Ask the Audience: Baby Proofing Edition
Alrighty. We’re WAY behind on the baby proofing stuff because I’m always with the boy. Like, I mean, always. However, the kid can MOVE now. Fast. Really fast. And sometimes a mommy’s gotta pee, you know?
So, what do you want from me, you ask?
What things did you do/not do when your kid(s) got mobile? What worked? What didn’t? Did you do something that was totally useless? Did you not do something that you regret?
We have gates (though they still need to get screwed in this weekend, but are pressure mounted now), bath safety stuff etc. We are very logical people with a plethora of common sense (or so we like to think), but that doesn’t mean we didn’t miss something that you might be able to teach us.
Do I just stick him in a playpen when I need to avert my attention for a moment? We don’t have much any free space, but I think I may just set it up in the middle of the room out of desperation.
What worked for you for cupboard locks? None of the ones I’ve bought so far work at our house. We have lots of individual cupboards and corner cupboards so there aren’t two handles to connect. Elastics won’t work. Do I need to do the drawers too? With what?
Do I need a gate at the bottom and the top of the stairs? (Probably, right? I guess I have to go shopping.)
Did I miss anything?
(If you have an “ask the audience” question, email me and we can make this a regular thing.)
Have you entered to win Eric Herman’s Monkey Business CD over at MMO yet? You only have until midnight tomorrow! We’re rockin’ to it in the van right now, and loving it! I’m especially digging the song “Crazy over Vegetables.”
January 4th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
We have a nine month old who is also very mobile. He is our third child…spaced very far behind the other two. I have the cabinet latches that you have to push down to get the cabinets open. I do, however, like the ones that are magnets and you just swipe the magnet over the door and it opens. I have found that in the house its always nice to give them spaces and things that they feel are their own. Like in my kitchen I left one cabinet latch free and put in all the plastic things so he can get in there while I am making dinner or whatever and it entertains him.
I think I will have a gate at the top of the stairs once he is not in a crib anymore or shows signs of climbing out!
I dont use a playpen, but have used the highchair on occasion to contain him and just gave him some toys up there. He likes to be higher so he can see whats going on.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Ok, this is only my opinion. Being the mother of four I have found that safety is good, but one can go overboard. For example, I usually don’t put locks on my cupboards and drawers because they drive me nuts, I have instead taught the kids, “no, owie, don’t touch that.” Sure there have been a few moments when they didn’t listen, but they learned, nothing terribly terrible happened, and no matter how safe you think you are…. Besides, it’s really hard to have locks like that on all sorts of things with older kids because when you ask them to do the dishes they can’t get the cupboard open, or the toilet seat open, or the….open… (you get the idea)
I would have to say though, the very best thing that we ever invested in were two sets of 6 segment baby fences. We got them at Toys R Us and have had them for 7 years at least now. We use them to set up perimiters when we go camping, enything. So, I will take one room in my house that is generally safe and baby proof and I will use the fenc pieces to quarantine it off. Then if I need to clean house, do laundry, or other things where I can’t constantly be in the same room (shower, pee, hide in a closet and scream, heh) I know he is in a safe area. I like the fence pieces rather than a playpen because I can make the area bigger or smaller, and when they get really mobile it lets me given them an entire room to run around in, etc.
Other than that I just try to teach him not to touch stuff. Sometimes too much ’safety’ can be a crutch and they never really learn.
Again, that’s just my opinion…
oh, and as far as the stairs go, if you have stairs that would let you, what about one of the adjustable, moveable gates, then you can put it at the top when you need it, and at the bottom when you are downstairs. I like ours because we have a narrow entrance to the kitchen and when I don’t want the kids in the kitchen I can bar the way there too.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
We did a little but we also left a lot out. People with children always come over and stare at our bookshelves and CD/DVD rack in awe that Becs does not touch. It took a lot of cues, but now she just passes them by and we do not have to run around other people’s houses baby proofing. I am lazy, when I had to pee Becs came with me. hehe!
