How much Baby-Proofing?

mskatiep · June 2014

How much baby proofing do you intend to do (or have done?)

I think we will cover the outlets, install a door-like babygate over the basement stairs, lock the cleaning chemical cupboard, and anchor the TV. Am I missing anything big? I am kinda of the mindset of she will always be supervised, so I don't want to get too crazy. What are your plans?

[Deleted User] · June 2014

With dd we moved the cat litter downstairs. Put up baby gates and locked cabinets with chemicals and gated off the kitchen. She never climbed anything and didn't crawl until almost a year so we had it really easy. This time around we have anchored the China cabinet all the dressers and the TV. As well as put the doorknob locks on dh bathroom where we keep cleaning supplies

[Deleted User] · June 2014

Oh and outlet covers

JaysonandKristin · June 2014

We haven't done anything yet. TBH, I don't think we will do much. Some socket covers are about it. All of our chemicals are out of reach. All of our furniture is low, and we don't have a TV.
We teach the kids to stay out of the kitchen. They are allowed outside on their own because they have animal chores to take care of, so we don't have any handle covers.

jennifertewart · June 2014

In the near future, outlet covers and strapping our curio cabinet to the wall... Eventually we will probably secure lower cabinets with chemical and secure the basement door knob.

cagoldi · June 2014

I have the world's least friendly house when it comes to a mobile baby.

We have outlet covers and toilet seat latches. I'm not sure what to do about our stairs. I mean, baby gates are the obvious choice, but we just have a weird layout with strange stairwell openings. Maybe custom gates are in our near future.

I moved Sinny's litter box to our bedroom on the third floor, it was on the first before. Not sure yet what to do with our coffee table.

We need to get a cover for the fireplace and figure out what to do about my hutch with glass doors. I'm afraid he'll start leaning on that while standing.

88sharonlee · June 2014

Haven't done anything yet and not sure when to start or how far to go with it. Our house is in a state if disarray right now as we are under construction on a few things- right now it's all new interior doors, frames, trim and baseboard, next will be new stairs.
So I think my game plan is to try to finish renovations ASAP and then worry about childproofing- how do you childproof a construction site!

I'm just glad she isn't rolling over or crawling yet- she sits like a champ so that's a good skill- just sit in one place and play, your not allowed to learn how to move around just yet!

mskatiep · June 2014

88sharonlee said:

Haven't done anything yet and not sure when to start or how far to go with it. Our house is in a state if disarray right now as we are under construction on a few things- right now it's all new interior doors, frames, trim and baseboard, next will be new stairs. So I think my game plan is to try to finish renovations ASAP and then worry about childproofing- how do you childproof a construction site! I'm just glad she isn't rolling over or crawling yet- she sits like a champ so that's a good skill- just sit in one place and play, your not allowed to learn how to move around just yet!

This is kind of our issue as well. We are looking at two houses on Saturday, as we would like to move ASAP. I don't want to install a bunch of child safety stuff in this home if we are just going to move in the next month or so (Rent not Buy).

88sharonlee · June 2014

Sing2phins said:
So far, all we've bought are outlet covers and three gates with cat openings in them. We haven't put in any of it, but she's not crawling yet. We will need to anchor several things, that's for sure.

What do people mean when they say they don't know what to do about the coffee table? Is it just the corners you're worried about?

I think so, coffee table corners. I had a friend suggest we just lose the coffee tAble for a while or find an upholstered ottoman type.

We don't live our table anyways do we might consider putting it away for a but, give us more floor space to play for a while?

Mum2Be28 · June 2014

Ugh I don't even know where to begin. We have SO.MUCH.FURNITURE! DH is the type that will just buy furniture at auction and estate sales if he likes it and will say "one day we will have a place for this. I love it!" And then he just sticks it on a wall instead of in storage. I'm not so much worried about W pulling any furniture over, as I am him running into everything.

I think I'll start with outlet covers, cabinet hooks in the kitchen, anchoring the book shelf in his room (it is tall and lean), and putting breakable/hazardous items on lower furniture away. We also have a lot of cords. We have a lot of fine art and every piece has a light/lamp with a cord that runs down to an outlet. Thinking I may just need to get rid of all those.

We live in a house that was built in the twenties and there is a door that fully closes on every room-- even to the living room, dining room and kitchen. We will probably take them all off when we do the addition later this year to make the house a little more modern-- but for now at least we can close the doors instead of buying a bunch of gates.

I think lead paint is an issue in this house too. I need to make sure he doesn't go gnawing away at any trim work in the house. Yikes!

cagoldi · June 2014

@Sing2phins‌ Our coffee table is rectangular but with rounded corners, so I'm not really concerned about that.

In our case, he is pushing to stand more than pulling, so he puts his hands on the base and pushes up and bumps his head on the bottom of the table. We may just cut up some pool noodles and throw them over those parts and see how that goes.

tisunge602 · June 2014

cagoldi said:

I have the world's least friendly house when it comes to a mobile baby. We have outlet covers and toilet seat latches. I'm not sure what to do about our stairs. I mean, baby gates are the obvious choice, but we just have a weird layout with strange stairwell openings. Maybe custom gates are in our near future. I moved Sinny's litter box to our bedroom on the third floor, it was on the first before. Not sure yet what to do with our coffee table. We need to get a cover for the fireplace and figure out what to do about my hutch with glass doors. I'm afraid he'll start leaning on that while standing.

I was researching baby gates the other day and Consumer Reports mentions some that sell a special installation kit for weird openings. Maybe that would help you?

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/safety-gates/buying-guide.htm

cagoldi · June 2014

@tisunge602‌ Thank you for that. I still think we're in a bind, because there are very short walls at the top of the stairway, they open right onto the floor of the next level. So even if we put up a gate, he could just step a few inches past it and literally throw himself right down onto the stairs.

Kfran84 · June 2014

We are doing minimal. We covered the outlets and I know we will need a gate at the top of the stairs eventually.

I need to do cabinet latches on the kitchen cabinet with the cleaning supplies. Or I could just move them higher. Haven't decided yet. TV anchor is the only other thing I can think of.

His bedroom furniture is already secured.

mskatiep · June 2014

@karissa2009‌ area rugs? Bubble wrap?

jk I'm not much help. I have carpet....

mskatiep · June 2014

@karissa2009‌ lol I totally posted that the other day on the taking over the room post @mmm50‌ said she has a sunroom with a pool full of toys! As long as babe is supervised I would totally do it if I had room

mmm50 · June 2014

Yes! We use the inflatable pool and it is awesome @karissa2009! He can entertain himself in there for about half an hour while I do things like the dishes, and it's nice because while I almost 100% trust our dog with N, I'm afraid N is going to pull his tail hard or something in the 2 minutes I am in the bathroom. With the pool I can just not worry about him for a second while I have to pee or something, and all his 50,000 toys are contained in one place. I bought the same one I saw on pinterest for $25 on ebay with free shipping.

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