All Fours

As my energetic little baby starts showing her kinetic energy, we know it's high time we do some childproofing around the house. Without the slightest idea of what to do, I ended up reading my favorite manual What to Expect the First Year.

I was taught that the best way is to take a baby's-eye view of our home. How so? Simply get down on my hands and knees, and crawl around the house. From there, alas, I will see the world in a different light and find a multitude of dangers I may not even have realized existed. I could have found hidden choking hazards such as the lost game piece under the couch and jettisoned food under the kitchen table. A carcass of cockroach, maybe.

Which brings me, somewhat uncomfortably, to the question of health care safety. It is not without irony now that the one who oversees patient safety in the hospital is often working at his consultant office without ever getting a look at the real world from down on all fours – but that is never, of course, the best way.