child proofing???

Anemic_Royalty

I'm just starting child proofing everything and am feeling soooo overwhelmed.  So far I've gotten cord shorteners, a fridge lock, oven lock, power strip cover and the covers for the outlets - then I read I should switch all outlets to the turning sort - did you switch all of them?  Also what sort of baby gate did you get - that's next on my list.  What else am I missing?

DH thinks I'm crazy - he just thinks we keep an eye on DS all of the time and it'll all be good - UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH! 

AnnetteWalker

Good question we are needing a baby gate as well. I have no idea what to get. We want something that is tension set and not something that we have to screw into the walls.  

Anemic_Royalty

I learned at evergreen class 2 weeks ago that the tension kind are not good for the walls because it will dent in the drywall - and you can't use tension kind for stairs if you have that worry - something to think about tho.  I have a tension kind on the door frame of DS room and it hasn't dented the wood...

MelodyFerg

We used the tension kind at the top of our stairs for awhile when Caden was younger and we only put it up when we were upstairs and he was mobile...so it wasn't ever on the wall for too long and we never had a problem with it denting our walls.

I am not the best person to answer questions about baby proofing though, I had a mommy give me the advice before Caden was even born that every kid needs different child proofing, so just wait and see if your child is a climber or a scavenger or whatever and then childproof as necessary.  I am pretty laidback and liked that advice...and te great thing is I have a kid who isn't a climber (unless on his own toys or mommy or daddy) and doesn't really get into anything he ins't supposed to...so our house has outlet plugs and a few things secured to the wall and that is about it

Mama_v2.0

Honestly we just locked the cupboard where we keep dangerous chemicals, and the entertainment cabinet cause I hate picking up cds/dvds, and put gates up on stairs. You really don't need a fridge lock, they can't open it until 2 (and by then you almost want then to), I think the oven would be the same.  (I never had a problem.) My DD never played with outlets or power strips, aside from pressing the lighted button and shutting them off. Now cords...they love to pull and tangle themselves in cords. And foam for table edges are handy.

I like the child proof as you go cause every child is different. I think it is silly to spend $300 childproofing everything and then not using half of it. 

We have the Kidco Safeway Gate. It screws into the wall and does fine, provided you have a stud to screw it into where you plan to mount it....no stud = 20 lbs standing and jumping on it and down it comes.

AnnetteWalker

Is Lennon crawling?

pinktulips

We have a tensions set babygate. I think it is by safety first and has a little handle on top - I hate it. With DS I had a tension set one that was mesh and I loved that.

We didn't need the fridge or oven lock, cause we had the kitchen gated off. We did use a cabinet lock on the cabinet that had the cleaning products, and I tied shut our entertainment cabinet doors.

We used regular plug covers and they worked just fine.

We had a spout cover on the bathtub, which was nice.

We turned down our hot water tank to prevent accidental scalding.

We had a jingle bell and a doorknob cover (in some places) on the front door.

We put a door knob cover on the bathroom door an kept it shut.

 

tfarabians

Cruz gets into everything and there is no way he can get into our fridge or oven.  FOr he can us outlet covers were more of an invitation to play with the outlets than to just leave them plain.  He ignores then with nothing on them but he learned in 5 min how to pluck those outlet covers off and would put them in his mouth so they were more of a choking hazzard than a safety precaution.  OUr biggest thing is keeping bathroom doors shut at almost 18 months there are only 2 doors he can reach and open at this point..  The most helpful thing we have is the babyproofed drawers in the kitchen.  He has 2 drawers that are his with utencils that he can play with and the rest have babylocks on them.

Please note that Cruz really only needed a couple of drawers babyproofed until he was really walking. 

Seattle_JiLLn

I would wait on the fridge and oven til you find out if that's even a problem.  Ben is no where near strong enough to open the fridge.

 www.homesafetyspecialists.com has a good list of things to think about.

 

My theory was this:  Babyproof things that will kill him.   So outlets, and poison and knives.   And then minimize access to things that will be super annoying.

So we gated off the living room/dining room - he just didn't need to go in there, and then we didnt' need to worry about babyproofing in there.   We put a tension gate at the bottom of our stairs - it has a swinging gate opening in the middle so you don't ahve to take it all the way down to get through.  It has not dented our dry wall.   At the top of teh stairs, we have a screwed in kind.  YOu can not use a tension mounted one at the top of the stairs b/c they could lean really hard on it (in theory) and push through and fall down the stairs.

In the kitchen, we were able to moeve all of the chemicals out from under our sink into the laundry room up high.  SO taht was easy.  And we put regular latches on the cabinets that we didnt' want him to get into - knwing that those latches are just deterrants, not really baby "proof".   We left open the tupperware drawers, napkins/dishtowels, and other areas we were OK with him getting into - and you NEED to leave some for fun - open....

We plugged all of the outlets with the cheap ones that you just shove in.  The outlets that we actually use we got things that would fit over the plugged in item so that we can plug things in and then cover up so he couldn't pull them out - look at BRU they have them.

I never gated off the bathroom, or put on toilet locks or anything.  He just has never even bothered with the toilet.

Upstairs, I put the magnetic "tot locks" on the cabinets under our sinks, since those are our medicine cabinets and I diidn't want him to get into any medicine, cosmetics, etc...

And that's all we did.  Oh, we gated off half of the bonus room to ddivide the exercise equipment from teh play room stuff.  Nto that we use the exercise equipment, but that's another story. 

I think the key is to start with real hazards and then just follow your kid. See what he gets into and baby proof accordingly. 

Seattle_JiLLn

oh and if your kid turns into a climber, consider getting the straps that you can strap your tall/big furniture to the wall so they can't pull things like dressers over on themselves.

pinktulips

The straps is a good idea! My ds is not a climber, but one time when he was four he opened every drawer on his dresser, which made it front heavy. The whole thing tipped forward and would have landed on him is it wasn't for his ball pit mountain being in the way. Scared the living daylights out of both of us!

Em7.31.04

We have the turning outlet plates in DS's room, the playroom and in the main hallway areas.  Otherwise we just have the caps in the individual plugs.  We just installed some cabinet latches in the kitchen this weekend and we have lived in this house for almost a year.  We had them in our former house but since we moved, DS doesn't get into things.  I'm not a hyper childproofer, though...No fridge lock, oven lock, etc for us. 

Seattle_JiLLn

Oh I remembered one other thing I like... it's a nightlight that's built into the outlet and then has a twisty type outlet "cover" for the remaining outlet.  So if you have a night light in DS's room, you might look at that.  Ben LOVED pulling that damn night light out of the wall, so this built in one saved us.

 

And p.s. please excuse all of my terrible typos in my other posts.  I type too fast and am too lazy to fix it.