Baby Proofing - what are you doing?

Rebis58 · September 2014

DD isn't quite crawling yet but is definitely mobile (dragging herself around on her belly, barrel rolling around the room). She's also starting to get into EVERYTHING. I have done exactly zero baby proofing so this means I follow her around all day moving her away from things. The thing is, I don't even know where to start.

We have two very small (height wise), carpeted steps leading from the hallway into the living room, so no stairways to worry about DD falling down. I basically want to do the minimum baby proofing to make the space safe for her without spending a fortune or making everything inconvenient for us (for example, I'd rather keep the bathroom door shut than have one of those latches on the toilet, I hate them).

What are you doing for baby proofing? STMs - what baby proofing items did you find you didn't need or were more annoying than helpful? What items did you find super helpful?

Any tips on things like cords from the TV? DD loves cords (especially chewing on them - yikes). I've stacked some things around the TV stand so she can't get to the cords but it looks super cluttered.

Roses87 · September 2014

We will be moving into our new house next week, so we will baby proof when we move in. I will be blocking off stairs and outlets. I will also put a baby proof knob on the door knob leading to the basement stairs. I will cap off the power outlets. I am still undecided if I will be proofing the kitchen cabinets or not.

Rebis58 · September 2014

@Roses87 that sounds about in line with what I think we'll do. As for the kitchen cabinets, I freaking HATE those clips for cupboards, they're so annoying. I think we'll do the cupboard with the garbage and cleaning supplies (same for bathroom) and leave the rest un-baby proofed. Then maybe just go through my cupboards and make sure anything she could hurt herself on or choke on is in a higher cupboard or drawer.

SandFHasse · September 2014

I find that the older DD gets the more I have to toddler proof the house. Right now this is what we have done:

- All door knobs have covers on the inside and outside so DD doesn't lock them

- outlets are covered

- end tables have corner protectors

- baby gate at kitchen entrance

- baby gate on kids doors so kids can get in/out, but dogs can't get in

- trash can with a sensor so kids can't get in

- dog water kept in kitchen

- power cords tucked behind whatever they belong to

- DVD cabinet has a hair tie around the knobs so kids can't slam the doors

- cabinets are getting locks this week. We haven't done the kitchen ones since she can't get to them, but she found out she can hide in the blanket closet

AHeidiA · September 2014

I did a gate at the stairs, outlet covers and the cabinet lock on the cabinet with the garbage/cleaning supplies. One thing I did with my two older kids was put all my Tupperware (and only Tupperware) in one cabinet and if baby wants to play in the cabinets then I would direct them to the Tupperware cabinet, didn't take too long for my older two to figure out which one they could play with and then they left the other ones alone.

sehudson821 · September 2014

Outlet covers, gate at stairs and moved cords. Now he's starting to pull up on things so I'll be looking into some more things in the near future.

MrsW062610 · September 2014

I am totally going to be stalking this thread. DD is crawling and I really need to baby proof, but am so lost.

Roses87 · September 2014

@rebis58 I was talking to my sil about the locks on the kitchen cabinets and she said she only did the ones with breakable items in it. I may just do the under the sink one with the chemicals for now and wait till later when she is into more to do any more.

amt0312 · September 2014

We haven't done too much in the way of baby proofing mainly because we are moving and its sort of pointless at the moment. We anchored a few pieces of wobbly furniture, put some outlet covers on the outlets she likes to touch, a gate by the stairs and keep all breakables as well as papers out of reach because she loves to eat paper. I watch her like a hawk, mostly. She's recently figured out the toilet and has tried lifting the seat so she can yell into the bowl. Cat food has been moved to different locations. Also, any long cords from blinds have been tied up or cut shorter so she can't reach them. She loves the dangly things.

Rebis58 · September 2014

amt0312 said:

We haven't done too much in the way of baby proofing mainly because we are moving and its sort of pointless at the moment. We anchored a few pieces of wobbly furniture, put some outlet covers on the outlets she likes to touch, a gate by the stairs and keep all breakables as well as papers out of reach because she loves to eat paper. I watch her like a hawk, mostly. She's recently figured out the toilet and has tried lifting the seat so she can yell into the bowl. Cat food has been moved to different locations. Also, any long cords from blinds have been tied up or cut shorter so she can't reach them. She loves the dangly things.

Good point. We have cats and keep the litter and food in the bathroom off the kitchen. I don't really want to baby-gate the bathroom door because I don't really want to make that bathroom non-functional (and don't want to start an open-door bathroom policy in the house!) but we also can't shut the door, obviously, as the cats need to get in there. We might try to fit the baby gate between the kitchen island and the wall just in front of the bathroom... It would be kind of annoying as we'd have to jump over it to get into the kitchen, but I don't know what other option we have.

LittleMommaBlueHen · September 2014

At this point outlet covers are the only thing implemented. Time will determine whether gates are necessary.

jhjocelyn · September 2014

We made our basement door into a half door so we wouldn't have to gate it. The woodstove and our tv room are down there, before dd the door was just always open.
Otherwise, outlet covers, some cabinet locks, especially the corner lazy-susan cupboards.

TheGreatBeyond · September 2014

So far the only thing we have done is install baby gates. She was always making a beeline for the top of the stairs and tried climbing up them at the bottom so we got that taken care of. I have the outlet protectors but she hasn't expressed any interest in those yet. I think we will do kitchen cabinet locks this weekend as she started trying to open those this week.

What is everyone using for cabinets? I was going to use the latches you have to push down but then started looking at the magnet one. Any STMs have any recommendations?

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