The world is a very different and dangerous place when you are looking up at everything from a foot above the floor and your coordination levels and walking ability are similar to that of your average male after a heavy Saturday night.

Your child may not be drunk, but there is little doubt about whether or not they are disorderly, and so begins the worrying as the world becomes a land of potential accidents and disasters for your child to ‘run’ into.

You need only to get down on your hands and knees to envisage the amount of troublesome corners on furniture, dangling tablecloths acting as pulleys for a scalding, inviting plug sockets and electrical wires, that your child could get tangled up in.

You may in actual fact, be tempted to go down the cotton wool route; however it is not what it is cracked up to be as the only way of preventing your child from waddling into trouble is by wrapping them up in a straight jacket, and even then they would probably find a way to shove it in their ear or swallow it.

Assuming you are a reasonable individual though, and can see the rights infringements involved in the straight jacket option, there are a few alternative solutions for giving your child as much freedom (with as little danger) as possible.

Here are a few tips that should help keep your child safe and yourself sane:

No babies allowed

Try crawling down the stairs head first in your house. And then, when you get back from accident and emergency, put up safety gates at the top and bottom of the stairs.

In all seriousness, children and staircases are not a good mix. Neither are children and garages, or children and kitchens.

There are certain rooms in a house that can be rearranged slightly in order to make them more children friendly, the kitchen and garage however, by their very nature are not in this bracket of room.

Make sure your kitchen is out of bounds to your little wanderer with the installation of more safety gates and if you have an easily accessible garage, the same goes for that too, as well as any other room you may have that is no place for a child.

Fire hazard

An obvious danger-zone for a child is the fireplace, so much so that it is a legal obligation to take the necessary precaution of putting up a shield. Shields are available for traditional and free-standing fires.

Things such as fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors should be in every home anyway, irrespective of whether or not there is a baby in the residence. However, when you do bring a child into your home they are a must as you are responsible for their safety. Both looking after the child and taking extra care of yourself is vitally important, for the sake of the child if nothing else.

Slippery surfaces

The temptation can be to put down nice soft rugs onto any harsh floorboards or wooden floors, and this is perfectly understandable as it will be much more comfy for your child’s delicate little bones.

It is important to ensure though, that your new rug does not turn your floor into something that is more slippery than an ice rink, some simple non-slip backing strips can be applied to a rug in seconds and help prevent any unnecessary falls.

Softly does it

You cannot turn your home into a large bouncy castle; neither can you sand down every single corner on the furniture that looks like a potential hazard. You can, however soften the corners and edges of your most child-hating furniture with safety padding.

Padding products are available to buy so there is no need to start taping your cushions to the corners of your coffee table. And while they are not the most attractive or decorative of features, hiding the discrete padding on your furniture from your guests will be the least of your worries when you’ve got sick on your carpet and you smell like you’ve been using nappies for pillows.

If it is not there, it can’t be eaten

Now may be a good time to put up those shelves that have been sitting in the garage since you last got carried away in Ikea, because you cannot leave anything within reach of your child’s fingers. Children are extremely curious little creatures, they want to chew, swallow, grab, poke, push, pull, and be sick on, as many things as they possibly can.

Tablecloths and curtains should be out of reach, wires should be secure inside cable tidies, unused plug sockets should be capped with plug guards and you should really consider removing that glass cabinet or, at the very least, sticking some anti-shatter sheets over the glass.

There is a lot more to preparing for bringing your new born home than slapping some blue or pink paint up in the spare room and putting up a cot from a flat pack.

But a little effort here and there will make for a happier child and of course, happier parents.