunch of boxes with big heavy rocks and anchor it down. The choice is yours. You can also gift wrap those boxes so that they look like gifts. Just tell your kids that they are only allowed to open them after Christmas.
- Watch out for electric shocks – If you have lights hanging around your tree then you most likely powered it up with something like plugging into an outlet for example. Your kids can actually electricute themselves by playing with them. Use outlet covers that requires two hands to open by an adult to stop that.
- Don’t use hooks – Hooks used to be the way to go when hanging ornaments. However, it’s highly recommended that you don’t do that, because those hooks are a serious choking hazard. These hooks might fall onto the floor and your little one might put one in her mouth and choke herself. Do yourself a favor and buy a ball of string instead and tie the ornaments tightly to each branches. You might consider ribbons too, but they are quite pricey if you want to hang more than just a few ornaments.
- Add alarms that works – I have heard of recommendations where people put bells on their trees to alert them if their baby plays with it. That’s not a bad idea, but choose bells that are actually more sensitive to the touch. Some bells are so quiet that your child can actually be chewing on the pine without you noticing. Make sure the bells don’t requires vigorous shaking to make a sound. It should start alarming others at the slightest movement.
- Give up the real tree – If your child still enjoys putting things into her mouth then I highly recommend you get a fake christmas tree. Real trees shed pines in which your child can swallow. You don’t really want that. It’s true that fresh pine trees shed less pines, but it still sheds them. Real pines also has natural oil on them that can easily burn and cause a fire. It has actually happened to a lot of people already so beware.
- Don’t give them the ladder – Alright, maybe you won’t really give a step ladder for your child to climb to the top of the tree. However, there are similar furnitures that can produce the same results as a ladder, so for safety concerns, move all furnitures away from the tree if possible.
Great advice! I remember when my kids were little we bought a little tree and put it up on a table, out of reach of curious little ones. Christmas trees can be fun but scary with little ones. Thanks for all these tips! Moms and dads take note!! You don’t want a fun season to turn into a terrible one.
Christmas is a great time to celebrate with the little ones. However, the trees are such a hazard. Thanks for sharing your own personal experience. I hope this helps a lot of parents also.
Thanks for sharing all these tips. From my experience we had just given up on the idea of putting up a Christmas tree altogether as we couldn’t be sure how it could be baby proof. For us, the baby or toddler can easily do something dangerous when we have looked away so it was better to be safe and sorry.
Don’t be discouraged just because it’s a hazard. There’s a lot of parents out there who can enjoy their christmas tree just fine along with their little ones. Just follow the tips above and you should be good to go.
Thanks for writing this helpful article on baby-proofing! Over the holidays, my nieces and nephews came over and I think I was anxious the whole time, mostly because of the Christmas tree. They did a tiny bit of damage to the decor of the tree, but of course, my main concern was that they would somehow hurt themselves (worst cast scenario–tree falling on them!) Thankfully, this didn’t happen. Good to know about tinsel and glass ornaments! I’ll definitely keep that in mind next year when I trim the tree!
Maybe your nieces and nephews will be different next year. It really depends on how old they will be by then. If they are already going to school then they most likely have been taught to behave correctly and not touching anything they are not supposed to touch. At that point, you might not really have to baby proof your tree. However, as a precaution you should still watch over them of course.
As the father of 2 young children, both under the age of 3, I really appreciate this post. A Christmas tree can make life pretty hectic for parents when young children are around, they are instantly drawn to it and only want to touch everything!
I think you listed some fabulous tips, and the only other thing that came to my mind was to have a smaller tree that can be put on a table or something until the kids are old enough to understand.
A small tree on a table sounds like a great idea. However some people like those big glimmering trees that lights up the whole living room. IT really depends on the taste of the person. A small tree also wouldn’t work if your kids can climb onto the table so watch out for that too.
Thank you for all these great tips! My son is old enough, so I don’t have to worry about him with the Christmas tree anymore. I do have young nephews and they don’t understand the concept look don’t touch. They see pretty, shiny objects and there first instinct is to try and grab them! I will definitely be using some of these great tips next Christmas! Thank you again for all this great advice, I know it will help many parents!
I have little kids in the house that are like that too. They are so much fun but they just enjoy touching shiny stuff a little bit too much. I hope this helps. I know it’s still too soon before Christmas, but that’s more time for you to be prepared.
Thanks for the advice. I certainly know about all the dangers that a simple Christmas tree can cause because my mother has an in home daycare and gates come in good handy to keep the kids away. She has lots of gates for protection to keep the kids away from dangerous areas. Christmas is a time for joy but if you have a little one it can be a little more stressful. Again thanks for the great heads up..
The gates are alright in terms of keeping the little one out. However, if you find it too ugly, then design it with ribbons and stuff so it adds the effects of the tree instead of taking it away.
All of things that make a tree dangerous for babies almost makes me not want to have kids. They are ruining Christmas!!! just kidding of course.
But if I could I would like to offer a few other ideas of safety tips that came to mind reading your site and then see if you agree with them.
The first one would be to keep the tree up and decorated for not any longer then you really need to. I am not saying put up the Christmas tree in Christmas eve that Is absurd. But maybe instead of being the person that is buying a tree the day after thanksgiving you can get yours in mid December. This just limits the time in which you need to watch out for an accident.
The second one would be to put the tree in a place where the babies are not roaming. That side room that you are rarely in and the baby does not have direct access to. That may be the best place for a tree that can be out of the way except for that special day.
What do you think?
Those are some pretty good ideas. However, that really depends on the type of tree you are getting. If you want a fresh pine tree then it’s better to wait anyway, but if you are getting a fake tree then buy it ahead of time and lock it up somewhere. You don’t have to design it right away. You can always do that two to three weeks in advance. As for putting the tree in a place where babies don’t roam. That would really depend on the layout of your house. There’s too many factors involved and this is especially true if your little one can crawl around.
Great tips! Definitely a great list to go through before we set up our tree this year! (Wow, it’s almost the end of February already!). I know some people who put baby fence around their tree. What do you think about that? Also, do you have any list of Christmas tree decoration that you would recommend for parents with younger kids?
Wow, great page!!
I have a 3 month old baby who will be one this Christmas, and I had really even given much thought on how to baby proof the tree! These are some great ideas!
I love the idea for the bells! I could decorate them really cute and put them all around the tree!
Along with the tinsel and glass ornaments, there are so many different parts of the tree decorating process to think about. Thanks so much for these tips! Will definitely be remembering them when Christmas comes around!
– Nicole
Our 11 month old grandson will be here Christmas eve and I would like to put some ornaments/toys on the lower limbs f our tree that hs can safely put in his mouth. Otherwise, not worried as there will be 7 adults to one baby, so we can keep him safe. Any suggestions for baby safe ornaments?
Did you try the bell trick? Seven adults to one baby. That is definitely enough supervision.
However, in case everybody is busy on their cell phones and tablets, adding little bells there would alert everyone in case the baby is messing with the tree.
As for baby safe ornaments, anything that is not a choking hazard. In other words, any small items should be avoided. Avoid glass and any objects with hooks.
You should also be careful with the tree itself because it can fall on your baby if it’s not stabilized by something .