Favorite Babyproofing products

[jgenie]

We're going to tackle the babyproofing next week. Please give me your thoughts on products you love and products that didn't work for you.

It looks like we need the following items:
- gates 4 - we have a split level home so 2 of those gates will be for the stairs
- outlet covers - lots of these
- cabinet locks for the kitchen - both cabinets and drawers
- furniture straps for the nursery (I think I've heard they sell these at Home Depot - any reason not to buy them there? Is there a difference between these and the kind I would find at a baby store?)
- door knob covers for wavy doorknobs - not the typical round doorknobs
- bedrail for an extra thick mattress

Also, did you find that you got better prices at a B&M store or online?

If you made it this far - Thanks!!!

[WatchingThemGrow]

Only have a second, so feel free to ask any followup questions you have... I read a lot of the reviews on BabyCenter to make sure the stuff "fit" with our older home.

gates: LOVE the First Years Hands Free gate - got it on CL for $25 with an extension that makes it able to mount it in the hallway - which may be really good for your split level. I think you probably go up and down a lot, so having it hands free and AWAY from the stairs if you can would work well. That's how I saw a prof. babyproofer do stairs at someone's house. It makes sense because you don't want to be stepping through a gate at the top of a staircase with a baby in your arms.
- doorways where you won't always leave the gate up - the First Years Hide A Way gate. People complain it is noisy, but for an occasional use gate (we trap little people in or out of the kitchen while cooking sometimes) it is awesome. I love that it does not need to be stored somewhere, and it is not in the way at all. We have the other retractable gate for staircases (Regal Lager is the distributor) but it is harder to operate - but quiet.

Outlet Covers - Love the Mommy's Helper ones that slide over. Hate the little plugs. Love Safety 1st whole plug covers so you can still have things plugged in.

Cabinet Locks - Hands down the KIDCO ADHESIVE MAGNET LOCKS! They make life SOOO easy. I can't deal with the others people have installed. I stick the key between 2 fingers and just grab the cabinet handle. The trick it to install the mechanism in the "comfortable" place when YOU go to open the cabinet. Can't stress enough how much I love these.

Our Stanley furniture came with straps, but we also ordered some extras from BabyCenter since a lot of other stuff came from there.

Lever door knobs - KidCo lever locks with adhesive - I used 3M contact adhesive strips to remount them and that is better than the adhesive that came with them.

Bedrail - I made a Snug Tuck Pillow on my own and it works well.

NONE of this stuff was available at BRU when I was looking except for the 2 gates. I ordered it all online, but now I see they have some of the products in the stores.

[wendibird22]

Ditto on the First Year's hands free gate. We have this set up in an archway that separates our kitchen from our backdoor area. Since we are in/out of that area tons of times a day (to/from the garage or pantry) it is great to have the hands free feature when carrying groceries or carrying DD in from the car while still asleep. We have a standard width doorway there but did need to buy one extension piece to make it work.

I believe we have the Summer Infant Secure Hardware Mount Metal Gate on the bottom of our stairs attached using a banister kit. It isn't hands free, but it is super easy to push the button to open it even when DD is asleep in my arms.

As for outlet covers, we used the cheapo plastic plugs on a majority of our outlets...the ones we don't really use (we have a new home with a TON of outlets). For the outlets that we do use regularly (like plugging in the vacuum) we used the kind (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2967826) which slide over and these are GREAT!

We did not secure any of our furniture (yet) to the wall. There isn't anything in our downstairs that she can climb on (like bookcases) and we don't let her play in any of the rooms upstairs.

This is the bed rail (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp? productId=2552662) we have I am not sure about using it with a deep mattress, but it did install really easily on a standard mattress.

[Melaine]

My favorite product has been the hearth guard, similar to this: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3240295 It has stayed on so well and given me a lot of peace of mind.

[o_mom]

Gates - for hardware mounted we loved this one: http://www.amazon.com/First-Years-Simple-Secure-Stair/dp/B0000798KZ

Used it for 4 years with no problems. I loved that I could just swing it closed and have it latch. Kidco Gates also get high marks and we loved our Center Gateway for the bottom of the stairs and kitchen. The First Years handsfree also gets good reviews. You need a hardware mounted one at the top of the stairs, but can use pressure mounted at the bottom of the stairs or in doorways. If you have a large area or odd shape, the Kidco Configure Gate is the way to go.

Outlet covers - we used the kind that you slide to the side and it springs back when you unplug. They Safety 1st ones that you rotate were awful - many plugs don't fit into them. We couldn't even plug in the vacuum.

Cabinet locks -Tot locks as much as possible. They are impossible for kids to open without a key. I have a few of the plastic ones that go over handles, but only on rarely used cabinets. They take some work to put in, but if you are going to be staying in the house more than a year I think it is worth it.

Furniture straps - we like the Safety 1st ones best. That is really saying something for me as I normally run from their stuff. We tried the Kidco ones and another one and the design was not as good.

Knob covers - we only have round knobs

Bedrail - haven't used one at home, my mom has two that are two different brands and we have no preference, but I did not start using them until the boys were over 3 years old.

Prices - I found online prices to be better on somethings and about the same on others. For outlet covers I could only find them online for the type of outlets we had (decor). Some of it depends on how much you are buying. One pack of tot locks probably isn't worth ordering online unless you are getting something else, but if you are getting 20+ outlet covers it is worth it, KWIM?