How do you keep baby away from book shelves?

[kristine_elen]

Hi there. We have four very tall bookcases in our living room, three against one wall and one on the other (forming an L-shape) and I'm wondering if you have suggestions for how to keep a crawler/toddler away. (We will secure the bookcases to the wall just in case, but would like to avoid contact in the first place.) Is a "configure gate" the way to go? Other gate options? Other options altogether?
Thanks much!

[egoldber]

We have lots of bookcases and here's what we did. First, I removed anything breakable or dangerous for Sarah from the shelves that she can reach. I have one shelf that I have devoted to her books. All the others, I have taught her over time are NOT her books. When she approached a shelf that wasn't hers, I reminded her "those aren't your books, Sarah's books are over here". She now VERY seldom bothers the things that aren't hers and only needs to be "reminded" occasionally.

This won't work for everyone, but it has worked for us. Also, I wouldn't have done this without first removing the dangerous things.

HTH,

[kristine_elen]

The only thing we have on the shelves are books. But my husband is wild about his books; until our son was born, they were his babies and I know he doesn't want Jack messing with them. We are also concerned about the bookcases falling over on our son, even though we plan to anchor them. It's good, though, that you were able to just teach your daughter to stay away from the non-kid areas.

[mom2kandj]

Our DS loves to touch EVERYTHING! Boy is he a terror!!! LOL! The only way we've found to keep him from touching the controls to the TV and computer is by covering them with plexiglass that has been attached with velcro. For your bookcases, I'd first anchor them with L-brackets and then go to Home Depot or Lowes and get some plexi cut to size to cover the lower shelves of your bookcases. You do need to sand the edges of the plexi, but it doesn't take much to take off the edge. You can then attach the plexi with adhesive velcro or nylon webbing straps. You can buy the webbing at a craft store...just remember to melt the edge with a flame to avoid fraying. If you do go the with the webbing, if you leave a teeny bit of slack, you can just slide the plexi up if you need to access a book behind the plexi. This might be too much work, but you never know! HTH!


Rose
mom 2 Katie (31 months)
& Jack (15 months)

[kristine_elen]

Wow. That is very involved. How do you mean attach with velcro or webbing straps -- I can't picture it. Thanks!

[JenaW]

We also have 4 large bookshelves, and did something similar to beth. Carter is just becoming mobile, so I can't guarantee it will work. We removed all books from the bottom shelves, and placed his books, or baskets for his toys there. We also anchored the shelves to studs in the wall. For now, we used the very top of the bookshelves to house the extra books. When my neice/older kids come over, we tell them that they can play with the bottom shelves only....like Beth said, after a few repititions, they have learned that anything on the bottom is fair game, but they know to stay away from the "Uncle K's" book.

Jera
Mom to Carter ~ 05.13.03

[gremlin44]

We have fairly deep bookshelves. On the bottom two shelves we pushed the books all the way to the back. Then we wedged them in so tight that it's nearly impossible for an adult to pull them out, much less our 14 month old son. We did first remove any books from that area that are rare/impossible to find or that are of an odd shape (if they stick out too much it gives the child a better grasp).

So far it works--he remembers that he isn't able to accompish pulling them out, so he ignores them. And my son is a very determined, very dexterous kid and this still is able to foil him.