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Sometimes toddlers need to be protected
against their urge to explore, but the wooden accordion gates and
corrals most parents rely on to keep them out of danger may not be safe
baby gate after all. The United States Consumer Product Safety
Commission has received enough reports of strangulations and injuries
involving the familiar folding baby gates and playpens to have
manufacturers hire engineers to redesign their products.
In the meantime, owners of the ten million accordion gates currently in
use should be aware that children who stick their heads between the
slats could choke themselves to death. The accordion corrals used in
158,000 homes are shaky and apt to close up when a child agitates the
slats.
There is another type of baby safety gate on the market, a solid gate
consisting of a sliding plastic mesh panel framed in a rectangle of
wood. Although somewhat more costly than the traditional accordion
gate, presumably it is considerably safer.
Of course, no playpen, accordian gate, stair gate or fence will always
keep adventuresome crawlers, beginning walkers, and toddlers from
exercising their power of locomotion and simultaneously trying to
satisfy their boundless curiosity. All parents must practice eternal
vigilance, not only by sight but also in the mind's eye. If a child can
think of it, you'd better believe that sooner or later he may try it.
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