Baby-proofing

[trumpcard]

Tell me what you are doing or have done to baby-proof your home. DD is 10 months and becoming a lot more mobile. We have a gate at the top of our stairs to the basement and I have some of the outlets covered with hand-me-down outlet covers but besides that I haven't done anything. DO I need to go out and buy a lot of gadgets? Some of our friends have latches and locks on every door and cabinet in their house which feels like overkill to me. What are your thoughts?

[Knitting Mama]

I think it totally depends on your parenting style and what you consider to be okay versus what isn't okay. For us, keeping our daughter out of the kitchen right now has been paramount, because we have an open litter box in there. We have a gate blocking the other litter box at the other end of the house. Other than that, covering outlets and making sure things that are important to us are not at baby level is about the extent of our baby-proofing. I purposely put things on low shelves for her, and make sure that cabinet contents that are at her level are baby safe. The bathroom and office doors are always closed, so they're not a worry. That's about it!

[P.J.]

I had big plans to babyproof ever-y-thing, or even just in one room where I could leave him to play on his own, but that just hasn't happened. We have a gate at the door to our back hallway and we have the cat food and glass recycling there (no stairs in this house). We also have a playpen thingy that comes apart into pieces used to gate off a corner with a few big plants and speakers, and around the wood-burning stove. We have outlet covers, and I try to keep dangerous stuff off the coffee tables. I also use door stops (a favorite toy of Max's!) because I've seen him nearly get his little fingers crushed in the door. But to be honest, our house is only like 60% babyproofed. We still have cables and other stuff like that where I really can't leave Max alone for a long time in a room (not that he'd let me, haha).

The way I see it, we babyoroof as we go and I sometimes have to pull him away from something, but there's nothing too deadly for him to reach easily. Some things are a bother, for example he pulls the floor lamps down but we rent this place and don't have the knowledge or time to install all wall lamps, kwim....so the floor lamps stay and I let him pull them down or I redirect him away from them.

I bet some super safety-aware mamas would gasp at how un-babyproofed our house is, but I keep a pretty close watch on him and just change what seems to be dangerous as I notice it.

[onyxravnos]

definitely get guards for the outlets. every single one. even the ones he can't reach in a million years.

baby gate any stairs or block off any little boxes or the like.

cabinets don't need to be baby proofed but baby will get into them so make sure there isn't anything breakable or sharp ( or little as they will make a huge mess)  if you don't want to lock them up. 

other then that it's just about maying sure anything unsafe or special to you is far above baby reaching area. 

[carmen358]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama 

I think it totally depends on your parenting style and what you consider to be okay versus what isn't okay. For us, keeping our daughter out of the kitchen right now has been paramount, because we have an open litter box in there. We have a gate blocking the other litter box at the other end of the house.

What sort of gate do you use to block the litter box? Do you mean a gate around the actual box? The baby gates I've seen aren't wide enough for a cat to get through!

Question for everyone, does anyone attach bookshelves, etc. to the wall?

[Knitting Mama]

Our litter box at that end of the house is in the laundry area, which is at the end of a hallway, so we just have a regular gate across the hallway. You can buy them with cat openings in them, but my girl is pretty small, and the openings are big enough that I'd worry about her getting through it or getting stuck!

[P.J.]

We have our gate affixed to the door frame about 7 inches off the ground, so the cats just slink under it no problem.

As for nailing stuff to the wall, we haven't yet but I suspect Max will begin scaling the bookshelves soon enough. As soon as I notice him doing that we will. As it is now, the one bookshelf he could climb is in a corner and the changing table is right perpendicular next to it, blocking it from truly falling over. Still, stuff could fall off and it does need to be nailed down I think.

I really am of the "babyproof as you go" philosophy. Keep a very close eye and do it as you notice it needs doing.

[katelove]

We're doing it as we go as well. We've gated off a fair bit because it suits us to confine the activity to one room at a time. The only cupboard latch is on the pantry because we've gated the kitchen but, the pantry is outside the gated area. 

