Dogs can be loyal companions and family protectors, and many dogs are considered members of the family. As such, it is essential to know how to prepare your dog for a newborn, so that they don’t become too difficult to manage or cause any harm during this time of great change. Introducing your furry friend to your new baby properly can help them accept your newborn as a lasting member of the family, and as an individual to care for and protect.
Can Dogs Sense Pregnancy?
A dog’s fantastic sense of smell can detect changes in a pregnant woman’s hormonal patterns during pregnancy. Because of this, a dog may be able to understand that a woman is pregnant even before the woman does. Dr. Ann Hohenhaus, a staff doctor at the New York City Animal Medical Center, states: “I suspect that dogs can smell something we cannot in a pregnant woman.”
Your dog’s ability to detect changes brought on by pregnancy extends well beyond its nose. Dogs can detect subtle changes in movement, mood, physical changes (your growing belly), and behavior. You can take steps to prepare your dog for the most significant change, helping them to learn to behave correctly, and not feel left out, when your baby finally arrives.
Preparing a Dog For Your Baby
You can start preparing your dog for a new family member well before your baby arrives. In essence, you’ll have nine months to slowly introduce your pup to the changes that will be affecting them, and to get them used to these upcoming differences. Consider some of the approaches below to prepare your dog for a baby around the house.
Start as Soon as You Know You Are Pregnant
Training and retraining should begin immediately after confirming you are pregnant. You can start by tackling any aggressive tendencies or fear-based issues your dog might display. For instance, dogs may aggressively guard their food bowl, resting space, or toys. This could be hazardous for babies and young children who don’t understand to leave these things alone, or who may be oblivious to the warning signs that dogs normally give off.
There are numerous treatment exercise options for food guarding and relaxing a dog around its bed or toys. Try some desensitization or counterconditioning techniques so that your dog won’t have such strong reactions to people, especially babies, being near these things.
You should also pay attention to how your dog acts around strangers and infants. Get them used to waiting to greet strangers, while not jumping up on them. Dogs can become excited and want to jump up on people, which could inadvertently harm your baby. It is also a good idea to determine your dog’s sensitive areas.
Common sensitive areas for dogs are the ears, mouth, paws, and tail. It is a strong possibility that a baby may pull on your dog’s ear, which may provoke an unwanted reaction from your dog. Help your dog become more comfortable with these areas being grabbed and played with by handling them by the collar and touching and/or petting their mouth and ears while giving them treats. This way, they associate these areas being handled with something positive, and won’t act aggressive or fearful when these areas are grabbed.
It is always wise to speak with your veterinarian when for the best approach to these techniques, and you may even want to consider training classes for you and your dog.
Establish New Boundaries in the House
New parents should already have taken on the task of baby proofing the house. Safety latches, baby gates, and corner and edge bumpers are all must-haves for expecting parents. You can even buy extra baby gates to keep your dog out of areas that will be used solely for and by your newborn.
Get your dog used to off-limit areas by setting up the gates before your baby arrives. This will give your pup a chance to map out the new layout of your home. You can also set up a safe space for your dog to retreat to and relax. Pro tip: get a diaper disposal container with a secure cover, because dogs may be tempted to go through dirty diapers!
Pretend You Have a Baby
Just like you may have done in middle school health class, you can simulate having a baby around your dog to see how they react, and to help correct unwanted behavior. Instead of a bag of flour, try buying a doll and wrap it in a blanket. Have your dog watch you change, bath, and feed the doll. During this time, you can retrain your dog about boundaries and being too close to the baby, staying out of certain rooms, and aggressiveness over your baby’s toys.
Additionally, you can start setting physical boundaries and conditioning your dog to leave you in peace when you are nursing and pumping. You can even buy or obtain a breast pump at no cost with qualifying insurance before having your baby, and use it to train your dog. To do so, train them to lay down and stay on their bed when they hear the noise of the breast pump, and reward them for doing so with a treat after pumping, allowing you your privacy. Associating something positive (treats) with the sound of the breast pump can help you set boundaries more easily, ensuring that you won’t be interrupted in your safe and quiet space when nursing or pumping.
