Baby Talk :: My View on Baby Safety

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There's a million and one products and tools out there to keep your baby safe. And while I'm sure they are wonderful and helpful, we don't use hardly any of them. 

Before you go getting your feathers all ruffled and calling child services on me...let me explain. 

I think the key to keeping your child safe is parenting. 

For example, I don't feel the need for a safety gate because Kenley would never be out of my sight long enough to make it to the stairs. If I were doing something where I couldn't keep my eye on her she would either be in her crib, pack n play, bouncer or I would shut doors to keep her contained in the room with me. We also don't have a baby monitor, we are able to hear Kenely when she cries and when she cries we check on her - I don't need to watch her on a screen or track her movement to see if she's OK. 

Again, don't freak out, I'm not saying you're a bad parent or you don't pay attention to your kid if you use safety gates or monitors or any safety gadget for that matter, they are wonderful inventions and I'm sure they are very helpful - I'm just saying Jason and I personally don't feel the need for them in our home and there is no device that can replace keeping an eye on your baby. 

The thing that kills me is that some bone head parents makes a dumb mistake and ruin it for the rest of us. Take the Bumbo for example. 

Literally the week after my baby shower where I was gifted the Bumbo seat by my friend Kristen, it was recalled. When I went to see what the recall was to see if I should be returning the seat I was actually amused to see that they had added a strap to the interior of the seat because babies had fallen off of counter-tops. OF COURSE, I was not amused that babies had fallen and been seriously injured but amused that Bumbo had to recall their product because people don't have common sense enough to watch their kid when they are sitting on a counter-top. Explain to me how this is Bumbo's fault? Needless to say I did not return my Bumbo or get the strap, I simply make sure that my baby is not left alone in the seat anywhere that could cause her harm.

Then of course, after Kenley was born and was actually using the seat I would get comments from people who would see photos of her in it telling me "Did you know those were recalled?" or "Be careful, the Bumbo was recalled" And I actually took offense to this. I know they were trying to be helpful but I was offended that people thought that I wouldn't be up to date on the equipment we were using OR that I would be lumped in to the category of the bonehead parents that don't pay attention to their kids and rely on a product to keep their baby safe. 

Of course it's inevitable that accidents will happen. Kenley has bumped her head plenty of times, but all kids are going to get a scratch or bruise every now and then no matter how closely you watch them or how many gadgets you have to keep them safe.

Think of when our parents were kids - or even when we were kids! Half of these products didn't exist. When I was a baby EVERYONE had bumpers {which are a big no-no now} and my dad didn't even ride in a car seat - heck they didn't even have seat belts!

Obviously we've come a long way and thank heavens we have car seats and seat belts now, but I do think there is a level of overreaction in society as well as a lack of responsibility on parents to actually parent. 

When I actually thought about it I realized that Jason and I use TWO safety products. 

1. Our car seat! 

A car seat is definitely a safety product that cannot be ignored.

and

2. Outlet covers. 

The day Kenley figured out how to crawl she literally went straight for the outlet and stuck her teeny tiny little finger right in the socket. 

Aside from that, we really haven't had to use anything else. This is not to say we won't need some cabinet locks or things like that in the future. But I will say I don't ever want to spend money on a product that simply replaces me watching my baby. I brought her in to this world and it's my responsibility to keep her safe - if I can't handle that, it's probably time for you to call child services.