X Post in Baby Proofing---Baby Proofing Ideas for throughout the home..........

[denna]

I tried doing an advanced search on this topic and couldnt find exactly what I was looking for, maybe there is a way to start a Q&A topic on baby proofing in this forum, since I'm sure there are a TON of questions on this subject.

Anyway on to my question(s) or baby proofing 'problem areas':

(1) EVERY floor in my apartment is either marble or hard wood.

My temporary solution: Since DS began to roll around & crawl I bought playmats and have placed them in our already tiny living room (since that is where we spend the most time) and moved my copy table to behind the couch and against a wall. We have placed large pillows against all of the walls (in the play area) and DS still manages to fall back or forward and hit his head on the *hard* floor that is also covered by a rug.

Is there any better solution that I am not seeing? My poor Ds is consistently falling and I am truly trying so hard to not let him get hurt but he is a *very* active 9mo.

I think actually that this is my major concern but also have cabinets that I need to lock up and drawers to 'seal' as well as corners to cover any suggestions on the best baby proofing products and where I can find them? I have found a few products on Amazon that seem appropriate just looking for BTDT experience on the best products/brands etc. (The furniture with the corners would be an entertainment center and a coffee table).

(Double posting in Baby Proofing Forum, my apologies I didnt even see it as a forum..oops)

Thank you all so much,

[o_mom]

The hard floors are not going to be a big deal for very long. They quickly gain strength for sitting up and not falling over. If you can get a pad for under the aread rugs, that will help and keeping him contained in an area with the playmats until he gets his balance, that would help.

For the cabinet locks, it depends on the cabinet. Tot-locks are great in the kitchen or anywhere you need to get in and out of the cabinets often or things that are really dangerous. They have the magnetic 'key' to open them, so they are impossible for a kid to figure out as long as the key is kept out of reach. If you have other cabinets that you don't use as often or that are not really dangerous, some of the less expensive locks that you just push down or that wrap around the knobs are good. We have those on the art supply cabinet and the cabinet with all the sippy cups because they like to pull them all out.

The corners are hard. I would get rid of the coffee table or store it until he is older. There just isn't a good, easy way to cover the corners unless you make a pad for the whole top. The entertainment center is harder to get rid of, LOL. If you can move other furntiure next to it so there is less of a direct path to the corners that will help. The stick on corner covers are pretty useless, IME, they just get pulled off.

[jgriffin]

>For the cabinet locks, it depends on the cabinet. Tot-locks
>are great in the kitchen or anywhere you need to get in and
>out of the cabinets often or things that are really dangerous.
> They have the magnetic 'key' to open them, so they are
>impossible for a kid to figure out as long as the key is kept
>out of reach. If you have other cabinets that you don't use
>as often or that are not really dangerous, some of the less
>expensive locks that you just push down or that wrap around
>the knobs are good. We have those on the art supply cabinet
>and the cabinet with all the sippy cups because they like to
>pull them all out.

Sadly, we have done almost no childproofing of cabinets yet (we just keep an unsupervised E in his playroom). DH and I have been debating the best kinds of locks for our various cabinets. We have some totlocks and we have some of the traditional plastic push-down latches. DH's concern is that the totlocks are a PITA to use frequently, so we should use them for cabinets we don't get into often but want to keep very secure (eg liquor cabinet). But his other concern is that E will figure out how to use the plastic latches we put on the other cabinets (eg under the sink) and get into trouble. Are the totlocks so easy to use that you don't mind using them a dozen times a day?

(Our garbage can is in the cabinet under the sink, so we go in there regularly. Other nasties are under there, too, although I suppose I should just move all that stuff out to the garage anyway).

[sdjeppa]

We love our tot locks. You can "switch" them off, so they don't lock when you close the cabinet door, so if you are cooking or something, you can do that until you are done...

[o_mom]

We have not really found them to be a problem. We have them on 5 of the cabinets in the kitchen. The ones that only have pots and pans I just leave unlocked. Both kids went through a phase of pulling all the pots out, but it only lasted a couple weeks then they were on to something else and they aren't going to hurt the pot or themselves.

We have them under the sink (2), the cabinet next to the sink and one other cabinet(2) that has the glass baking dishes and a few sharp things. We use them all the time and it is not a big deal. We keep one key on the windowsill above the sink and a spare stuck to the fridge.

My sister's child learned to undo the plastic pushdown ones at 19 mos, so we wanted something that they couldn't learn.

[DrSally]

I agree, there's no good coffee table pads. I bought some foam pipe insulation and tied it tight onto the whole perimeter of our end tables and then covered the whole thing with a sheet on top (so DS wouldn't try to get to the twine (tied tightly and trimmed, but just didn't want him fiddling with it). Not pretty, but at least we have something to put our drinks on.

[denna]

Thanks all for the recommendations and experience. I had the corner pads and table pads in my shopping cart for amazon but will remove them. I will get the magnetic locks for the cabinets w/ dangerous materials and other locks for the not as used cabinets.

As for the floors I am going to purchase more mats and just cross my fingers that DS gets this whole balance thing soon enough. He just loves to stand by himself and is letting go more and more to stand on his own which means he falls on his own too (eeeek). Well thanks again for all the recs, greatly appreciated.

[bethie_73]

Well we have the basement babyproofed and the rest of the house he is never unsupervised. (We may be moving soon so we didn't want to totally BP the house, we practically live in the basement/family area).

DS has been walking for 2 1/2 months, and can open all doors and reach anything. We got rid the coffee tables when he started being mobile, (he can reach everything on them now anyway) and have a 5 ft shelf for drinks. (A pain I know, but I can not believe the reach on this kid). We keep all doors locked and for the basement door without a lock we bought a safety lock so he would not open it to go up the stairs.

We have our superyard around the entertainment system. I think we are going to invest in a plasma tv etc to get it all off the floor. I had no other solution that had worked, he trys to climb the superyard,but to no avail :)

We also bought him socks with grippy bottoms and baby legs to help with the sliding on the wood floors.

[cheme]

I agree with your current plan, but I'd also add a recommendation for furniture wall straps for any bookshelves and dressers that your ds has access to. When they start pulling up to walk you don't want them pulling anything over on top of them.

[hellbennt]

I checked out ebay,
but any tips for the best price/deal on totlocks?

TIA
laura in miami
j 7/03
A 7/06

[luvsviola]

One more suggestion---

Put the dangerous stuff in higher cabinets. It seems so obvious, but I didn't think about it til someone pointed it out to me...

Put the chemicals under the sink in a high cabinet...maybe over the dishwasher or something. Sit a silverware rack (esp for knives) in a higher cabinet.

Put your Tupperware and other things the baby can't hurt down low just in case he/she does get into the cabinets.

It won't solve all the problems, but it a bottom cabinet does get left open or the baby figures out the lock when you aren't looking, you are still covered.