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When I was a babysitter of a crawler, I worked in a home that had 3 kids, and they didn't seem too concerned with all the baby-proof products, other than the stairs gate.
I say, at times when you know you will have divided attention, at those points have a place where you know is safe and can fence him in where you are or give him something you know really captivates his attention so he stays put for a little while. I just always kept an eye on her (which was tough while making lunches, and with 2 other kids under age 6). It was eyes on the baby, instead of safety equipment.
Most people I know have a gate for their stairs, and sometimes a gate for their kitchen or a lock for the oven door. As well as locks for cabinets that kids can reach. and then protective covers for the outlets and thats about it.
I can tell you what we decided to do. Since we spend the majority of our time in the living room, we decided to concentrate on babyproofing that area. We got outlet/power strip covers, secured the bookcases to the walls, put on cabinet locks, moved some furniture in front of the bookcases and the file cabinet so Addie can't get into them, and mounted our flat screen on the wall. ETA: We also put up the corner guards on her toy box, the side table, and the entertainment center. We also put up baby gates in the front hallway (leads to the stairs), the top of the stairs, and the dining room (leads to the kitchen). We've never used a play yard.
If I'm doing something in the kitchen, she can either stay in the living room and play (safely) or she can come sit in her highchair in the kitchen. If I just need to go into the kitchen for minute, she can come with me, but I have my eye on her the whole time. If we're upstairs (usually only before bedtime/naps, or while we're getting ready in the morning) one of us is always watching her and we shut all the doors, so she can only go into her bedroom, our bathroom, and our bedroom. Obviously, her bedroom is also babyproofed entirely, but our bathroom and bedroom (which connect to the nursery) are not.
Overall, I'm just not a fan of putting baby in a "cage".
that's prob the extent we will go.
Is your flat screen sitting on the stand and that's why you feel the need to baby proof it? Wall mount might be an option? Or I know they sell these things for bookcases and such to prevent them from tipping when baby starts walking and using furniture to pull themselves up?
Secure the bookshelf to the wall ( we all should do this anyway), empty out the bottom shelf so she can place a few favorite toys there, remove any fragile pieces on display anywhere low down in the room. Then let her learn to be mobile.
When my kids were little I had a huge kitchen so they could easily play on one side of the room while I cooked. I let them play with the pots and pans stored on the lower shelves. There was nothing of any risk to them that they could reach. They were taught from the get go, that they had to stay out of my way in the kitchen for saftey's sake.
Remove any and all toxic cleaning products from under the sink.
If you don't have stairs, you can choose not to use gates as long as you remember to close doors religiously. Bathrooms are dangerous places for children.
We focused mostly on the cabinets, toilet locks for my oldest daughter because she loved trying to put toys in the toilet and we have a nice bupper that sits on the edge of the fireplace.
I would secure the book case to the wall. For our flat screen we have it on a stand that you mount it on the back as opposed to just sitting on it.
We have a gate on the stairs, but we never caged them in a room.
With a newly-mobile baby, this is still a work-in-progress for us. But we did the outlet covers and safety latches for the under-the-sink cabinets. I surveyed the rooms and moved some things to higher locations or the sunroom (which is sadly just the junk room). Then honestly I let her manuever around the rooms to see what would be appealing to her and addressed the issues while I watched her. They're sneaky little devils. Or, you know, angels.
Thanks for the advice.
@regberadaisy: Yes, the flat screen sits on top of a table in the corner of our living room. DH and I have been back and forth on wall mounting it, but he won't budge. So straps to keep it from tipping forward are on our list to get.
I think I'll gate off the bedrooms/bathroom and focus on the living room for baby proofing (as well as the nursery). It sounds like the best approach. DH and I are usually home together and DS has a jumper and exersaurcer that I can stick him in for the next few months and I guess we'll learn as we go. I still need to figure out the bookshelf situation, since I love them, but they are huge for our living space and I'd rather have something a little more sturdy that is easier and more functional for Baby T.
