Child Safety: An Outlet Plug Alternative

When I was pregnant with my daughter, we headed out to a baby product super store and filled our cart (seriously…filled it) with safety products to child proof our home. Then we had our tiny preemie daughter, who turned out to be more content sitting and looking at books than trying to walk. She preferred playing with her toys quietly rather than exploring the house. In fact, she was so calm, and peaceful, and safe that the only product we ever installed was the baby gates for the tops and bottoms of steps.

Then child number two arrived. He was able to crawl up the steps at five months – if he could backward crawl his way there – and by six months had already fallen down the steps from the top step, landing on the hardwood floor. At nine months he flipped from the middle of a queen bed onto the floor in seconds. And outlets….boy, he crawled and ran to outlets like a moth to a flame.

By this point our daughter enjoyed listening to CDs and tapes and so she occasionally asked us to remove outlet plugs. Immediately our son grabbed the covers and shoved them in his mouth. We began to question what was more dangerous: the outlet or the outlet safety plug?

Now that our daughter is nearly five and our son will be three in May, I don’t worry as much about choking hazards. My son is long past that “everything in his mouth” phase. But earlier this month when I received an e-mail from George DeCell about Safety Caps, it immediately caught my attention. When I read about his daughter, Sage, choking on a standard safety plug at the age of one, I pictured my Noah, outlet cover in his mouth.

This is not a review; I have never seen or used this product. But the e-mail from George stirred that feeling deep inside me that outlet covers should be made differently. Safety Caps are wide enough at their largest diameter to not fit into a child’s mouth and esophagus. Also, they have the same air holes as pacifiers in the event that the child manages to place the Safety Cap in his mouth.

Accidents are inevitable. I certainly tried my best to keep my little guy from all of his crazy pitfalls and hijinks. Sometimes there’s just nothing we can do. However, if there’s a chance for a safer product out there for our kids, it’s worth checking out. I think that George and Sage just may be onto something with Safety Caps!

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