Oct 9, 2012

How to Babyproof (?????)




So, there seems to be two schools of thought on baby-proofing. 

A. The Comprehensive:

Please see this list- securing toilets, refrigerators, cabinets, DVD players, furniture, televisions, faucets, etc.

B.  The Teach As You Go:

Basically, watch your child, and see what presents problems.  Teach what is off limits.

Okay, so both have pros and cons.  Obviously, the Comprehensive option presents a lot of work and expense.  Plus cursing when you are trying to pee in the middle of the night and your damn toilet is locked.  However, you can rest assured that your house presents little hazard to your child's safety, and that breakables are out of reach.

On the other hand, the latter option means you get to live in your home, not some knick-knack free sterile environment with unaccessible toilets and cabinets.  However, you must be vigilant, and be prepared for some broken objets d'art, and bruised noggins.

I'm leaning toward a combination of the two- protect my outlets, but otherwise keep a close eye on Miss Priss.  I have never loved a ranch house like I love a ranch house with a baby- no stairs to concern myself with.

So please share- what are my essential baby-proofing techniques I need to implement?  How far did you go with it?  I can't believe I have a crawler- HELP!


9 comments:

  1. Oooo I will be watching this post to see what comments you get!

    I think we are on the same page though - we'll secure outlets, coral power cords, gate our stairs, and lock cabinets with cleaning supplies & breakables (or move those items to higher cabinets). The toilet lock, etc seems a little overkill to me.

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  2. Like you, we protected our outlets when our son started crawling. As his curiosity grew, we got a lock for one cabinet in the kitchen that stores cleaning supplies. He is now walking and we haven't done anything else, despite the fact that we have three sets of stairs. We keep an eye on him while he learns and explores. No injuries so far!

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  3. We used the teach-as-you go method. We did latch a couple of cabinets - mostly anything with glass or cleaning products and our outlets are protected but other than that we just opted to teach our son which things were 'off limits'. We actually didn't even put up gates because of the way our main living space is set up, he didn't naturally gravitate toward the stairs. We taught him how to climb up and he himself figured out how to slide down on his belly.

    Recently, we did have to put guards on door handles for doors leading outside because he figured out how to unlock.

    We still have occasional issues with him picking up decorative items, but as far as his personal safety goes, I'm pretty confident that he is safe in our non-baby proofed home.

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  4. We took a fairly laid back approach to child-proofing. I put caps on the outlet covers and moved the cleaning chemicals out of reach from under the sink to a shelf in the laundry room. We keep doors to the bathroom closed, which avoids the need for toilet locks and other precautions - at least until she's tall enough to reach the door knobs! I moved most glass or harmful items to higher kitchen cabinets. For the few cabinets I want to keep her out of, we twist a rubberband around the round knobs so they can't be opened. It's tacky, but also cheap, easy, and effective. :)

    I purchase padded corner covers for our square, wood coffee table and I'm so glad that I did. It's the center of our family room and she's constantly bumping into it. She actually fell into one of the padded corners recently and ended up with only a bruise, rather than the gash she probably would have had from the unprotected corner. I also installed a padded cover around the edge of our granite hearth. We used something like this: http://www.amazon.com/KidKusion-black-Hearth-Cushion-Black/dp/B000UTZO16/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1349883496&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=prince+lion+heart+hearth+guard

    The padded edge and corner guards have worked pretty well for us because they're easy to install and remove when you no longer need them. As vigilant as I am, I haven't been able to catch every fall and I'm glad the guards are there to protect against serious injuries.

    The hardest thing for me was learning not to leave things laying around that she can put in her mouth. I'm constantly scouring the bathroom floor for stray hairbands or bobby pins. Can't leave my earrings on my bedside table or my purse on the floor, etc. The little rascal gets into everything! :)

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  5. We protected the outlets... Most of them... Before they figured out how to get the covers off...

    I kid (sort of). We generally just kept an eye on them. Make sure things are picked up out of reach (there go the tchotchkis on the coffee table for awhile). My line of thinking was "If it's not around, how will they learn not to mess with it?". Sure, things will get broken, but it worked for us.

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  6. I don't have any kids so I don't know anything about anything but found this article entertaining :-)
    http://observer.com/2012/10/our-helicopter-mom/

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  7. We went with B, and that's been the best sanity saving option for us. No major catastrophes yet.

    One other thing to consider - there is no one global babyproofing. As these kiddos grow every few months you have to revise and re-strategize. We're about to do another round this weekend.

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  8. The only thing I did was cover the outlets. By far, the hardest part was making sure the kids weren't stuffing random stuff from the floor into their mouths -- dog hair, dust bunnies, etc. I was a vacuuming maniac.

    This is why I make people take their shoes off at the door! (Except for my inlaws, who steadfastly refuse, and insist on wearing their shoes no matter what I say/suggest/insinuate. UGH. Whole 'nother issue!)

    Everything else was a teachable moment.

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  9. We are doing a combination. We put in outlet covers and foam covers on the sharp corners of our brick fire place. But that is it. We watch Margot but we try not to Hoover. Luckily for us she has been pretty easy. Se doesn't seem to keen on moving very far away from me. I do try not to react to fast when she does crash. Often she tumbles, falls over or bonks her head and if I don't over react she doesn't over react. Mostly she just looks surprised and then try's again. We have only had one real Bo Bo with tears. One thing we are struggling with is teaching no when it comes to our lap tops, phones and iPads. That child is throwing scarry fits when I won't give her my phone. It makes me scarred of what's to come!

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