did you safety proof?

[jamsmu]

Did you safety proof? How much? I've been discussing this with people and they seem shocked that I don't want to do too much in our home.

We put locks on the knife drawer and under the sink, door handle things over the basement door and will do the bathroom cabinets that have chemicals under them. And, of course, gates.

I figure that no one in my family safety proofed my home for my sisters and me and the same in DH's family. Yet, we were all fine and we learned how to behave in other's homes. BUT there are the terror kids that come to your house. Should it be my responsibility to spend the money safety proofing my home because other parents can't tell their kids "no?"

[Rachels]

I safety-proofed for my OWN kid, because I didn't want to spend all day every day telling her "no." I don't think that's particularly good for children or adults. How much you need to babyproof depends on how much you have in your house that's potentially unsafe for a baby. Children are curious by nature, and it's developmentally appropriate for them to want to touch and climb and explore, especially when they're in a new environment. Other kids who visit your house are going to want to explore it not because they're terrible, but because they're children. Of course, some limits are in order, and as kids get older, they're more able to understand consequences. And yes, their parents should keep an eye on their behavior. But to think that toddlers are going to show up and act like little adults is setting yourself up for real frustration and disappointment. My take is to make my house as safe as I can for my own child, knowing that doing that will make it pretty safe for her friends, too.


-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[houseof3boys]

There are several studies about being able to let babies explore their natural curiousity in a safe environment. When you go around saying "no" or "don't touch that" it stifles that creativity. Obivously you babyproof the dangerous stuff (like you have already done), but there is more to it than just keeping them out of harms way physically.

[August Mom]

I guess it depends what else could be done that you don't want to do. I left most of my lower cabinets open for DS to explore and have unbreakable things there. I locked cabinets that I didn't want DS to explore or that had dangerous things inside. We close the doors to the bathroom rather than getting toilet locks (although we still have locks on the bathroom cabinet doors). We do have outlet covers and gates as well. We moved out some floor lamps that he might pull down and we put the coffee table in the basement when he hit his head on it. We don't have every safety item known to man though. I do feel like we've adequately safety-proofed our home for DS and guests of his age. I think that is the main thing: that you've looked at the potential dangers in your home and feel that you have them adequately covered. If that doesn't entail a lock on everything, that's fine IMO.

If there is some area that your baby is okay in, but other kids of her age aren't you might consider keeping all the kids in a gated area for that time.

[KMommie]

I must admit, that we haven't safety proofed a bit, yet. Well, we do have two outlets covered up and we did use some rubber bumpers on one piece of furniture. Of course, DD isn't toddling around yet, but she can crawl. We are getting ready to move, and in the new home, I plan on just putting up gates by the stairs---maybe keep the chemicals in an upper cabinet as opposed to under the sink, I keep the knives in a knife block on top of the counter, away from the edge. We haven't even bothered to move the cat food and water, since I don't think it's harmful if she accidentally gets into it, and she hasn't even bothered with it. I don't spend my day telling her, "No, no, no..." Maybe I'm courting disaster, I'm not sure. I've had lots of people tell me that I have to get rid of our lamps (they're going to topple), cover up the cords (she's going to get zapped), etc.

I understand what you are saying, and maybe this is inappropriate, but I expect my friends to keep an eye on their babies when they visit. I understand about creativity and all, but I would be irritated if someone's kid started opening up my kitchen cabinets and the parent allowed it to continue. I don't think that I should have to babyproof for "terror kids". I think that all children need to learn limits. Right now, at 10 months, that means that I must be watchful of DD and distract her whenever she becomes intrigued with something that she shouldn't be playing with.

Of course, my feelings may change once DD is toddling around. :P

Jeannie
mommy to Kiki 4/18/03

[MartiesMom2B]

I've taken the advice to safety proof as I see fit for Martie. We've covered all the electrical outlets, have a few gates up for areas for her not to go in, and no chemicals are under our sink. I also have gotten a tv guard b/c Martie likes to go up to the tv and have a fireplace gate. Otherwise she's free to roam all around. If she tries to reach for something that she can't play with, I put it up higher or out of site.

