Babyproofing

[anonymous4_20]

Can we talk about babyproofing? 'Cause we are really not ready. At all. I'm starting to feel the pressue.

I got the plug thingys, and put those in. But when I looked at the drawer locks, they seemed to be complicated. Are there really no drawer locks other than the ones you have to screw in? That's all they had at Target when I looked. I can't imagine screwing holes in all my cupboards and my china cabinet! Don't they make locks that can just snap in, or something, for the furniture you don't want to drill into?

Other than that, I was just planning on going over the list in the Sears' Baby Book to make sure I'm covering all the bases. Is there anything not on that list that I should think about?

This actually scares the crap out of me. I know I'm going to be a wreck the first time he gets into something he shouldn't have. I want to make sure that it's nothing dangerous, so I want to do this right!

[Thursday Girl]

this might not help you b/c we had quite the lax attitude toward baby proofing. we covered plugs, made sure chokeables were not around. (which was hard b/c dh was losing change all over the house, and also had this habit of having a beer putting the cap in his lap, and then standing up dropping it to the floor. can you say AARRGGHH! ?) we did drawer locks, cabinet locks. DD promptly broke those. The screw in kind. now if you have handles close together you can get the kind that hooks two cabinet handels together. Basically put what you don't want him to get up high and keep low drawers and cabinets full of stuff that won't harm him. We yurned the bottom book shelves in the living room into toy shelves and had books, pictures , etc on the higher ones. even though she COULD reach them their was far more interesting things for her to get.

my sister got those corner edgers to stick to the table, my daughter pulled them off iomediatley.

try checking out the continuum concept and see what you think, their is a thread on mdc about it too!

Courtney

ps good luck and relax you'll do great

[LittleLlama]

I have located the plug covers but have yet to put them in... even though DS just ROLLED over to one with a slobbery finger extended

I knwo it's a while away but for doorknobs, we don't have the round kind, they're more like handles, is there anything for those?

My last house was totally baby-proofed when we moved in, every plug, every cupboard... I miss it.

[Thursday Girl]

yeah they have something for those too.

we bought some for the fridge and freezer since the three year old likes to raid it...she broke those. we have given up.

[hottmama]

We aren't big on babyproofing. Luka's a pretty fast crawler these days, but all we've done is make sure there's no choking hazards on the floor. Also, he can pull up so we keep the coffee table clear of choking hazards. And since he loves to chew on shoes, we keep those by the front door (which enters our dining room where he doesn't crawl because we put him in the high chair if we go in there). We'll need to find somewhere else for them if he doesn't get over his shoe obsession. We keep cords out of the way and unplug phone chargers/etc. when not in use. He likes to chew on those, too. We put the dishwashing liquid above the sink instead of under it.

We still need to stabilize the bookshelves (stacked up milkcrates overflowing with books) by attaching them to the wall or making them one level across the wall. We also need to do something about the steps and the cat food and litter box. I think we'll need baby gates, boo. But 2 gates should do the trick for the top of the stairs and bottom of stairs/bathroom (which has 2 steps down to it)/cat food/litter.

[IncaMama]

we never really did much w/rowan - he wasn't adventurous in that way and has only recently started to care at all about what's inside cupboards. this time around we'll do more bc my attention will be divided btwn 2 kids...i'll let you know what we decide to do (other than removing choking hazards from her vicinity)

[Spark]

My kids have all been wild babes and toddlers. They're early with the big physical movements, but lacking the brain power to understand what they're doing. cicely walked at 7 months, 1 week. At 8 1/2 months she was runnign & climbing. That's insane. 9 months olds don't realize that running around on top of a kitchen table is dangerous. Needless to say, we are BIG baby-proofers.

Sure, we cover the outlets, but more than that I don't want to shout NO 40 times a day. So anything that I think NO or say NO to, I usually remove or put somewhere else. That's the next step in baby proofing.

Joie is really moving around. She'll transverse a room in no time flat, but it's usually doing the commando crawl. JUST yesterday, she got up on all fours and crawled like that for a while. Consequently she has a bruised forehead from knocking into things.

[birthjunkie27]

Claire, I cannot even imagine a 7 month old walking! An 8 month old climbing? Do you have any pictures you can post? That's just CRAZY!!!! :

[anonymous4_20]

These are all good ideas, thanks! I'm just intimidated by the amount of work that needs to be done. He's such a fussy little guy that I can't even get my normal housework done, let alone any major projects. I guess my kitchen is probably ok because I mostly have pots and pans in the lower cupboards. But I'm pretty concerned about DH's fishtanks, actually. He's got all the fish food down below the tanks, and there's not a good place in the rooms to keep it up higher. I guess we'll just have to find room. Do I really need to remove the books off the lower bookshelves? Is that for the books's sake, or DS's?

I also need to stop DH from leaving tools and stuff all around the floor when he finishes a project. : I don't think he understands how quickly the little guy is going to move once he gets going. I'm kind of hoping that Stuart will get into something precious yet harmless that DH left out and ruins it so he gets his act together! He keeps saying "Oh, we'll watch him, you don't have to worry." He doesn't have a lot of kid experience. I've taught elementary school long enough to understand that preventing the possible problems is a lot easier than dealing with the consequences of them.

[darkpear]

I will be keeping an eye on this thread. We are fairly babyproofed as it is, but having a mobile 5-6 month old is a whole different proposition than having a mobile 8-9+ month old ever was! Moira doesn't even wait to master one gross motor skill before she's on to the next... she's very klutzy still and really her 'crawling' is a matter of launching herself headlong

[Thursday Girl]

good luck Amanda, Dh didn't finally stop watching the dropped beer caps until Jewely was about two, until then it was constant reminders and nagging from me.

removing the books is for the books sake. it's very good to let them chew on books but if their are any you don't want slobbered on or ripped i would move them. Likw spark said if it's going to be a "no" thing it's better to move it. if you don't mind let him have at it.

courtney'

wow and i though Jewely's first steps at 8 months, running at 9 was early.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by birthjunkie27

Claire, I cannot even imagine a 7 month old walking! An 8 month old climbing? Do you have any pictures you can post? That's just CRAZY!!!! :

Oh, I bet I do. Let me go look...

[Spark]

ok, that's crazy, she started walking in October. October & November the only pictures I have are of Halloween! There are no other pictures. I am sure my mom or MIL took some though. It was crazy, we'd go to the mall playground & people would see her walking around. She wasn't a big baby by any means. She was still wearing 6-9 months when she was 8 months and walking all over the place. People would stare at her. Just stare. I think it was the most attention I ever got for one of my kids!

[aisraeltax]

im subbing to this thread too. all we have so far are gates and the electrical plug thingys. i have some cabinet things but dont really want to put holes in my cabinets or furniture, so i dont think i will do that.
i think i will simply do what i did with ds1, which was basically what Spark said. i remove all breakables and nothing thats not for baby is less than 3 ft. off the ground. of course, when they start walking and can reach higher than that, i hope he just knows what to play with and not. most of the time, i find that having toys in every room eliminates the need for him to explore the books on my bookshelves (we are both avid collectors and have tons of books, so removing them is not an option). we want to build a library onto the house but havent done that yet.
good luck!

[LittleLlama]

So, any suggestions for my laundry room? It has the catbox and their food in it so we can't leave the door shut, but we're renting so I can't cut a hole in it (or can I?) It's so loud, so we usually try and shut, but not latch the door, so just putting a gate up wouldn't be so great for the cats who already ahve to push the door open.