How To Introduce Dog To Baby
You’ve made all the preparations, now comes the time for your dog to actually meet your baby. When bringing your baby home from the hospital, there are several things you must keep in mind.
Consider a Pet Sitter
Your dog won’t exactly be the first thing on your mind while going through labor, so you should think about setting up a pet sitter to watch over your dog while you’re in labor. They can take care of your dog in the first hours and days after delivery as well, so you can get adequately adjusted to living the baby life. A dog sitter can be a neighbor, friend, or family member. There are even apps available to hire a dog sitter, such as Rover and Wag, if a family member or friend isn’t up to the task.
Don’t Ignore the Dog
It may be easy to place your dog on the backburner with a newborn baby in the house, but this doesn’t mean you should ignore them. Dogs are social creatures, and with so many changes happening and a new family member present, they’ll have curiosities. You can include them into the fold by positively responding to their interests with enthusiasm, while keeping the boundaries you have set previously and keeping your baby a safe distance away for the time being.
Stay Positive
You want your dog to associate its first interactions with and around your baby with positivity. A negative vocabulary such as “no” and threats can teach your dog to connect the arrival of the baby with negativity. Instead, try positive reinforcement. Give them treats when they adhere to the new rules you have set. To get their mind off of the new baby, try offering them toys that stimulate them mentally. Your preemptive training will come in handy here, as your dog won’t have to learn these behaviors all at once, and you can positively reinforce when they do listen and are changing their actions.
Be Realistic
If it comes down to it, the safety of your baby takes precedence over the dog. If you come to the regrettable conclusion that your dog cannot or will not change its behavior, it is best to make arrangements to find your pet a new home. This may be an incredibly tough choice, and you will have to be honest with yourself and think critically about whether you and your dog can make it work, or whether the presence of the dog represents a risk to your newborn.
New moms already have a great deal to worry about, and wondering how your dog will react to the new baby shouldn’t be one of them. With the proper training, you can prepare your dog for a welcoming introduction to your new child safely. It may take hard work — on top of the hard work it takes preparing for the baby itself — but, your canine can become a loving and caring companion to its new family member.
As the due date for your little bundle of joy gets closer and closer, you’re likely starting to realize that there is way too much to do, and you’re running out of time to prepare. It can be difficult to prioritize all the different massive changes to your home and life! It’s an exciting, but stressful, time.
One thing that should be at the top of your list is getting a car seat. This absolutely must be taken care of before you go into labor. It is never safe to have a baby, a toddler, or any child under four feet nine inches tall in the car without some sort of car seat. Newborns in particular require rear facing car seats. This kind of vital safety requirement is not something you want to leave until the last minute.
When to Install a Car Seat During Pregnancy
Purchasing car seats doesn’t have to be the very first thing you do, but you might want to start saving up for one as soon as you know you’re pregnant (or make it a baby shower request!). The most important thing to keep in mind is that your car seat should be installed and ready before you’re far along enough that labor is imminent.
Every state in the U.S requires that babies be secured in car seats. In order to be in compliance with state laws, hospitals will often require car safety seats as part of their discharge policies. Hospital staff may be required to actively observe the baby in a safety seat that meets regulatory standards before discharge can be completed.
That’s why you need to have a seat sorted out before you’re likely to go into labor. The last thing you want is to be stressing about finding a car seat when it’s time to head to the hospital for delivery. The ideal time is anytime before active labor becomes an imminent risk.
Baby Proofing the Car Checklist
Getting the family car ready for baby is more involved than buying a car seat. If your vehicle is older, and doesn’t have certain safety features, you may want to think about trading it in for something slightly more modern. There are several key safety features you may want in a car for transporting children.
- Child locks: These have been installed in American cars by default for decades. Unless your car was built before the 80s, this shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s good to double check.
- Auto reverse windows: These windows are sensitive to objects in their path, and will reverse course if touched while moving. This will help stop little fingers from getting pinched!
