Ideas for Child Proofing Sliding Screen Doors and Other Doors
Summary: Children can pinch their hand or even loose a finger when trying to open or close a sliding screen door.  Child proofing sliding screen doors can prevent this risk as well as helping you keep the door closed when no one is going in or out.

Nothing is quite like a sliding screen door for bringing the fresh air of the outdoors into your home during those balmy summer evenings and fall afternoons.  If you have a baby or toddler, however, these doors provide temptations and hazards for injury.  For instance, when a little one is trying to open the sliding door, he can pinch his finger, break it, or lose it.  

Sliding screen doors are also a prime target for the little escape artist to get out when you are not looking, especially if someone else forgot to close it.  The screen mesh itself is often easy to damage so that the screen tears when an energetic tot gets to playing around it.  How can you child proof those sliding screen doors and make them safe for your child?

One thing that will improve your sliding screen doors is to install an automatic sliding screen door closer.  This is a device that fits at the top of the door and causes it to slide closed when you go through with your hands full or simply forget to turn around and close it.  

Automatic sliding screen door closers are easy to install and are available from several manufacturers for prices around $25.  This helps to child proof the door because the door will be closed instead of being a wide open invitation to run outside.  Since children have been known to run out an open sliding screen door and end up in the family pool or out in the street, it is obvious that an automatic sliding screen door closer could prove to be a lifesaver.

If you have a tenacious tot, however, you know that simply making sure the door is closed will not be enough. You will need precautions to make opening the door safe from prying fingers.  Kidco makes a sliding door lock that can be attached easily to any sliding door to keep it from being easily opened by the small fry.  This simple device retails for about four dollars.  Window Wedge's product is also reported to be able to lock a sliding door and keep it safe from young fingers.

For ten dollars or more, you can outfit your sliding screen door with an alarm that will sound when the door is opened.  It will turn off when the door is fully closed.  Some of these alarms are also equipped with a locking mechanism, making them a double duty safety device.  You will surely feel safer if you know that an alarm will let you know if that precocious young one has figured out the lock on the sliding doors!  For convenience, you can turn the alarm off if you are going to be outside for a while.

If you are replacing a sliding screen door and you have toddlers, consider getting a door with pet quality screens.  This is especially so if you have pets, too.  Little kids can be just about as hard on a screen door as a puppy can.  Pet quality screens are seven times as tough as standard screens, and if you have ever had a child or a pet around a standard screen door, you know how easily the screens can be torn!

If your child is a little older, and you trust them to be able to go out when they want, you can get a sliding screen door that is accessible to smaller people, with a latch located lower on the door, as well as one at standard adult height.  Having an easy-to-operate latch down on their own level can help the older child be safe from injuries sustained reaching and trying to operate an adult type latch.

Anyway, if it is any comfort, you may be relieved to find out that there are a lot more injuries from hinged doors every year than their are from sliding screen doors.  In fact, hundreds of thousands of children are injured every year when their fingers are pinched in door hinges.  Hinges can be safely and easily covered by a hinge guard attachment.  One brand that makes hinge safety covers is "Fingershield."

There are a variety of door pinch guards you can get for different types of doors, which are designed to keep children from pinching their fingers in doors.  They are simply attached to the door above the level that the child can reach.  You can also get special guards that keep bifold type doors, another common source of pinched fingers, from being opened by a small child.  These slide over the center hinges to keep the door from bending.

To keep interior doors closed so that children can't open them, there is a "deluxe door top lock" from a company called Safety Innovations.  These are professional quality and can be a lifesaver by keeping children out of the bedroom, bathroom, garage, or other place you are not prepared to watch them for the time being.  They have a wand that makes it easy for the adult on duty to open the door as needed.

Whatever your door babyproofing needs are, innovative inventors have probably designed just the device you need to keep you doors safe around your babies.