Safety Tips For Decorating A Childs Room

You may not be able to check off everything on your child's (or your own!) wish list, but there are a few key needs for each age-group that you should focus on. Safety is an important issue to consid­er when decorating your child’s room. Therefore you should examine furniture, toys, paints, and fabrics before using them to decorate. Even the placement of your child’s bed in relation to the doorway is a decision in which safety comes into play.

Babies:

Babies' needs are crucial but simple: a safe nest to sleep in, a safe place to have diapers changed, and a comfortable spot for you to sit while feeding, cuddling, and rocking him or her. In fact, a comfy rocking or gliding chair is as important as a bed and changing table. Scientific research has shown that babies actually need a lot of cuddling in order to thrive, physically as well as mentally. If you are a new parent, you'll probably be tired and stressed, so make it as easy as possible to spend cheek-to-cheek time with your baby. You'll both be healthier!

A changing table will get a lot of use, so be sure to get a good one. You can make a changing table out of a waist-high chest of drawers, but be sure you add a top with a low guardrail as well as a waterproof pad. A chest may be more versatile later, but it generally is not as safe and, therefore, not recommended. In addition, diapers and clothes will be easier to reach if you opt for a changing table with open shelves below. Choose a unit with a safety strap to go across baby's middle, or make sure you can get at things you need with one hand while keeping the other on your little wiggly worm at all times.

When it's time to decorate walls, remember that, until they're between six and nine months old, babies can't see subtle colors and details. Black-and-white and other strongly contrasting colors work better as do simple patterns. A proven favorite is two dots and a curve within a circle that suggests human eyes and smiling mouth.

If you don't care for vivid color schemes, choose a pastel you'd like to use longer term and pair it with a dark or bright accent hue you can change when your child gets a bit older. Another option is simply to stick with more restful pastel hues throughout the room and provide visual stimulation with age-appropriate toys.

Although newborn babies' sight may be lacking, their hearing and sense of touch are almost fully developed at birth. Indulge them with safe toys in a variety of textures and soft melodic sounds. Crib toys and mobiles that move or play music will appeal to most babies as well as add attractive color and pattern to the room. Just make sure that any hanging toys your baby can reach are safe and that they do not have small detachable parts.

Toddlers: Babies who are old enough to crawl, let alone toddle, are at their most challenging in terms of safety. At this stage they can perceive colors better than infants, but they still lack the ability to understand, say, a storybook scene on a wall. Keep decorating ideas simple for awhile yet, and concentrate on making sure every square inch is clean and safe. For example, no hanging tablecloths, no exposed electrical outlets, no breakable or heavy items on tables and shelves, and no sharp corners on any furniture.

Tots making the transition from crawling to toddling will use any available vertical item to pull themselves up, so choose furniture pieces that are sturdy and stable.

For the inevitable tumbles, make sure floors are clean and resilient or softly covered with carpeting or rugs. If you don't have wall-to-wall carpeting, use slip-proof pads under every rug. Vinyl resilient tiles and wood flooring are more forgiving than ceramic tile or stone, but nonslip rugs can make a real difference on any floor.

Depending on how active or how tall your child is, you may want to make the transition to a low youth bed now. If there's even a chance your child can climb out of the crib, it's time to move on.

Above information provided courtesy of howstuffworks.com

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