Help me Babyproof!

[scribellesam]

I'm pretty new around here, I mainly lurk but have been trying to post more. I guess this is my official intro? Unless you read the thread a few months ago when my sister (Ameliapond) outed me for lurking here.

Anyway, DS is almost 8 months old and very close to crawling. I suspect he will become a climber too given how much he uses me and DH as his personal jungle gym. After reading today's terrifying thread on ML about how the furniture will kill my child, I'm headed to Babies R Us to stock up on babyproofing supplies!

I'd love to hear any advice you have on how to babyproof my home. The research I've been doing seems very overwhelming and near-impossible -- like, how am I supposed to prevent my child from coming in contact with all electrical cords? Do you take a "prevent any and all injuries" approach to babyproofing, or have a slightly more relaxed approach?

Please give me your practical tips on keeping my baby safe: both obvious stuff and random things you wouldn't necessarily think of right away. Thank you in advance!

[Deleted]

Furniture anchors are a good start and one of the things we did take seriously. Beyond that, we've sort of done a "wait and see" and when he gets into things, we change it. DH did build an enclosure to go around the bottom of our TV stand so DS can't get to the cable box, DVD player, etc. We bought outlet covers that slide in front automatically and installed that in the couple of places where the outlets are actually exposed at DS level. We moved a lot of stuff out of his reach. We put a gate between the living room and kitchen and didn't babyproof the kitchen as extensively. We put locks on all the lower cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom.

No matter what you do, babies hurt themselves. It's the really dangerous stuff (falling furniture, cleaning products, medications) to definitely worry about.

[froggy76]

DD is almost 14 months and we haven't done much. Mainly just outlet covers and keeping small objects (choking hazards) out of her reach. We also have a gate at the top of the basement steps and bumpers on the sharp corners of our coffee table. The gate is screwed into the wall and is self-closing.

Next step is to get furniture and TV tethers. Other than that, I agree with Token that a lot of it is just wait and see.

DD is never unattended for more than a minute since we have a small house and both work FT. I'm sure that will change as she gets little older, but for now I don't worry too much since I'm always watching her.

[brit1017]

Honestly, for awhile we just kept DS in baby jail (we added an extender kit so it was a little bigger).

www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2266978

He was content in there for a long while, then we really started to babyproof. You need outlet protectors for any exposed outlet, but a lot of ours are behind furniture, so we didn't really have to worry about them. Our kids figured out every brand of kidproof outlet cover before they were 2 (the ones you have to slide, the ones you have to rotate, the ones you have to pull out, etc). These are the most secure ones that we found (and cheapest!). If your DH is handy, he can probably install them himself. It prevents anything that doesn't have 2 prongs from being inserted (and nothing on the outside that the kids can manipulate).

www.amazon.com/Leviton-T5320-W-Resistant-Receptacle-Residential/dp/B0015R9M2Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1357234786&sr=1-3&keywords=outlet

[h]

We do outlet covers, tether furniture, gate the stairs, and put a cabinet lock on any cabinets containing toxins--basically the stuff most likely to result in serious injury or death. We do not worry about things like toilet locks, as playing in the toilet, while gross, won't kill a kid, and actually falling in and drowning seems unlikely. And, frankly, we just don't really leave our kids unsupervised as toddlers unless they are in a totally safe room (i.e., their room or the playroom).

[scribellesam]

Jan 3, 2013 12:49:39 GMT -5 h said:

We do outlet covers, tether furniture, gate the stairs, and put a cabinet lock on any cabinets containing toxins--basically the stuff most likely to result in serious injury or death. We do not worry about things like toilet locks, as playing in the toilet, while gross, won't kill a kid, and actually falling in and drowning seems unlikely. And, frankly, we just don't really leave our kids unsupervised as toddlers unless they are in a totally safe room (i.e., their room or the playroom).

Thanks for the tips! I brought home a few things although I'm having trouble finding furniture anchors. I assume the stores I checked were simply out of them, I'll venture out again tomorrow as Babies R Us online has plenty in stock at stores near me.

Has anyone used the TV tether that's a bar that attaches to the wall from the back of the TV? We were going to wall mount the TV but this seems much easier.

Hens, when you say that your nursery/play room is a totally safe room, does that mean there are no accessible electric cords? I would love to "completely" babyproof the nursery as much as I can, but I don't see how to get around DS having access to the lamp/fan/nightlight we have plugged in there.

In a similar question, do any of you plan to restrict access to electric cords in your living areas or have you done so? I ask because we have quite a few plugged in items in the main living space (TV, Bluray, computer, printer, lamps, etc) and I'm not sure how to make this safe? I am a SAHM so complete constant supervision is probably unrealistic.

[Deleted]

Almost all our cords are behind furniture. We also bought a channel cord cover thing that keeps the cords along the wall hidden (we have our TV linked to our computer, so cords run all the way around the outside wall). In his room, he could access the lamp cord but he's never had any interest in it.