At this age, safety for 12-18 month olds has to do with baby-proofing, lots of crawling, walking or running, food and water. 12-18 month olds are adventurous, both when it comes to pulling food off your plate, or toddling outside, only to fall and scrape their knees!

Here’s what we like to think about for safety at the 12-18 month time frame.

Car seat safety

Your child will likely sit in a car seat for the duration of your day trip or road trip. But if you’re going to be flying, especially internationally, there’s some safety to think about.

Airplane-safe car seat

At this age, your child can enjoy the product that seems like the world’s most highly-recommended aviation-approved car seat, the Cosco Scenera NEXT. It’s for children who sit upright, and for the forward facing option, the weight minimum is 30 lbs (for rear-facing, it’s much less).

International travel and seat belt installation

Remember to bring a ratchet clip or metal seat belt lock for using car seats internationally. Most families learn this the hard way. Be prepared with one if you’ll be leaving the US and Canada so that your car seat can be installed with a seat belt.

Food safety

By 12-18 months, your child probably enjoys eating and has some favorite foods. With food safety, though, keep these tips in mind.

Restaurant food

Your child may not hesitate before grabbing food off your plate at restaurants! Make sure restaurant food is cooked thoroughly if your child will be sharing with you.

New foods

Keep an eye out for raw foods, new foods and allergens. We have a friend whose toddler had cashews by mistake, for the first time, in the Dominican Republic and they wound up needing a night in the emergency room. Vacation is not the time to find out new allergies!

High chair safety

At mealtime, always make sure your toddler is safely in a restaurant high chair, or that your travel high chair is tightly fastened to a steady chair. The last thing anyone wants is a child who slides or climbs out of a high chair and gets injured on a hard floor.

Water safety

It’s vacation time, so your little one may want to swim or hit the water!

Drowning risks

If you’ve been unfamiliar until now, check out drowning safety tips for toddlers before going to the pool or beach.

Drinking water safety

Most of these tips will apply to international travel, as drinking water within the US is plenty fine.

ALWAYS make sure your child is drinking potable water on international trips. This goes for bath time, too: if traveling internationally in destinations where water is not drinkable, watch your toddler closely in the bath.

The one time I turned my head while giving our toddler a bath on a trip to Mexico, I wasn’t sure if she drank the bath water (from the tap), and that taught me a big lesson.

Sleep safety

For sleeping safety, this mostly revolves around your travel crib, how “active” your child is in the travel crib and the overall setup.

What’s in the crib?

Ensure that only items approved by you are in the crib at bedtime! This sounds simple, but remember: your child may have grabbed something tiny and could be holding it in his or her hand.

Keep crib away from surfaces

Make sure as well that the travel crib or hotel crib is away from surfaces that could be used for your toddler to hoist themself OUT of the crib or climb/fall out. Around this age, some very strong 12-18 month olds may be figuring out creatively how to climb out of a travel crib onto a bed next to it.

Where’s your baby monitor?

Put your baby monitor camera in a spot where your toddler cannot reach the camera nor the wire. It sounds simple, but in new spaces where outlets may be in funny places (or the best outlet is right next to the crib), parents have to make workarounds for ultimate safety during the night.

Baby proofing safety

At your hotel or vacation rental, your child might be excited to try out new surfaces and cruise against new furniture. Your child is learning to walk, climb up stairs and pull on furniture. Watch out!

Keep children away from unbolted furniture

If your vacation rental has furniture that is not bolted to the wall, beware of toddlers who lean or pull themselves up on bookcases or wobbly end tables.

Corral all the valuables and breakables

We stayed at a vacation rental in Connecticut that was full of beautiful glassware, pottery, art and beautiful things. At the time, our child was not mobile, but had she been, we would’ve had to move the breakable items and baby-proof the room if we ever wanted to take our eyes off her for more than a second. See our guide to baby-proofing a hotel room.

I would say this risk is MUCH lower at hotels, where furniture is typically bolted to the walls and where there are very few “just-for-show” pieces. At a hotel, watch out for things in drawers like remote controls, ball point pens or little items like chocolates left by hotel staff.

Mind the staircases at vacation rentals with multiple floors

If you’re renting a beach house or a shared house with other family members on a reunion trip, keep your toddler away from staircases! This means never letting them out of your view, if you were unable to take a folding baby gate with you.

Another idea: if there are any coffee tables that can be moved, put one in front of a flight of downward stairs so that your child does not tumble down.