Any babyproofing tips?

mishquiche · March 2011

My little man is getting close to crawling, so I think it's time to get this done. I have a checklist and I've already started crawling around on the floor (my cat must have thought I was crazy) to make notes of things he could get into. Any helpful hints or things you wish you would have thought about?

m&m823 · March 2011

We've made our main living area a baby-safe zone. That means we got rid of our pretty coffee table (took up too much space) and put up gates to block DS in to the living room/dining room area. At almost 3, I still love that I can have him in there and go take a quick shower or something and feel relatively safe about it.

I turned all the end tables that had drawers around so he couldn't open the drawers (they face normal now and he doesn't even notice the drawers). I put a lock on a couple of cabinet doors that he could get too, and the glass doors on our (gas) fireplace. I put pluggy things into the outlets and bought one of those cord covers for the mass of cords around our tv. I also rearranged the furniture so it was more open and he couldn't crawl behind anything. We have hardwoods in this area, so I also bought those foam inter-locking alphabet mats (at Ross for like $15) and put that down where our Oriental rug had been.

I didn't do anything with the dining room table/chairs. We had a few months where climbing up on the chairs and then the table was a big thing, but he lost interest after doing it a few times.

Bye bye home fashion, hello daycare chic! It made my life so much easier though.

Seattle_JiLLn · March 2011

My tip is to start with the real hazards - plug electric outlets, move your cleaning supplies up high or put a magnetic tot lock on those cabinets, make sure knives are up high, and make sure to tot lock your cabinets under your sinks if there's medicine in there. Those are the things that will kill them. So do those things first and do them right. Gates on the stairs of course.

Then just see what your LO gets into and go from there. Like m&m, we just gated off the family room from the dining/living room areas. So I never did baby proof those rooms other than plugging the outlets.

I also left some cabinets/drawers available in the kitchen for the kids to have free reign of. With Ben, that satisfied him and he never bugged the other cabinets. Cooper though keeps trying to get into everything, even if they have those latch things on them. Cooper is a menace.

Irishsapphire · March 2011

We put a pillow in front of the coffee table when baby is on his quilt by our coffee table. We also put the pillow behind him--he is just starting to sit up on his on--and he loses his balance.

StellaZ · March 2011

The only things I would add are try to give them one drawer that is theirs in each main area (ex: kitchen/Tupperware) so they feel included, plus it also teaches them how to open/close properly. It's a great occupier and cheap toy when you need to be in those rooms.. And remember to do a round #2 when baby is walking with balance and leverage - that's a whole new ballgame!

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