What?! He's the first guy I know who's against wall mounting the flat screen! :)
The outlets, book cases, TV's ect are easy fixes for me compared to finding gates that will work with my house. For example my front foyer has 4 stairs up to my living room but it's 5 feet across and wrot iron on either side. How do you find a gate that will work there? My living room, dining room and kitchen are all the same level but there are stairs in 3 spots! Plus basement stairs by the front foyer. Ugh, stupid split level...
@regberadaisy: omg tell me about it. my dad just mounted his realy nicely, but dh says no way. instead it sits on a crappy coffee table. he thinks it is going to fall off the wall.
We don't live in the largest house, so closing doors and putting a gate up on the stairs is probably about the extent of what I'm going to do. There's no way that I can section off the living/dining/kitchen area so like my mom did for me, he's going to have to learn how to deal with things being on shelves and behaving. I'm not a big fan of the whole clearing off shelves thing personally. I grew up around a lot of china/crystal and breakables and turned out just fine and I can't really remember breaking a lot of things. Outlet covers are also something I don't get. Honestly, how many kids truly get electrocuted each year?
@Miss Sapphire: My 1 yearold tries to stick her fingers in the outlets all the time. I caught my 4 year old trying to stick a toy in it the other day. I obviously tell them not to mess with them, but they don't always listen. I have covers on some, but not all of my outlets. Hopefully if they get shocked, it won't be too bad!
I think the outlet covers are important, whenever the covers are off my niece will stick anything in there, and i've seen her trying to "Feed" the outlet with her juice!!
My daughter will be 4 weeks old tomorrow, and we haven't done a thing to babyproof our house. I'm a SAHM, so we're going to wait until she's more mobile before we spend a small fortune on gadgets that we won't know until later whether or not we'll even need.
Personally, I think that there are a lot of products out there designed to make someone rich. Some common sense and careful attention can make many of those items unnecessary.
I did start out with outlet covers on all the ones they could get to, but they just take them off and play with them. After they start doing that, I just leave them off an do my best to watch them.
We did like MrsSpring. We started with the room she spent the most time in, and baby proofed it. All the outlets are covered, the power strip is in a power strip safety thing, and we put up a super-gate area. Basically she had 8'x8' play area so we could leave her there if we had to step away. She liked to sit in her high chair and watch while we cooked in the kitchen or cleaned. We have a wall-support for the flat screen but haven't mounted it yet so the tv has a fence around it to keep her off and there is another one around the treadmill so that she won't get hurt on that either. The kitchen has cabinet latches on every door and have been ESSENTIAL. We bracketed our bookshelf to the wall as well as her dresser in her room. We have a baby gate at the top of the stairs, but not the bottom. We didn't babyproof the bathrooms or other rooms, we just keep the doors closed all the time. (We do that anyway so it is a habit that we have so it's natural for us.) We have a playpen but we really only use it as a changing area and for nap times. DD never liked being in it while awake.
I think the most important things to do are put latches on the bottom cabinets in the kitchen and to bracket all heavy and tippable furniture to the wall. I had a friend lose his son when he tried to climb in the bottom drawer of a dresser and the tv sitting on the dresser fell on him. If you will let your LO run around the house then you need to babyproof any area the baby can get to on their own. If you keep them in one area it is easier to keep that area safe.
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So Baby T is going to bust out crawling any minute and I don't want to be caught off guard. We have not baby proofed. At all! Well, I stuck in a few outlet plug covers. We have a small house, with a lot of furniture and not a whole lot of organization. I'm awful with that. I need some big time advice before he starts crawling.We don't have stairs, but we do have a large bookshelf in the living room/main area that we can't move anywhere else, which holds our books and DVDs.
What babyproofing products do you love or hate? What are necessary and what are overkill? Did you get a play yard to keep your baby/toddler safe while you have to step away? How did you baby proof your flat screen TV?
DH and I disagree quite a bit and are both daunted by all the products out there, as well as the thought that we're going to struggle to get into our cabinets. We have a large living room and I thought that a playyard with a few extra panels might help keep him safe when we are dividing our attention. Any thoughts? Advice?