How to Child Proof Your Medicine Cabinet
Read more articles on Parenting and Toddlers/Preschoolers.November 26, 2006
Posted by Kim
November 26, 2006
Posted by Kim
1,316 Views
Keeping your children safe is a parent’s top priority in life. The home holds so many dangers for a child that some people don’t even really think about. One of the biggest dangers that a household contains are things generally contained within a medicine cabinet such as medicines. Keeping your child out of your medicine cabinet is a very important issue.
One way to prevent your child from accessing the medicine cabinet is to install a whole new cabinet that is lockable. You can buy a medicine cabinet to replace your old one that can only be opened with a key. Using one of these types will require keeping the key in a place that is easily accessible to adults, but where the children can’t or won’t find it. This can cause some stress if someone needs something quickly and can not find the key in time.
Another way to keep your child out of the medicine cabinet is to install a child-proof lock on your existing medicine cabinet. These locks, like other child-proof locks, are easily opened by an adult, but very difficult if not impossible to open by a child. There are several types of these locks since there are several different types of medicine cabinets that open differently.
One type of lock is the sliding cabinet/window lock. This type will prevent children from opening a medicine cabinet with a sliding door on it. These are generally very easy to install. They are made of plastic and stick to the cabinet door by use of adhesive. There are two “wings” that will keep the door from sliding behind the other door and thus preventing it from opening. In order to open the cabinet, both “wings” must be pushed down while sliding the door at the same time. Most children are not coordinated enough to do both things at once.
Another type of lock is the latch used for drawers and cabinets. This lock has two parts. One part attaches to the front of the cabinet and this is a little arm with a hook attached to it. The other part attaches to the top of the inside of the cabinet and contains the catch for the hook to fall into. These can either be attached using adhesive or using screws. These locks also require several motions at once to be able to open them.
These latches are often a very cheap way of keeping your children safe from the dangers of medications. Another big thing to keep your children safe is to make sure that all medications come equipped with child proof caps. These can be difficult even for an adult to open, but they are very important to keep your child from getting deathly ill. It is also a good idea to keep all medications in the medicine cabinet only and keep it locked. Keeping medications elsewhere is just more temptation for a child who is likely to view medicine as candy. Yes, keeping your medicine cabinet locked can cause a little extra stress, but in order to protect your child, it is a small price to pay.
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