Travel Insurance Review

as-seen-on-header

  • Home
  • COVID
    • “Cancel For Any Reason” for COVID19
    • Travel Medical for COVID19
    • State Restrictions for COVID19
    • Airline Change/Cancellation Policies
  • Best Travel Insurance
  • Beginner’s Guide
  • Hurricane
  • Reviews
  • Tips & Advice
  • About
  • Podcast

13 Steps to Baby-Proof a Room in Under 5 Minutes when you Travel

January 21, 2013 By Damian Tysdal

Steps to Baby-Proof a Room in Under 5 Minutes when you TravelThe minute you have a child, you begin the job of protecting them from accidents and things that can harm them. Once they’re mobile, their world of exploration – and the area you have to baby-proof – grows as fast as they can crawl, walk, or run.

You know you can’t watch them every second and most parents don’t like the helicopter action of hovering over their child every minute. It’s also in a child’s nature to explore because that’s how they learn. You’ve done the necessary work to baby-proof at home, but once you leave the safety of your nest and travel, those safeguards are left behind and you need to repeat the effort at each stop along the way.

Let’s assume you’ve called ahead and asked about the hotel’s available baby equipment, including a crib or pack-and-play. If you ask, many hotels have a baby-proofing service, but just in case they don’t (or they don’t do it well), we’ll go over the risks.

What are the risks to your baby in a hotel room?

Depending on the amenities of your room, the most likely culprits are:

  • Trash cans – they’re full of germs and plastic bags
  • Sharp corners on furniture at head level
  • Electrical outlets and cords
  • Curtain or shade pulls that can strangle
  • Extra-hot water from the bathroom tap
  • Heavy objects that can be pulled down
  • Exposed fireplaces and heated radiators
  • Balcony railings (many countries don’t have the safety codes we do in America – balcony railings should be no wider than 4”)
  • All kinds of objects – coffee cups, ice tongs, bath products – within reaching level
  • The remote control – again with the germs

Supplies you need to baby-proof any room on vacation

Many parenting sites have a long list of things you should take along, including baby gates (to corral the kid), safety netting (for balconies), toilet latches, and more. And yet, much of what you need when baby-proofing any room is tape.

Choose your preferred tape – masking, painter’s, or duct – but a roll of tape will go a long way to ensuring you can control many of the risks to your baby’s exploring in a hotel room – many expert travelers prefer duct tape.

See 7 Ways Duct Tape makes a Self-reliant Traveler for details.

13 Steps to Baby-Proof your Room on Vacation

It helps to have a partner when you’re doing this because one of you can keep an eye on the kid while the other runs around and does the work, but if you don’t have someone along, put the kid temporarily in the hotel’s pack-and-play or crib. Remove any loose bedding and/or fluffy pillow material many cribs have and make sure the mattress fits snugly.

Once baby is secure, use these steps to baby-proof your condo, inn, or hotel room:

  1. Put all the trash cans up and out of reach – the shelf in the closet and the far corner of the bathroom vanity are good places to store these.
  2. Lock all the glass doors and windows and move the furniture near them away so acrobatic climbers can’t use the chair to push open the window and fall.
  3. Check the stability of the television – if you can jiggle or tip it, try to put it on the floor instead or at least push it far back out of junior’s reach.
  4. Gather up anything within reach of baby – the coffee maker, telephone, alarm clocks, pens, etc. and move them out of reach (if there’s no room, call housekeeping to come and remove them).
  5. Use your choice of tape to cover electrical sockets and tape wash rags to any sharp corners that are at head level.
  6. Tape down the access to the air conditioner too.
  7. If there are beautiful (read expensive) books on the tables, move those to a safe place to protect them from being chewed or ripped unless you want to pay for them.
  8. Tape the mini-bar and other cabinets and drawers closed, not only to prevent them from being raided but also to prevent them from unexpectedly swinging open when baby uses the handles to power their investigation.
  9. Collect all electrical cords within reach of baby and tape them firmly to the furniture.
  10. If the curtains or shades have pull cords, gather those and tape them high out of reach.
  11. If you’re not keeping the bathroom door firmly closed at all times, follow these steps in there:
    • tape the toilet lid down
    • ensure that baby can’t turn on the tap to the hot water
    • move all bath products out of reach
    • move all cords and other objects out of reach
    • tape over the lock on the door so they can’t lock themselves inside
  12. If your room has stairs and you didn’t bring a baby gate, you can stack suitcases to block their access to the stairs.
  13. Last step – get down on all fours and crawl around to see what they can see – buttons, pennies or other junk on the floor, for example – including under the furniture. If you do this with your baby, you have the perfect guide!

Of course, as a parent you know that these are just the best guidelines we can find and you’ll have to use your well-honed common sense and knowledge about your little person to be sure you’ve covered everything.

You’ll also need to keep an eye on your little one because no matter how good we are at protecting them, they often find ways to put themselves into danger that we never thought of!

Filed Under: Learning

About Damian Tysdal

Damian Tysdal is the founder of TravelInsuranceReview, and he believes travel insurance should be easier to understand. See more from Damian on Google+.

Click below to find the right travel insurance, with the best coverage, at the lowest price



Get a quote nowInstant prices from all companies


Get a quote nowInstant prices from all companies

About this website

My name is Damian, and I started this website in 2006 to help travelers understand travel insurance.

The site features company reviews, guides, articles, and many blog posts to help you better understand travel insurance and pick the right plan for your trip (assuming you actually need travel insurance).

I am also a licensed travel insurance agent, and you can get a quote and purchase through this site as well.

Get the Cheat Sheet

 Travel Insurance Review, Inc. BBB Business Review


ABOUT TRUST ONLINE
ustia

Popular Companies

  • Allianz Insurance
  • CSA Travel Insurance
  • Seven Corners Insurance
  • Travel Guard Insurance
  • Travel Insured
  • Travelex Insurance
  • TravelSafe Insurance

Learn about Travel Insurance

  • Beginner’s Guide
  • Coverage Guide
  • Tips and Advice
  • Company Reviews
  • Types of Plans
  • Types of Trips

Blog Article Categories

  • Learning
  • Types of Plans
  • Types of Trips
  • Coverage
  • General
  • In The News

Copyright © 2006-2019 Travel Insurance Review Inc. | XML Site Map<a title="XML Site Map"
Information on this Web site is provided for information purposes only. Any information obtained from this Web site should be reviewed with your Policy Certificate. Travel Insurance Review Inc. is not responsible for errors or consequences arising from your use of this information.