The Parenting Journal

Small apartments concentrate hazards. Everything is closer together: the kitchen is steps from where your baby plays, the bathroom door is always in view, and the single bookcase in the corner holds everything from your router to a heavy vase....

About 3,500 infants die each year from sleep-related causes in the United States, according to CDC SUID data. That number has not changed much in recent years, despite everything we know about how to reduce it. Most of those deaths...

About 3,500 infants die each year from sleep-related causes in the United States, according to CDC SUID data. Most of those deaths happen in environments that looked safe to the parents who set them up. That’s the part that stays...

Every week, somewhere in the United States, a dresser falls on a child. That is not a rhetorical device. CPSC reports one child death every two weeks from furniture, TV, or appliance tip-overs. And the location where it most often...

Every nursery looks safe before a baby arrives. The room is clean, the furniture is new, the crib is assembled and sitting in the corner like a promise. Then your baby starts moving, and you realize the room you designed...

The night my older daughter fell out of bed the first time, I didn’t hear it happen. I heard the silence after it, and then the cry. She was 28 months old, three weeks into her big-kid bed, and she’d...

Every year, parents who own fireplaces face a choice that feels deceptively simple: put something between the child and the flames, or don’t. The problem is that "something" covers a wide range of products, from flimsy decorative screens to serious...

Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury death in children ages 1–4, according to the CDC. It happens silently. There is no dramatic splashing, no screaming, no moment that looks like what we see in movies. A toddler can...

Every summer, I walk out to our backyard and feel the same split-second of relief when I see the gate latch is still in place. It takes about three seconds to check. It takes far less time than that for...