To scan his house for potential hazards to his kids, Scott Ichikawa got down on the floor to see things from their level.

Besides searching out obvious dangers such as electrical outlets and cords, he wanted to get a sense of where twins Andrew and Emma could scramble.

"It's kind of like a cat," Ichikawa said of the pair, born last September. "You think you've got a chair blocking an area, but they can just squeeze right through it."

Baby-proofing your house is often quite a challenge for new parents, but it's an essential task. Each year, around 2,100 children under 15 in the United States die from a home injury, according to the Home Safety Council, which aims to prevent such injuries.

The leading causes of death are fire, suffocation, drowning and choking, and the highest rates are generally found among low-income families.

Progress, however, is being made. The rate of death from such injuries in the U.S. dropped by 45 percent from 1987 to 2005, according to a study by Washington-based Safe Kids Worldwide, an organization that promotes safety for kids 14 and under. The number of emergency room visits for injuries to children -- including at-home injuries and those outside the home -- dropped from nearly 7 million in 2001 to about 6.2 million in 2005 and 2006, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Ichikawas, who rent a two-bedroom condo in Sherman Oaks, Calf., put up safety gates, installed magnetic cabinet locks to prevent the kids from getting into cleaning products and put foam edging on their son's crib so he wouldn't bite off the varnish.

They used small ottomans to blockade off areas where they don't want their kids to go. A coffee table with sharp edges was removed. Bookshelves had to be secured to the wall.

"They get into everything," especially their son, said Lisa Ichikawa, Scott's wife. "Every little thing, he tries to pull down."

Hillary Dunham, who lives in Huntsville Ala., with her husband and two young children, started babyproofing this past summer for her second child, Owen, who was just starting to crawl. It's important, she says, to separate toys for children of different ages. "You have to figure out what they're going to get into, because each child is different," she said.

The most well-known babyproofing device is probably the electrical outlet plug. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends installing anti-scald devices for faucets, cutting window blind cords to prevent choking and using window guards.

Most childproofing equipment is cheap: You can spend about $4 on a 12-pack of electrical outlet caps or $10 for a five-pack of stove knob covers. Larger pieces of equipment, of course, can be expensive, such as a $190 gate that wraps around your fireplace.

Experts also recommend installing carbon monoxide detectors (around $20) outside a baby's room, making sure smoke detectors have working batteries and installing door stops ($6) to make sure toddlers' fingers don't get pinched.

Also recommend are furniture brackets ($8) which prevent bookshelves and other furniture from tipping over, appliance locks for dishwashers ($5) and medicine holders ($17) and toilet lid locks ($17).

Chrissy Cianflone, director of program operations at Safe Kids Worldwide, advises parents to make sure that their kids are supervised whenever they're around water.

"Children can drown in an inch of water," she said. "If your child is crawling around, and you have a bucket, make sure that bucket is empty ... There are little things in the home that people may not realize are potential drowning hazards."

Some busy professional parents are going further, hiring consultants to examine their homes and recommend or install baby-proofing equipment.

Baby Bodyguards in Brooklyn, N.Y., charges $600 to install a set of baby protections. Or, parents can pay $175 for an evaluation of their home, without installation.

"Parents just take comfort in having an outsider come in and do the evaluation and tell them what they've missed," said Courtney Ilarraza, the company's founder.

Melissa Moog, founder of Itsabelly Baby Concierge in Portland, Ore., started a baby planning service after her daughter, Isabella, was born in summer 2006. She left her job as a human resources manager at Intel Corp. to start the company, which provides childproofing, nanny recruiting and other advice for new parents.

Moog recommends setting up a play gate in the part of the house where the baby spends the most time to keep the toddler from escaping into unsupervised areas. Another good idea: making sure lamps or other pieces of furniture can't easily be yanked off the table.

"A lot of the parents that contact me basically don't know where to start," she said. With so many different products on the market, she said, "they just want a little advice from someone who's been there, done that."

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