Question: What's fun and games -- with lots of lifesaving information?

Answer: A baby safety shower!

If you're looking for ways to help parents take better care of their children, consider organizing a baby safety shower -- a baby shower with a new twist.

A baby safety shower is a learning party where all the activities revolve around home safety themes. Parents and caregivers have fun -- and leave with new ideas about keeping their babies safe at home.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Gerber Products Company developed this baby safety shower initiative to help good parents become even better ones. After all, no parents are born knowing about safety for their babies.

Baby safety showers have been organized in all kinds of communities for all kinds of audiences. As First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said when she attended the kick-off Baby Safety Shower in Washington, DC, "I hope families all over America will have baby safety showers (to) educate each other about what we need to do to keep all of our babies safe and healthy." These showers are an especially good way for local organizations to reach new parents and parents-to-be with important safety information.

You can arrange a baby safety shower for any number of people -- from 20 to 200. At larger baby safety showers, parents can visit a variety of workshops where volunteers illustrate important safety information with games, prizes, and other activities. At smaller showers, a few volunteers can lead the group in safety games.

Your theme can focus, like the material included here, on keeping your baby safe at home -- or you can include additional issues, like nutrition and health.

Baby safety showers are also a good way to create and promote public-private partnerships among many different organizations. By offering, for example, to distribute donated baby products or health information, you can enhance your ties with the local business community and build your relationships with local health and social service organizations. All this creates community goodwill -- and provides your invited parents with welcome information, products, and services.

The materials you'll need to get started are included in this Baby Safety Shower How-to Kit. Take special note of the Baby Safety Checklist, in both English and Spanish, which provides 12 important home safety tips that all parents should know.

Use your imagination to create a baby safety shower for your specific situation. The key to success is providing important safety information in a festive and inviting setting. So, roll up your sleeves -- and have fun!

The Baby Safety Shower How-to-Kit was developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Gerber Products Company.

All the material in this document is in the public domain and may be freely copied.

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