Babyproofing

[Vishenka69]

Just curious how many of you do serious babyproofing. We didn't do anything mostly because we feel that she needs to learn that certain things can't/shouldn't be touched/played with and because we can't control the world outside of our house, it's better for her to learn to operate that way. I'm very grateful that so far it has worked, in a sense that she's good about obeying the rules. We also have friends who went nuts on locking everything and I hate visiting because I end up locking myself out of the gate and then spend 10 minutes figuring out how to open the toilet seat.

So what did you do and why and is it working out for your family.

[MrsK]

We babyproof... And BabyK still manages to play with matches.

[ladymoreta]

We haven't done much either. I think we should do a bit more, but DS is really just a little shadow, so we haven't been very motivated. We put outlet plugs in, but not everywhere, and we put foam corners on two sides of the coffee table. We also have a foam liner around the fireplace. I bought cabinet locks, but we never installed them. I "gave" DS three cabinets, so when he tried to get into other ones, I just redirected him, and he learned just to go to those.

We basically just took the approach of babyproofing only what we needed to based on what he seemed to get into.

ETA - The toilet locks... DS doesn't open the lid yet, so we haven't gotten one, but that kind of makes me nervous, since it can be a drowning risk. We just leave the seat down, but it drives me crazy when guests leave the lid up, knowing that DS is so little...

[GreyhoundsRUs]

There are certain things we will babyproof (like gates at the top of stairs and latches on "dangerous" cabinets, but I agree that there comes a point when they need to learn what's off-limits. We had 3 kiddos under 4 here for a week, and I needed to change the location of 1 candle. It helps that we have big dogs with long tails - most breakables are not at kid height anyway!

[SuzySunshine]

At our Roch house we had a gate at the top of the stairs, the kitchen cabinets and drawers locked, outlet covers and two corner pads. Here we don't need a gate but probably wouldn't put one back up by now anyway because R is very good with stairs. We only lock the cabinets that have cleaners and things like that in them and we have put outlet covers in some places but not all. Because R is old enough now to understand what he should and shouldn't do I don't worry about it as much.

[v-girl]

We have a lock on the cabinet with cleaners. K unlocks it and then locks it back up. we had a gate in the hallway when he crawled. He climbed it and made it fall over (big baby). Doorknob covers were removed and brought to us. Pediatrician asked why we bothered. The kid could take his pen or stethoscope in a split second. LOL

[spotty_dog]

I don't think kids should be taught what's off limits per se, but I think they should be trusted to know their own capabilities. I've drunk the Continuum Concept kool-aid, I think that if evolution let humans get past childhood for this many generations, they must have SOME built-in limitations on doing deadly dangerous stuff. So I let my toddler son climb on the kitchen counter and play with knives. And...I'm not entirely joking. I baby-gated him into the living room mostly just so I could have some peace in the kitchen (which adjoined the living room). We put locks on some particularly hazardous cabinets and halfheartedly plugged some outlets. With the secondborn we didn't even do that much. Just kept an eye on her. Seemed to work out (except for the whole falling off a kitchen chair onto the hardwood episode when she was around 1.)

Cheri, I did a double take on your last sentence and I THINK there was a typo, but that is hilarious.

[migirl]

We went all-out in our old house with the boys (gates, outlet plugs, toilet/cabinet locks, etc), mostly so I wouldn't have to watch them so closely all the time.

Our new house and DD are a different story, though. We never bothered to put up gates after we moved bc the boys were old enough to do stairs well; I locked the kitchen cabinet with household cleaners and put in outlet covers, and that's it. DD just started crawling about a month ago and I keep thinking I should probably put up some gates but I kinda don't want to now (they're ugly and such a PITA! ... Plus, what are you supposed to do when you have older children who can navigate stairs well but can't operate a safety gate?)). She stays pretty close to me, and even when she ventures off by herself she doesn't go near the stairs so I'm really hoping now that I might be able to get away without putting up any gates. I guess we'll see if that changes after the first time she falls down the stairs!

[MrsK]

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, when BabyK was 10 months old, he figured out that he could circumvent the cabinet locks by taking the knobs off the cabinets. He's very fast, mechanical, and agile. I use the baby proofing to slow him down so I get a chance to redirect him.

We don't have toilet locks but we have gates at the top of the stairs and in the kitchen doorway. This is as much for the safety of our old blind dog as it is for the babies. We keep chemicals and medicines up high and lock lower cabinets - I did this for the dog's benefit long before kids after Mx trashed a lower cabinet and drank Lysol when I was at work. Three days in doggie ICU later, I would rather be inconvenienced than go through that again. We have safety outlets on those outlets that we use in the kids' rooms and den. The unused outlets are either behind furniture or covered with white duct tape. The outlet covers were never a challenge for BabyK. We switched out the door stoppers after BabyK put one of the rubber ends in his mouth. We also have spools for the chords to the blinds in the kids' rooms. Our most recent addition is an oven lock since BabyK has been opening the oven door to "check on dinner" when I'm cooking. DrK works in institutions where hazards must be locked up and everything else is nailed down. Our home is pretty much the same way.

[TigerLily]

We have outlet covers and locks on the cabinets with chemicals or fragile things in them. We have a gate at the top of the stairs and a doorknob locky thing on her bedroom door. But that is mostly so I can sleep at night.

[v-girl]

Most of our cleaners are the safe/non-toxic kind. Thankfully.

[diggitydot]

We've only ever "dog-proofed". Same gadgets, different troublemaker.

[Pollyanna]

We moved items rather than locked them up. Chemicals and such were just placed out of reach (I don't really use a lot of chemicals to clean anyway), we did do electric outlet plugs, we have a door at the top of our stairway so that was a non-issue, other than that we didn't really do much. The kids are usually where I am so it was unnecessary. It seems like even with all the baby proofing they find stuff to get into.

ETA: Oh, the only thing we really were cautious about was tipping furniture or TVs. That scares the hell out of me.

[SuzySunshine]

Oh yes, forgot about the TV's and furniture. All of our big pieces, especially in the main rooms and kids rooms were/are strapped to the walls. Especially TVs and anything with drawers or things that could function as steps.

[Deebs]

We do some baby proofing, but it's mostly stuff we would do even if we didn't have kids. All cleaners are either in a high cabinet in the laundry room, with a lock on the cabinet, or the cabinet above the microwave. Garage chemicals are on a shelf I can't reach without a ladder. The televisions are secured so they can't fall on anyone. The kids' playroom and bedrooms are fully proofed so I know they're safe. Furniture is attached to the walls, outlet plugs are in, etc. I just don't count on the fact that the kids will stay in their beds. When I use the treadmill, I unplug it (every time), and I think that's it. As soon as my kids learned to crawl, we worked on stairs. I did use gates, but more to contain them to a limited area so I could get things done. We don't use them any more - the two year old could defeat the gate better than anyone.