How to Install an Outdoor Infant Swing

Children get hours of entertainment out of playground swings, so it makes sense for parents who want to entertain their children at home to install swings in their yards. Infant swings can be hung from a sturdy tree limb in your yard and provide hours of relaxation and safe entertainment for your young child. In addition to entertaining the baby, infant swings also provide a safe way for your infant or young toddler to play outside.

Things You'll Need

• 2 Eye bolts
• 2 6-foot, medium duty chains
• Infant swing
• Ladder

Instructions

1. Locate a sturdy, relatively level tree branch on a tree in your yard. Make sure the branch is thick enough to support your child's weight and high enough that your child's weight will not make the swing touch the ground.

2. Place your ladder directly under the branch near the trunk of the tree. Climb up the ladder with the two eye bolts. Screw the eye bolts into the bottom of your chosen tree limb approximately a foot away from one another.

3. Run your chains through the eye bolts, centering the chains so that the eye bolt is directly in the middle of the chain.

4. Attach the infant swing to the chains.

   Most infant swings come with preattached ropes with hooks already fastened to the ends of them. Attach the hooks to a link in the chains. You may need to adjust the hooks up or down a link on either side to make sure the swing hangs evenly.

   If your infant swing does not have ropes already attached to it, you will need to purchase two 5- to 6-foot lengths of rope and clamp hooks onto both ends. Hook one end to the infant swing and hook the other to the chains to hang the swing.

5. Check swing to make sure it hangs level. Place pressure on the swing by pressing down hard on the seat to make sure it holds weight.

Tips & Warnings

• Incorrectly installed swings can be dangerous and even cause death.