Childproofing

Nicole - posted on 02/27/2009

Our biggest thing is cabinet locks.  If you can put up a baby gate so that the entire kitchen is off limits its definitely worth it because there are just so many dangerous things in there ( I would still put locks etc in there just in case though).  It will also help you keep your sanity when you are trying to cook.  :)

Malinda - posted on 02/27/2009

We childproofed before my son was born, and one thing I will mention is that your baby probably won't be very mobile before, say, 7 months, so there is no rush for most things and I would not recommend anything that will make it more difficult to use your home (like cabinet latches, except on the important cabinets that have soaps in them just for practice, and baby gates) until you really need them. Some of the less obvious things we did that I'm thankful we did was:

Furniture straps to attach large/heavy furniture to studs in your walls, especially if you turn out to have a climber like we do

Toilet locks (once the baby is walking and "figures out" the toilet seat, they want to throw things into the toilet... which is no fun for us)

The window locks *do not* work. We ended up drilling L-brackets into the frame of our windows so that they wouldn't open past a certain point. If you do it well, it won't interfere with the frame or cause any drafts when you remove them. If they don't go in so easy, you can putty the holes.



Some things I thought were a waste:

We have a banister and bought this clear plastic thing to cover it so that our son could see through it, but wouldn't throw toys down to the first level. It sucked - it tore, clouded up, and was generally a pain to install.

Hard plastic "crib guards" to keep our son from chewing the crib. He just pulled them right off. We found a sticky, more gummy-like substance at Babies R Us that works much better.



In general, I think the product reviews on most sites give you a good idea of whether or not a product is really worth while. Some even give you ideas for further childproofing that you may not have thought about (like one I got was if you have wooden wall hangings or letters that your child will ever be able to get to, use foam sticky squares, not nails).

Ashley - posted on 02/27/2009

one of the best things you can get are the socket covers that you plug into the socket. when we first moved in to our place the first thing my son went for were the sockets and tried putting his finger in it. that same day we went out and bought the socket covers. now he knows he cant get to them so he doesnt even bother!....that's about all we have in our place. we also live in an apartment so it's def diff than living in a house. there's really not much for him to get into. i dont have any locks on the cupboards but i also dont have any cleaning products down low where he can reach them they are all kept high up.

Shelly - posted on 02/27/2009

I put all the loose wires in the living room in toilet paper rolls. This has already saved me, my 7 month old loves wires. depending on the type of cupboards you have sometimes a shoelace in enough. just look around the house and think, "if I was little what's shiny or interesting to me? what can be grabbed?"