- A good safety rating: Safety ratings are issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Pay specific attention to the location of accessible safety seat latches.
- Advanced front and side impact airbags: These go along with a vehicle’s safety rating; better airbags could save lives!
- Interior trunk release: This is a release mechanism inside the trunk of the vehicle. This is important because children are generally curious by nature, and in the past have been seriously injured by trapping themselves in a car’s trunk.
- Rearview camera: This safety feature helps prevent collisions while you’re reversing, and will allow you to see if there are any little ones running around behind the car.
You’ll also want to make sure you have appropriate emergency kits on hand for different situations. A good emergency kit for breakdowns and accidents is a necessity, but specifically for a baby, you’ll want to keep a kit with all the things you might need on the road in a pinch. Diapers, wipes, and ziplock bags for soiled diapers and clothing items are all a good idea.
If you use formula, a bag with unopened packs of formula, baby bottles, and water, is ideal. If you use a breast pump, you’ll want to make sure you have all the sterilized pump items, as well as pump car charger.
It’s also a good idea to pack extra clothes for multiple weather conditions. Be sure to update the car baby emergency kit appropriately as your baby grows!
Baby on Board Decal
This is an important addition to your vehicle. There can be stigma surrounding the “baby on board” signs, but when used properly they are very helpful. Their purpose is twofold; to inform other drivers to treat your vehicle with care, and to inform first responders of the presence of a baby in case of an emergency.
It’s important to remember not to obstruct the driver’s view with signs, so place the sign out of the way. Only use the sign when the baby is actually in the car.
Car Travel With Baby: Safety Tips
Here are some general tips to help in preparation for travelling with a baby on board. Babies make travel more complicated, but with the right preparation and know-how, the trips can be less stressful for everyone involved, including you and your baby!
How to Keep Your Baby Cool
- Sun shades: you can get shades for the inside of the back windows to help keep the sun out of the baby’s eyes, and it also helps to limit the buildup of heat from direct sunlight.
- Car seat covers: can be useful in preventing car seats from heating up too much.
- Park in shady areas: when you pile the family out of the car, try not to leave the car in direct heat. That way, when you come back, the car won’t feel like a furnace when you first get in. It goes without saying that you should never leave children or pets in the car unattended.
- Keep them hydrated: check on your child’s hydration regularly. When they get old enough to hold a sippy cup and drink by themselves, make sure they always have a water cup when they’re in the car to self-hydrate with.
How Long Can a Newborn be in a Car Seat?
Newborns should not spend very much time in car seats. This is because their bodies are very early in developmental stages, their spine is still developing, and their breathing may be weakened during prolonged periods of sitting upright. A two hour rule of thumb is recommended for babies; no more than two hours in a 24 hour period.
As children get older, this rule of thumb can be relaxed. The two hour rule is still a good one to follow, however. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a break every two hours on long road trips, to get out of the car and stretch out the body.
Feeding Baby in a Car Seat
Ideally, feeding your baby in a car seat is something you want to avoid. If it’s something you need to do, here are a few safety tips to keep in mind.
- Don’t feed baby while the car is moving. Bottles become projectiles in the event of a crash. Motion sickness is something to consider as well as choking hazards while a vehicle is in motion.
- Don’t feed babies solid items of food that could be choking hazards, like grapes, in the car.
- If bottle feeding, attend to the bottle; don’t just try and prop it up.
- Try to protect the car seat as much as possible from getting messy. If it does get messy, follow the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions carefully.
With the right planning and the right things on hand, travelling with baby doesn’t have to be as stressful as you think. Just remember that safety is non-negotiable, and a little extra effort makes a huge difference.
Between all the medical appointments, the books on parenting, looking for a daycare, and all of the rules about car seats, preparing for a child can be an overwhelming process.
Perhaps the most exhausting step is making sure that your entire house is baby proof. As many parents would tell you, babies have a knack for finding that “one hazard” that somehow got overlooked during the baby proofing process. That’s why it’s important to know how to properly baby proof a home, and to double-check your steps while you’re doing it.
