retractable outlet covers for weird shaped outlets?

[cww]

We renovated a year ago, and now we have a very mobile 1 year old and we are looking for a safer way to keep her from the outlets than those little plastic plugs - I've seen the retractable outlet covers (where you actually screw them in place of the original outlet cover, and a plastic piece that is kind of spring loaded retracts over the outlet holes when you pull something out), and I'd like to install these retractable covers in our apartment. However, they seem to be designed with two cutouts, one for each outlet - our outlets aren't like that, though - they have one large rectangular piece in the middle which contains the two outlets, and the outlet cover just goes around it (so that the outlet cover is just like the cover for a modern wide light switch) and there are two screws, one on either end.

Does anyone know how we can get retractable outlet covers for this type of outlet? (Is there a particular name for this type of outlet, so I can at least figure out what I'm searching for?)

On a related note, we will also be traveling in Germany and Switzerland later this year, and I worry about her getting into the outlets there.  What have you guys done while traveling?  Did you just buy some of the easy to stick in plugs at your destination?  And if so, was your kiddo able to remove them?  (Ours is surprisingly good at that kind of thing...)

Thanks for taking the time to read my post!

[crunchy_mommy]

Are you guys at all handy? What we ended up doing is replacing all of our outlets with "tamper-resistant" outlets. You can get them at Home Depot, and they are very easy to install -- basically just turn off the electricity, remove the old outlet, and connect the black wire to the black one in the wall etc. Super simple, you don't need a lot of electrical knowledge! These have built-in internal shutters so they are impossible to remove or disable and they don't pose a fire hazard like some of the retractable covers you're talking about do.

I also found that removing all our outlet covers in the interim made the outlets way less exciting, pretty much once we removed all the covers, DS stopped playing with them (though we still eventually installed the tamper resistant ones to be on the safe side and for any future kids). I also showed him how to safely plug in things like the vacuum ('never touch the metal, only the plastic part' etc.) So that's another option for you, maybe will help with your trip too...

[Ola_]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

Are you guys at all handy? What we ended up doing is replacing all of our outlets with "tamper-resistant" outlets. You can get them at Home Depot, and they are very easy to install -- basically just turn off the electricity, remove the old outlet, and connect the black wire to the black one in the wall etc. Super simple, you don't need a lot of electrical knowledge! These have built-in internal shutters so they are impossible to remove or disable and they don't pose a fire hazard like some of the retractable covers you're talking about do.

This is what we did too.  Now we don't need to worry about any of the plugs even if DD shoves something in one of the holes.  DH decided to do this because everyone we know who has kids told us how quickly they figured out the plug-cover things.  They were not terribly expensive and you could always switch them back when you leave if you want to.