Product spotlight: health and safety

runwmusic

Questions /advice? 

runwmusic

Technically you're not supposed to use qtips but we use the baby ones that have thick ends so they can't get too deep. 

Baby nail scissors and files are so much better than clippers! 

Baby gates, if it's for stairs pay attention to the bottle of the gate. You don't want to have to step up and over the gate on your way down a stair. 

You don't need the bath thermometer. Just feel the water before putting the baby in. 

Outlet covers, the easy to push in one's are just as easy to pull out. We had to upgrade to the baby (and semi adult) proof kind. I wish we didn't waste money on the basis ones. 

runwmusic

Thought of another one. Thermometers. I got a temporal before ds was born and ended up replacing before he was a year old for an ear one. The temporal was always all over the place so I never trusted it. Ear temp seems to be better but is still only used as a check. If it shows high, we always do rectal to confirm temp. 

ReneeJ2011

So I will be honest...we never baby proofed our house with DS, just never got around to doing it and we had no issues.  No outlet covers, no door covers, no cabinet drawer/door locks, no extra padding around sharp corners, no baby gates.  That being said I have no advice on this and likely we will not be baby proofing again.   We used a regular thermometer but have a ear one now. I like the regular one for infants, but now DS is older and "doesn't like" the regular thermometer we use the ear kind.  

kyrwyn

This is the only thing that has stopped DS1. He learned using tools to pull out the push in tabs before he learned to walk. 🙈

The one in his play yard area has been going strong for over a year with no accidental toddler electrician moments. 

chaos-and-coffee

@ReneeJ2011 guilty of that here too. We do have outlet covers, although I need to get more for our new house. We used to have a baby gate to our basement stairs because they were concrete, but we don’t have anything up now. I will probably put a gate up on the stairs just so DS doesn’t go up and down without me knowing where he is. We don’t have a fireplace, and he is old enough now to understand when I tell him to shut the door. I do plan on anchoring the furniture in his bedroom when we move him to a toddler bed. 

runwmusic

Just to add, I guess this depends on the kid. Ds is insane. He gets into everything. Even with baby proofing I am having to stop him from things constantly. This weekend he was standing on our kitchen table. Any ideas how to baby proof him from climbing onto the chair then onto the table? 

kyrwyn

@runwmusic I feel like your DS and my DS would be trouble together. He figured out the push-to-release baby locks before he could reliably stand without holding on. We have magnetic locks on everything potentially dangerous and moved all cleaning supplies to a tall shelf in the locked garage. 

thinkpositive2017

DS was so calm, we barely did any baby proofing. The one thing I made sure we did was anchor the TV/TV stand since we did a lot of tummy time on the floor in the living room. Also, I made sure all loose blind cords were secured and out of reach.

bluehydrangea17

I agree with @runwmusic about the temporal thermometer. Don’t waste your money. Ours never worked correctly. We switched to the Braun ear thermometer and it works great! 

We never did a ton of baby proofing either for our first. However, the second is much more mischievous. I also found him on top of the kitchen table the other day, though he was laying on it. We did the outlet covers for him, though he was able to remove them and that became a hazard cause he would try to stick them in his mouth. We actually ended up just changing all of the outlets cause they were outdated anyway so now the outlets themselves are child proof. We have always had a gate at the top of the stairs to prevent falls. 

brose1117

@bluehydrangea17 my second is soooo much more mischievous as well! My first we didn’t baby proof really at all and he never got into anything. My second guy, into EVERYTHING! He usually makes sure to call “mom!” Before he jumps off a table just to make sure I can watch him. He’s so cute but such a little stinker! 

pourmeanothermocktail

We had a cheap temporal thermometer, which was awful. We did splurge on a $35 ish on sale one though after that, and it's been great. I mean, I check it three times every time, but it's almost always all 3 pretty close. And honestly, within a degree is close enough for me. I don't ever need the specifics of a rectal, if it's literally the scary or close or important, we're likely going in anyway. 

I don't "get" outlet covers. My kids don't have access to things skinny enough to fit in the holes...all of out outlets that have cords in them are behind furniture. By the time my kids have been mobile enough to get their fingers to the outlet, they've had fingers too fat to get them in, so...I haven't worried about that. We've attached several heavy furniture items to the wall, that I get.

Drugs and dangerous chemicals are locked up, as are knives. With cheap things, we've been lucky to have double knobs in the scariest cabinets so locking handles together is easy and cheap!

And we use closed doors to contain them most of the time, doorknob covers still work on the almost 4 year old. Door at top of stairs, and gate at the bottom. Definitely prefer screw into wall gates, so they can open and have nothing to trip over. I also have a door at one end of my kitchen and a gate at the other so they're not literally climbing my legs when I'm trying to get food, because I would accidentally drop sharp stuff or hot stuff on them. Because I am a mess in the kitchen. 

Also, Nose Frida is a life saver. Lie throwing head around with the bulb syringe caused too many nose bleeds here. Less physical trauma with the Frida. 

brose1117

@pourmeanothermocktail i second nose frida, we bought the cheaper off brand one though. We didn’t have it with our first, i had no idea how much we were missing out! We loved it for the second. I mean i gag everytime we used it but still, life saver 😂

brose1117

I actually prefer rectal temp 100%. It freaked me out the first time, but after that I felt good about the results. We also have a forehead thermometer. I trust it less, but now have a nearly five and two year old, so I’m not using a rectal thermometer and they are constantly on the go, so forehead is quick. I know it’s never super accurate, but i do it a couple times usually and it’s close enough imo. Once they are old enough that I’m not using rectal, i find that I’m less concerned about their temperature. 

ErikandAfton

Baby Frida nail trimmers! Those things are amazing. I gift them at every baby shower. You can see there tails and they cross like scissors so much safer. We love them. 

chaos-and-coffee

We have a couple different thermometers. For tiny newborns, I prefer rectal because they need to be seen for any fever. Usually now I do under the arm and add a degree. We have a forehead one and it’s wildly inaccurate - one time it gave me a reading of 106. It also can go in the ear but DS loses his toddler mind with that so we stick to underarm.