When your babes are still crawling around on the floor they might see electrical outlets and want to put their fingers in the holes. They aren’t being naughty. They are just curious and don’t understand how dangerous this is. While you can’t teach a baby to not do this, you can start teaching toddlers how to be safe. As for the wee crawlers in your home, use outlet plugs to prevent tiny fingers from going where they shouldn’t.
It sounds funny, but when your toddler doesn’t understand that an open outlet means danger, he or she probably does understand “owie!” or “ouch!”. Practice this with your toddler daily until your child starts pointing at the outlets and saying the chosen expression unprompted. It also helps to make a very sad face and/or placing sad face stickers near the outlets. If you can find sad face stickers that have a band-aid pictured on the face, that’s even better.
You can find stories showing what can happen if fingers or other objects are stuck in outlets. These stories are designed with preschoolers in mind. Read them to your child a few times a week until he or she has a clear understanding of why outlets can be dangerous. You can also share stories of how to get help if they think someone else has been hurt by an outlet.
At this age, most kids are so much taller than the outlets on the walls in your home that they really don’t notice the outlets much. However, it’s still important to ask them once in a while how they know that outlets are dangerous. Confirming what they know can put your mind at ease knowing that they aren’t likely to do anything dangerous now. It doesn’t hurt to keep outlet safety plugs in the outlets until your kids are over the age of ten.
