5 Tips for Making a Child's Bedroom Safe

A child's bedroom needs to be a safe haven for your child. Both a place to sleep and a place to play, the kids' room needs to be carefully laid out and decorated in a manner that stimulates the mind and allows for a peaceful night's sleep. Here are 5 helpful tips for making your child's bedroom a safe space, which in the end will give you peace of mind.

1.) Make It Breathable: "Clean your room!" This exclamation is all too common with parents who have young children. When it comes to a clean room, it's important to look past the toys on the floor and under the bed. How's the air quality in your kids' room? Ideally your kids' room should have a couple of windows and when the weather is nice you should open them up during the day. Adding a fan is also a good idea as it helps to circulate the air which helps to eliminate dust and other allergens.

If you are thinking about painting your child's room, consider using low-VOC or zero-VOC paint on the walls. VOCs or "Volatile Organic Compounds" are low level toxins that are found in most paints. VOCs are released both during the painting process as well as long after the paint has dried. Low and zero-VOC paints are durable, affordable and available in just as many colors as traditional paint varieties. These paints are also water-based, therefore easy to clean with some soap and warm water. Additionally, low and zero-VOC paints have little or no hazardous fumes which make for a fresher kids' bedroom! Make sure that you read your labels when buying paint, as all low and zero-VOC paints are clearly marked as such.

2.) Check Your Furniture: Whether you are purchasing new furniture or using some older stuff, make sure that all of your furniture meets today’s safety standards. Most kids’ furniture today meets standards set by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) and the packaging should tell you as much. Check and make sure that all of the corners of your furniture pieces are padded - this includes dressers, changing tables, beds and desks. Most furniture stores sell edge and corner guards which are easy to install and make for a much safer room.

Bed safety is also very important. Toddler beds and bunk beds should both be equipped with bed rails on the sides and at the head and foot of the bed. These safety rails help ensure that your kids won't roll off the bed during the night and get injured. Where you place your bed in the bedroom also is important! Do not place your kid’s bed less than 2 feet from windows, heating vents, radiators, wall lamps, drapery or window-blind cords. Make sure and measure your bed before buying a new mattress as there should be no gaps between the bed frame and the mattress. The mattress should fit snuggly in the bed frame. If there is any kind of gap wider than a couple of inches - arms, legs and even heads could get stuck, causing injury or even suffocation!

3.) Buy Safe, Soft Bedding: Now that you have made sure that your kids' bed is safe to sleep on - it's time to tackle the bedding. Kids' bedding should be machine washable, soft and made from natural fibers. Organic bedding is definitely a good bet, though it tends to be on the pricier side. Look for bedding made from 100% cotton or other natural materials. Cotton by nature is soft, comfortable and breathable! It's also essential that you purchase some hypoallergenic pillow protectors and mattress protectors. Pillow protectors protect kids from dust mites and other allergens that tend to stick to the pillow. A quality stain-resistant mattress protector will not only protect against accidents, but most are hypoallergenic to boot!

4.) Buy Safe Toys: Toy giant Toys "R" Us is predicting a huge increase in the sales for eco-friendly toys this holiday season. This is most likely due to all of those recent toy recalls from China, where toys were tainted with high levels of lead paint. It's a good idea to go through your kids bedroom and check to see if any of the toys have been recalled recently (Recalls.gov is a good resource). When it comes to buying new toys, stick to toys made from organic cottons, wools and other natural fibers. These toys also tend to use natural and organic dyes and paint which are safer. Natural wood toys are also a great option. If you are buying plastic toys, just make sure they are PVC-free (Polyvinyl chloride) and you should be good to go!

5.) Exercise Common Sense: Just because your kids aren't babies anymore, doesn't mean you should go and remove all of those "baby-proofing" safety features from your kids' room! Keeping all of your electrical outlets covered is still a good idea, as is keeping the waste basket covered! Little hands like to go everywhere and by taking these precautions you reduce the risk of electrocution or accidental ingestion of something from the trash. Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to throw away rubber bands, latex balloons or anything really sharp. Additionally, keep all medicines and cleaning supplies out of the kids’ room! For toy storage, a toy basket is probably your best bet - or a toy chest without a lid so the kids don't pinch their fingers when closing it!

As parents - you're going to worry about your kids! It's just inevitable! By following this list of safety guidelines, you'll be sleeping a lot more soundly at night.