Whether you’re a first time mom, or it’s been a while since you’ve been preparing for a newborn, here’s a helpful checklist to make sure you’re remembering all of the most important baby proofing basics:
Around the House: Baby Proofing Basics
There are a few things you’ll want to check on in every room of the house:
- Baby Gates: Use them on both the top and bottom of any stairs, as well as in doorways to any areas you don’t want a baby to access.
- Corners and Edges: Pointy corners and sharp edges can be dangerous for a little one, especially when they start to crawl around. Get bumpers and safety pads to cover furniture and sharp edges.
- Doors and Cupboards: Use doorstops, door holders, child proof cupboard locks, child proof drawer locks, and child proof door knobs to keep anything within baby’s reach either closed, or to prevent it from catching their fingers. This is also good preparation for when they’re a toddler and prone to exploration.
- Furniture: Secure furniture to the wall just in case someone decides to go climbing!
- Slipping: Put no-slip mats both on slippery floors and underneath rugs. Attach no-slip stickers to the bottom of the bathtub to prevent slipping while bathing.
- Things That Dangle: Organize or remove anything that dangles. Table cloths can pull items down onto baby, and strings could become a choking hazard. Remove the cords from blinds and consider tying curtains up off the floor.
- TVs and Cables: Now is the time to start securely mounting TVs to the walls, as well as to start finding ways to hide and organize cables. Whether you’re bundling them behind furniture or securing them to walls higher than little fingers can reach, you should never leave cables hanging around. Additionally, make sure to place child proof covers on all accessible outlets.
The dangers you want to look out for around the main areas of the house are: falling, opening, closing, sharp, climbing, and choking hazards. Check everything that could be potentially harmful, even if it feels benign as an adult.
Bedrooms
The way you need to baby proof a bedroom depends on whether it’s actually being used for sleeping, as an office, exercise room, or for another purpose. Unless it’s a room actively used for spending time with baby, you’ll probably want to restrict access to bedrooms as much as possible, especially if they’re being used as an office or exercise room. Childproof door handles and locks are ideal, as are baby gates. Nevertheless, you’ll still want to make sure everything inside these rooms are childproofed — just in case. For bedrooms, follow all the general safety steps above.
For offices:
- Childproof all drawers and cabinets.
- Be diligent about hiding or lifting power cables and covering electrical outlets.
- Be careful with rolling chairs.
For exercise rooms:
- Store all weights in a safe place, out of reach of children, ideally with child proofed access.
- Make sure exercise machines have their own storage space, inaccessible to little hands. For larger machines, consider coverings or further restricting access near joints and moving parts.
Nursery
Then nursery is where you’ll be spending a lot of time with your new baby. It’s extra important to triple check that everything in here is super safe!
- Keep the crib away from: furniture, cables, heaters, vents, windows, and curtains.
- Keep all objects, such as pillows, comforters, toys, bumpers, etc, out of the crib while the baby is still a newborn.
- Make sure there are no gaps between the mattress and the side of the crib. Use one tight fitting sheet only.
- Secure dressers, bookshelves, and other heavy items of furniture to the wall.
- Keep everything you need for changing within your reach of the changing station, but not within baby’s reach.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms are full of all sorts of hazards, so take extra care with them.
- Clamp Everything Shut:
- Bathroom cabinets and drawers often contain harmful cleaning chemicals and other hazards which are dangerous when consumed. Child proof all of the areas containing these products.
- The toilet seat should be clamped shut at all times when the toilet isn’t in use. Babies are top heavy and prone to falling over, and can drown in as little as an inch of water, so toilet bowls could be very dangerous.
- Baby should never be in the bathroom unsupervised. Child proofing the bathroom door is a must.
- Put non-slip mats in the bathtub and on the floor.
- Leave nothing out or plugged in. Medication, cleaning supplies, even toothpaste and soap, should be stored out of reach and should not be left out. Hair dryers and straighteners shouldn’t be left plugged in, and should always be put away — the same goes for razors, scissors, and anything else sharp.
- Put rubber protectors on the bathtub faucet.
