Safe Start Child's Story
Our Babies Made Us Do It
Safe Start Child’s baby proofing story began when we realized trusted safety resources did not exist for families, so we decided to build them ourselves. Baby proofing is a journey, and we lived it firsthand.
Founder Alisa Bishop has worked as a professional baby proofer since 2015. She founded Safe Start Child in 2020, backed by a team with over 20 years of combined child safety experience.
Member, International Association for Child Safety
Featured in BabyCenter
2014
CHAPTER 1 · BABY PROOFING PANIC!
Why We Started Baby Proofing
The Bishop-Smith Family move into their new home with daughters, Lily, 3 years old, and Aerin, 6 months old.
Soon after, Aerin started crawling, and the house changed overnight.
The stairs were the first problem. The iron banisters made a safe gate installation feel almost impossible. Alisa did what most new parents do: she searched parenting blogs, read product reviews, scanned magazine articles, and tried to piece together a solution.
What she found was confusing. Reliable home safety guidance was hard to find. Baby proofing products varied widely in quality. And when it came to installing a gate on real stairs, in a real home, with real constraints, the advice stopped being useful.
Overwhelmed and exhausted, she went to Buy Buy Baby looking for help. The sales associates were kind, but the guidance was limited. They could tell her not to use a pressure-mounted gate at the top of the stairs. They could not tell her what would work instead, or how to install it safely.
So she bought the gate that looked right.
Within two weeks, it ripped out of the wall.
2015-2019
CHAPTER 2 · BE THE SOLUTION
Learning Professional Child Proofing in the DC Area
Alisa accepts a position at a local baby proofing company.
After passing the Home Hazards Test, Alisa began working as a professional baby proofer, going into families’ homes to identify risks and install practical safety solutions.
She quickly saw that her own experience as a new parent was not unusual. Most families were not simply shopping for products. They were trying to make sense of conflicting advice, unclear standards, and homes that did not match the simple examples shown on product packaging.
During this time, Alisa trained under a Certified Professional Child Proofer, gaining hands-on experience in hazard assessment, installation methods, and real-world problem solving. The work sharpened her technical skills, but it also confirmed something more important: child safety could not be reduced to a checklist. Every home, every child, and every family needed thoughtful guidance.
Those early years shaped the approach that would later become Safe Start: practical expertise, careful installation, and safety solutions built for real homes.
2020-2022
CHAPTER 3 · MOM ON A MISSION
Founding a Company for Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia
Alisa founds Safe Start Child Proofing, offering expert home safety consultations and professional baby proofing installations across Washington DC, Maryland & Virginia.
Safe Start was built to do more than install gates and latches. From the beginning, the goal was to help families understand risk, make practical decisions, and choose safety solutions that worked with the way they actually lived.
That approach quickly set Safe Start apart. Instead of treating baby proofing as a one-size-fits-all checklist, Alisa focused on real homes, real routines, and the details that standard product instructions often miss.
As demand grew, Alisa hired her first employee and Safe Start began to earn a reputation for honest guidance, careful installation, and a higher standard of work. Our client reviews reflect that standard. The need was clear: families wanted in-person child proofing they could trust, but demand was quickly outpacing availability.
That pressure confirmed what Alisa already believed. Home safety needed a smarter, more thoughtful model — one built around expertise, practicality, and the realities of everyday family life.
2023-2026
CHAPTER 4 · TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION
A Holistic Approach to Baby Proofing and Child Safety
Alisa expands her team and acquires the baby proofing company where she first trained, bringing together hands-on experience, deeper product research, and a shared vision for better home safety.
In 2023 the company took its current name, Safe Start Child, as its mission and footprint broadened. New parents were still facing the same problem: too much conflicting advice, too many low-quality products, and no clear way to know what would actually work in a real home.
After years spent inside thousands of houses, Alisa built Safe Start to close that gap. The company combined professional guidance, carefully vetted products, and installation expertise into a more modern approach to child safety.
The goal was straightforward: help families make confident safety decisions without turning their homes into obstacle courses. Safe Start focused on practical solutions, clear education, and thoughtful installations that respected how a home looked, functioned, and felt to live in.
It is baby proofing built for real families, real homes, and real daily life.
TODAY
Professional Baby Proofing for the DC Area, and Virtual Sessions for Families Everywhere
Safe Start Child will change how parents think about safety at home
Today, Safe Start Child provides in-home baby proofing consultations and professional installation across Washington DC, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia, and virtual safety sessions for families everywhere. Every plan is built around how a family actually lives, not a standard checklist.
Safe Start is revolutionizing the baby proofing business model by giving families access to the essential knowledge required to create a safe home.
“We believe that every baby deserves a safe start and every parent should have access to the right resources to make that possible.”
Alisa Bishop
Next Steps
Start With a Plan for Your Home
Every Safe Start engagement begins with a conversation about your home, your child, and how your family lives. In-home consultations serve Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Virtual safety sessions are available to families everywhere.