How to Keep Your Kids Safe With Childproof Door Options and Accessories

Children and doors can be a very bad combination, especially when young children are involved. The natural curiosity of younger kids, combined with the many dangers that doors pose, is enough to worry even the most laid-back of parents. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to mitigate the risks associated with doors for young children, as we're about to discover. Join us as we explore the various ways in which you can make doors much safer for your children. Pinched fingers, bruised extremities, and injuries sustained after kids stumble into dangerous areas can all be avoided with the right door options and accessories.

The Holistic Approach to Childproofing Doors

It’s best to take a holistic approach to door safety if you want to minimise the chances of a child being injured by a door in your home. A holistic approach starts with the design of the doors you buy, before moving on to the selection of various options and accessories and concluding with the learning of, and adherence to, child door safety best practices.

Choosing Child-Safe Door Designs

When shopping for new interior or exterior doors, it’s crucial to consider child safety right from the start if you want to make your home a risk-free environment for little ones. This means focusing on designs that prioritise child safety to the point of including special features to protect tiny fingers and toes. Soft-closing doors and lightweight doors are two examples of door designs that do just this.

If you’re unsure which designs are safest for small children, it’s worth consulting with the suppliers that operate in your part of the world. All reputable manufacturers and suppliers will be happy to point you towards the most child-friendly designs in their range.

Essential Childproof Door Options and Accessories

When ordering new doors, you should have various options to choose from, including different colour schemes, choices of hardware, and glazing. You can also purchase 3rd-party accessories to fit on new and existing doors in your home.

• Colour Schemes - While colours may seem largely irrelevant when considering how to make doors safer for young children, brighter hues could be a better choice, according to some experts at least. Children who struggle with spatial awareness may find brightly-coloured doors and walls easier to deal with on a daily basis.
• Hardware - While most door hardware should be perfectly safe for children, it’s better to choose handles with rounded edges and hard-to-reach locks if you want to keep little hands and fingers out of trouble.
• Glazing - If you have very small children in your home, it’s worth paying extra for toughened safety glass when ordering new interior and exterior doors. It’s especially important to consider the likelihood of accidental breakages when ordering doors that feature larger panes of glass in their design.
• Special Accessories - Among the special child-friendly door options and accessories to consider are lever handle locks, knob covers, doorstops and finger pinch guards.

For peace of mind, it’s always worth paying a little more to get the best child-friendly features and accessories.

Secure Entry and Exit Points

In addition to the risks that doors themselves pose to young children, what lies behind them may also be a danger to our little ones.

To stop your children from meddling with things that could hurt them, we recommend you have relevant doors fitted with high-mounted locks that are only accessible to adults and older children.

Safety locks should be fitted to all exterior doors in your home if you have young children to prevent them from wandering outside unsupervised.

Choose laminated or reinforced safety glass for all internal and external doors that feature glazing. Glass that won’t shatter, even in a major impact, reduces the number and severity of injuries when accidents occur.

Best Practices for a Child-Safe Home

The right door design, options and accessories can make a huge difference where child safety is concerned, but you don't have to stop there. If you want to provide the safest home environment possible for your children, you can:

• Perform Regular Safety Checks – A visual inspection once a week to ensure locks, guards, and accessories are functioning properly can help avoid unnecessary accidents and incidents involving doors and children in the home.
• Educate Your Children – Teach your kids how to use doors safely so they don’t have to rely on you all the time.

These two acts alone will make your doors significantly safer for children.

Before We Close the Door…

We'd like to remind you that choosing the right designs, options, and accessories can make doors much safer for your children. You can also follow best practices to further reduce the risk of accidents. For expert advice, contact Rock Solid Doors. We have a wide range of child-friendly doors and would be delighted to help you choose the right ones for your home.