- Install ground-fault circuit interrupters on all bathroom outlets if they didn’t come installed already.
- Be very careful about water temperature. Use a thermometer to make sure bathing water is no hotter than 120 degrees fahrenheit, set a limit on your water heater, and use an anti-scalding device on the faucet.
Kitchen
Like bathrooms, kitchens are full of hazards to babies and children. There are simply too many sharp, heavy, electrical, and hot appliances and utensils to be wary of, and, unfortunately, it can be a lot harder to control access to a kitchen. Nevertheless, follow the advice below, especially when it comes to cupboards and drawers:
- Unplug small appliances, like toasters, when they’re not being used, and make sure the cords aren’t left dangling. It might even be a good idea to find a cupboard for them to live in when they’re not being utilized.
- Store dishes and glassware, knives, cleaners, heavy objects, and all other hazardous kitchenware in a secure, out-of-reach cabinet or cupboard at all times.
- Put child locks on the fridge, oven, dishwasher, and the garbage can.
- Place protective covers on the stove dials, and get into the habit of using the back burners instead of the front.
Living Room and Family Room
Most of the worry in these rooms comes from electronics, shelves and entertainment centers, recliners, and objects on surfaces. Be diligent about cord organization and clamp everything to the wall if it might tip.
- Move tall lamps behind furniture to restrict access.
- If you have a fireplace, get a fireplace cover.
- Get ready for climbing, bumping, and falling. Cover all corners and edges low to the ground. Get down on your hands and knees and wander around the room looking for dangerous spots.
- Beware of recliners; little hands can get stuck in moving parts.
- Clear away decorations from flat surfaces to discourage curious exploratory climbing.
- Limit use of the coffee table if you have one. If it’s on the coffee table, it can be reached.
Laundry and Utility Rooms
Ideally, baby should have zero access to these kinds of rooms, as they often contain toxic chemicals, and dangerously heavy appliances, machinery, tools, and more.
- Store everything up high or in a child proofed cabinet. Don’t leave laundry soap out, and make sure cleaning supplies are secure.
- Store vacuum cleaners, mops, and anything else that might fall over in a properly protected closet.
- Baby proof your washer and dryer with child locks. Newer ones come with them installed, but you might need to purchase them separately for older models.
- If you have cats, keep kitty litter trays in a room that baby doesn’t ordinarily have access to. Consider placing them up off of the floor, so that the cats can get to them, but baby can’t.
Getting the House Ready For Baby
Preparing to welcome a baby doesn’t just require baby-proofing — you still want to be comfortable in your new setup, and you’ll need to keep the baby’s comfort in mind as well. Here are some more general items to review, as well as a few extra things you’re likely to need.
Smoke Detectors
Make sure your detectors are up to date, up to code, working, and have fresh batteries. Get a carbon monoxide detector if you don’t already have one, and make sure there is a smoke detector on every level of the home.
Nursery Gear
It’s amazing just how much newborns eat and sleep. You’ll want to make sure you have the right nursery gear so that your baby grows healthily:
- Have you decided how you plan to feed baby? If you’re going to be pumping, make sure you’ve got a breast pump ready to go.
- Reading and singing to baby is a great way to spend quality time with them, especially to sooth them to sleep. Start collecting baby books and maybe some song lyrics you like.
- A comfortable armchair for reading and rocking.
- You’ll want a baby monitor so that you can hear and see the baby at all times when they’re in the nursery.
- You may want to consider equipping the nursery with its own child proofed garbage for dirty diapers.
- Other basics include a: dresser, crib, night light, changing station and all the changing supplies.
In Case of Emergency
Last, but not least, there are a few things you’ll want to do in case of an emergency.
- Make sure emergency contact info and any pertinent medical info is accessible on your phone without having to get past the lock screen.
- Keep a bail-out bag with everything you and baby need to survive for a few nights just in case of emergency evacuation from the home.
- Keep a fully stocked first aid kit.
- Keep water, non-perishable food, and a non-perishable baby food alternative in case of power outages and other emergencies that might require you to stay put.