We are trying to teach her that some places are off limits. For example, even though we have a fireplace guard, I'm trying to teach her that she can't touch it, because I don't want her climbing on it.

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

[C99]

My experience is similar to Rachel's. My best friend's kids are 7 months and 23 months older than Nathaniel, so when they came over during my pregnancy, they let me know how much I needed to safety proof our house. I figured that we could either bar everything off and follow Nate around the house saying "no," or we could make things reasonably safe for him and let him explore. We chose the latter.

[amp]

Julie - We, too, just did what we thought was necessary, and are doing babyproofing as we go along. Our friends who live across the street did little more than put in outlet covers and their kids are great kids! And trust me, they explored a lot and didn't hear "No" all the time! They just got redirected to the places they could play. It worked for them. Then I see parents who keep their kids in a virtual cage to keep them safe. We are somewhere in between! We put in outlet covers. We put latches on some cabinets (cleansers, meds, breakables, etc) and left the others unlatched. We have no gate. Yikes! No gate on the stairs. He's learning to climb and he's learning that he may NOT go down the stairs head first. We are with him everytime he climbs and our house is small enough that he can't get more than a step or two before we realize where he is. We figure he needs to learn how to do the stairs. The basement stairs are a whole 'nother story and that door is closed. Will put a knob thingy on there to keep him out if we have to.

We just figure, we want to keep him safe, but we also want him to understand that some things are okay for him to explore, and some are not. It's just the way the world works, and he'll learn it here first.

[mharling]

We have taken the same approach. We moved the chemicals, keep the toilets closed and bathroom doors shut, will put in electrical covers, gates and a guard across the banister (it's right by the laundry area so I need him to be able to safely play there).

Other than that, we will do things as necessary. He discovered drawers last week and loves the one at the bottom of our china hutch. Instead of keeping him away from it, I removed the breakable and/or heavy items and filled it with bread baskets, liners, etc that are OK for him to play with.

Mary
Lane 4/6/03

[flagger]

We have not safety proofed at all. I have no problems saying "Stop" to keep her out of things she is not supposed to be in. A few times of that, and she has learned. She does test limits though. We have no outlet covers at all and she has yet to try and stick anything in them.

There are no chemicals under the kitchen sink except for dishwasher detergent. We close doors off to keep her out of rooms she should not be in without us there.

We are however thinking of getting a bumper for the bricks around the fireplace and a VCR guard so she does not feed the vcr a sandwich.

[khakismom]

Our babyproofing for Kathleen was very minimal. She was never curious towards outlet plugs, light fixtures, expensive knickknacks, or even opening up cabinets. She was very content with her toys. We did gates on the stairs, Tot-locked the cleaning supplies and other poisonous stuff, and clamped the pantry shut, only because she liked to get in there and nibble on food. We child-locked a few cabinets, but that was it.

Ellen is a different story. Just yesterday we put up soft corners around the fireplace "mantel" because she's already bonked her head on the corner. We will childproof a few more cabinets and install outlet plugs (and of course bring out the gates). But I think that will be all.

I actually have a good friend that came over to my house with her 2 year old son when Kathleen was around 2 months old, and she proceeded to start moving my knickknacks to a higher place so he couldn't get them. I thought this was the rudest thing ever. This is *my* house and to me, it's her responsibility to tell her child no. I would never go to someone's house and start moving stuff around to accomodate my children. UGH!

[deborah_r]

I think outlet covers are essential. And moving cleaning products out of reach. The rest depends on how your house is set up and how closely you want to monitor your child at all times.