The cat jumps over the gates but he isn't really happy about it 

We haven't attached any furniture to the walls yet but we may have too at some stage. So far, all she's done is pull books of the bookshelves.

I moved a lamp I particularly like off a low coffee table as I would be sad if it broke and also because she'd probably cut herself if she smashed it.

We have a powerboard cover in the lounge room and another one in the main bedroom. We bought a whole packet of socket plugs but have only used one as all our powerpoints are in use (we don't have many). The one we've plugged is above the bathroom bench and is the least accessible (to J) one in the house  But, if she gets through the gate and scales the bench then she won't be able to stick her finger in the powerpoint, damnit!

We've done more gating than I expected to but, we're living in a temporary apartment and it's the easiest solution. I'm hoping we won't need to do as much in our permanent house.

[mommariffic]

Ok worst mom ever - we are bare minimum baby proofers. 

I am going to put a baby gate at the top of our deck so DS doesn't tumble down, but that's probably it. We have some outlet covers but my experience is that my kids are more interested in them if they have something on them! Most of ours are covered by bookshelves anyway (that can be reached) or are behind bookshelves. I don't really nail anything to the wall, and I try to vacum twice a day so that DS doesn't pick anything up but umm that's it! 

[Blessed1]

Question for everyone, does anyone attach bookshelves, etc. to the wall?

We've made our home safer by covering electrical outlets, securing wires, locking two kitchen cabinets (the cabinets that hold are natural cleaning supplies), and securing heavy furniture to the wall (bookshelves, entertainment system..).  And we've also created an environment where our little growing Emily can have a strong sense of belonging.


We've chosen to lean towards a "freedom of movement" type philosophy. We wanted her to feel free to explore her environment in a safe way. We don't mind her exploring the house. We've placed a few toys/books on low shelves in small baskets so that she has access to them whenever her little heart desires.  She has a little basket or "area" in every room of our home and she loves it!

We do make sure to keep the bathroom doors closed but every room in the house including guest bedroom is "child friendly".  I wouldn't mind leaving her in any room by herself for several minutes while I run to the restroom or something. 

Oh and the most tedious thing I've been doing is sweeping the entire house (hardwood floors) at least twice a day because her little fingers pick up EVERYTHING!! lol

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama 

I think it totally depends on your parenting style and what you consider to be okay versus what isn't okay. For us, keeping our daughter out of the kitchen right now has been paramount, because we have an open litter box in there. We have a gate blocking the other litter box at the other end of the house. Other than that, covering outlets and making sure things that are important to us are not at baby level is about the extent of our baby-proofing. I purposely put things on low shelves for her, and make sure that cabinet contents that are at her level are baby safe. The bathroom and office doors are always closed, so they're not a worry. That's about it!

Not just parenting style - also child's temperament.

We very barely child-proofed when DD was little. We simply didn't need to. We told her "no" once, and she'd never do it again. We had covers on a few of the most obvious oulets, a gate on the stairs, and that was the extent of it.

This little guy - hoo boy. We tell him "no" and he says (in actions - he's 12 months) "how about now? Now? What about now? Can I touch it now? What if I just touch it quickly? Hey Mum look I'm gonna toooouuuuch it!"  We really need to get latches on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets!

While redirection and distraction is a great tool, if I want to accomplish anything during the day other than chase him from one thing to another (crazy ambitious stuff like pee, make dinner, talk to DD), things need to be babyproofed. TBH we're still pretty lax, but that's because he's crawling and I can move faster than him. I need to find new homes for the end tables, lamps, etc at least temporarily. Bookshelves - ours are all high on the walls or in rooms he can't access easily at this point. We'll wait and see.

[new2this]

We are going to be gating off the hallway/stairs area. We have outlet covers and we will put locks on the cabinets that have the cleaners and stuff like that in them and book shelves/dvd case will be mounted to the wall. Outside of that most all is free range. Of course anything that has deep meaning or we don't want broken will be put up.