January 4th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I have to say that I’m a lot like Chelle. I was pretty lazy on the childproofing and just watch my son like a hawk. I would suggest taking anything toxic and putting it in high cupboards (we haven’t even done that yet but I need to do it as I have an 18 month old!). If you do that, you don’t really need to worry about the cabinet locks, but if you do want to buy cabinet locks, I’ve heard that Goore’s sells magnet ones that are really handy.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:01 am
My daughter is 15 months old and very curious. Those press down latches drive me nuts and my kitchen cupboards are really old, so they don’t really work. My solution was to move all dangerous and breakable things into high cupboards and shelves. If she wouldn’t stop trying to open certain cabinets, I simply changed around the contents and used those cabinets as storage for her toys or tupperware, etc. For things I simply cannot change (like the stone fireplace in the living room), I taught her not to touch and so far it’s working.
January 5th, 2007 at 6:38 am
SF was totally a calm toddler…she never got into ANYTHING!…we gated the bottom of the stairs and plugged up all the outlets that’s it. She still doesn’t go up or down the stairs without us with her. It’s freaky how careful she is.
Good luck.
January 5th, 2007 at 10:50 am
We are like most of the posters above. I don’t have actual cabinet locks on any of our kitchen cabinets. Since my cabinets have handles, I used rubber bands instead (I know I am cheap).
There are outlet covers on all the open outlets, and we have moved anything that is breakable.
Other than that, our toddlers have free reign of the house. When I need to take a shower I either close them up in their room or let them play in the bathroom so that I can keep an eye on them.
I think the biggest thing is teaching them the limits and being consistent (as with all things).
Hope you find some good suggestions!
January 5th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
I agree with all of the above. Use your common sense and move dangerous things out of the way.
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January 5th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I too, was lazy about a lot of the child-proofing. To repeat what many have already said, put the medicines and toxins out of reach.
January 6th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I was a licensing inspector for childcares that were run out of peoples homes - and I followed very single safety standard to a T when Julia was born. Now, I realize how silly that was - how quickly she learns and how easy it is to trust her after we teach her. Letting kids learn things like that is SO important. When we moved into our house here, she was already 1year+ and we didn’t lock anything up except for the chemicals under the kitchen sink (our medicines were out of reach, even for me most of the time). I even went so far as to put crayons and paper in an accessible drawer so we can teacher to color on paper, etc. I have to admit, the crayons didn’t stay in long because they were soon all over our kitchen floor (not too big a deal, it washes right up.. but really, who wants to wash crayon off the linoleum all day long?) Anyway, the best safety locks out there for cupboards AND drawers are the Tot Locks from Safety1st. I love these as a mom AND as a preschool teacher! (Oh - and by the way, we never even gated th stairs. Everybody thought we were NUTS but Julia learned to maneuver stairs very quickly … even when she went head first, she made it down safer than if we tried to help her. I, too, was with her ALL the time)
January 7th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Hi, first time visitor here. Like your blog.
My youngest is completely different from my first, and find we have to reevaluate our baby proofing. She’s faster, more daring, more curious.
Put gates on top and bottom stairs. I forgot to close the bottom gate once, in the blink of an eye, she had climbed halfway up and next thing I heard was boom, boom, boom as she fell.
She opens and closes drawers and cabinet doors everywhere. We’ve screwed hook locks to the opens that contain anything dangerous. Some we’ve left alone since they contain only tupperware type containers or fabric kind of items.
We’ve put toxic stuff up high, but she’s starting to climb and she’s curious, so I’m thinking we need to lock those cabinets too.
My older son kept trying to go outside, so we put a swing bolt at the top of our outside doors when he figured out how to use the door knobs and the locks.
I watch my kids like crazy too, you just never know. We didn’t get it all done at once. Just whenever we noticed what they got into next, we took care of it. We want them to be able to explore and still be safe.