[suribear]

I hear parents saying my kid would never (fill in the blank) but you don't know what they are capable of doing, and they are changing constantly! DD was the most cautious baby ever but once she tried to eat a battery. YIKES. from the back of an alarm clock. So you just never know.. Just when we thought we'd figured her out, she would surprise us :)

We have those outlet covers that you twist to put the plug in. Did you know the older style plug in covers are choking hazards? How ironic, huh? Even something seemingly innocent like shampoo or detergent can be harmful if swallowed. Dishwasher detergent is very poisonous.

Other than that, we have magnetic locks on all but a few cabinets and drawers. We keep pots and pans in those, for safe exploration :) I highly recommend the magnetic locks (at least for the most dangerous areas) as they are the only truly childproof ones I've come across. Kids figure out the others pretty fast.
We do have stair gates. We also have a way to keep ds contained in one large area. Our downstairs is fairly childproof so he can wander around :) We constantly scan for chokables. This is the hardest thing for us, as our older dd sometimes slips up. We have a rule that all toys with chokables must stay in her room.

Oh, and no decorative items within reach.

ETA: We bolted some smaller bookcases and our TV.

Kris

[sntm]

My childproofing philosophy (bear in mind my child is recently mobile) is:

1) absolutely childproof anything that could be dangerous to Jack
-locks on all cabinets that contain cleaning products or other chemicals
-locks on medicine cabinets eventually
-outlet covers, gate at the top of the stairs
-cords hidden as much as possible
-bathroom doors shut and eventually with doorhandle covers on them
-houseplants out of reach
-anchor any heavy furniture
- oven locks
-hairdryers and curling irons put away

2) childproof well anything of mine that I don't want him to get into or things which are bad but not dangerous
-breakables put up out of reach
-block off the bookcases
-kitty door to block off the cat litter/food and water bowls
-locks on china cabinet

3) only childproof if absolutely necessary things that won't hurt him seriously -- in other words, if I can easily redirect him from something or watch him get into something and tell him "no, not for Jack" and let him see consequences for continuing to do that, then so be it. If he continues to take headers into the coffee table, then reevaluate that.

I think you can teach a child to listen to you and respect property or rules while still having things childproofed as a backup. It takes only a split second of lack of full attention for something to happen. And I don't want to keep my baby confined in a playpen all the time or be constantly telling him no or pulling him away from things -- i want him to be able to explore.

I always remember the line from Ferris Bueller about his dysfunctional friend Cameron's house. "it was like a museum --very cold and very beautiful and you weren't allowed to touch anything. can you imagine what it was like to be in that house as a baby?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03

[boys2enough]

Sounds like you've met my boys. LOL. They are the Terror Kids you are referring to. ;-) So naturally I child-proof to a great extent. We also don't have a lot of furniture in the house, so that kind of works out well, and absolutely no vases, glasses, decorative items etc because DH does not like frilly stuff.

I do have a friend however who is fortunate enough to have 3 mellow kids. I don't think she ever child-proofed her whole house. (They do have a finished basement as playroom though). There are vases with water and real flowers, crystal frames, glass decorative tables all over the ground level. Her kids have learned since young that they are not allowed to touch those things, or to run near them. I still have no idea how she did it.

The first and only time I was at her house, I was on my toes the whole time. ;-) Of course, we've never been to her house again, well, she hasn't invited us back either. LOL.

[egoldber]

Like others have said, you need to find a balance between how much vigilance you're willing to put in vs how much childproofing you want to do. I personally found that childproofing gave me more freedom and the peace of mind to be able to leave her unattended for brief periods of time. And I didn't fancy saying no all the time. I think our childproofing has been fairly minimal, but we don't have a lot of knick-knacky types of things (we're just not knick-knacky people...).

Also, every child is different. We have things out in our house that DD has never touched, but other kids just gravitate to. Childproofing is a process and you need to watch your child to know what to do.

But definitely all medicines and chemicals (including things like household cleaners which are almost ALL deadly or caustic if ingested in large enough quantities) shouls be put somehwere safe.

HTH,