Child Proofer

As a child proofer you will provide a valuable service to parents and anyone else who spends time with children such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and day care providers. Your job is to identify safety issues in and around your clients’ home, make recommendations for change as well as properly install safety products.

You will need to be detail oriented and very knowledgeable in as many child proofing products as possible. You will also need to keep up to date with safety recalls of all child related products and toys.

So what kind of training and certifications are required? Well, I was unable to find training programs for this field so I visited a number of established childproofing service websites to see what training they had. I was surprised to find that not one of them talked about training of any kind. Your best bet may be to shadow an established child proofer if possible, reading as many childproofing books as you can is not a bad idea either.

I did find an organization you may want to look into called Safe Kids Worldwide. This nonprofit organization is a network of many organizations whose mission is to prevent accidental childhood injuries. It was started in 1978 by Children’s National Medical Center with support from Johnson & Johnson to provide information regarding child safety.

Children are crafty little beings so the best way to do this job is to get down on all fours, crawl around and look at the space at the same level as a child. You will be amazed at the dangers that become clear to you from this level. Sharp corners on coffee tables, electrical outlets, plants (not only a choking hazard some of which can be poisonous), window blind cords, the toilet lid and access to household cleaners through cabinets are just a few hazards to be had in the home.

As with any entrepreneurial business venture you will need to create a business plan, register with the state and federal governments as well as acquire the proper liability insurance.