How do you secure a changing pad to a dresser?

[angellsmurf]

I am such a newbie, so this may sound like a silly question...

But how exactly do you secure a changing pad to a dresser? I know the changing pads come with straps to buckle the baby in so they don't roll off the dresser, but how does the actual pad stay on - to keep the baby on?

I know many people buy changing tables, which have raised sides, but I have heard a lot of people say they were buying regular dressers to save money and using a changing pad on top of the dresser.

Please advise a newbie :-)


Married 10/12/02
EDD 9/4/05

[angusmom]

Hello,

I havent yet dont this myself but like you I plan to attach a contoured pad to the top of a dresser.

From what I understand, the contoured pad is supposed to have two short pieces of strap that hang off of it, and you use two screws to screw through these tabs/straps and into the wood of the dresser, and that is how it gets held in place.

Dont quote me on this because I havent bought my contoured pad yet or actually done it, but when I first looked into this a while back that seemed to be the plan. :-)

[nfowife]

The back of the contoured pad has 2 straps w/snaps on them, and comes with 2 snaps to screw into the back of your dresser or changing table. This makes the changing table secure to the dresser so it won't come off.

[C99]

The Simmons contoured pad that I bought had a couple of webbed straps hanging off the side of it. I used a couple of screws to secure the webbed straps to the back of our dresser.

[sl98]

We got the Especially for Baby contoured pad form BRU and it also has two staps to screw to the back of the dresser. We attached them with ease. It does move around a bit now that DS likes to try and roll over while I am changing him, but it will not come off the dresser. I am glad we went this route instead of using a changing table.

Shauna~
DS 7/04

[SummerBaby]

I used a piece of the rubber shelf liner to hold mine on the dresser. Even though DD wiggles all over the place, it doesn't move at all and this way I didn't have to make holes in the dresser. I never walk away from the changing table so this works fine for us.

Val
Mom to Madeline
7/28/04

[duesept05]

What do you do if you have a hutch on the dresser and therefore can't access the back of the dresser?

[nfowife]

I am pretty sure that on most pieces, the hutch is a seperate piece that can be attached/removed, so you should still be able to attach the pad. You can also put velcro on the bottom of the pad and the top of the dresser to make it more secure.

[angusmom]

An update to my previous post. I bought a DEX contoured pad and it has the straps on the back and they attach with Velcro rather than screws. I guess this is OK because it's on the back of the dresser and no one will see it. But it will leave two Velcro strips on the back of the dresser eventually when we dont use the pad anymore. And then if I were to want to attach the pad to a different dresser in the future, I would have to buy two new strips (no big deal, but I'm just pointing it out - maybe a contoured pad doesn't last through more than one child anyway, so maybe it's a moot point anyway to worry about it!).

[nfowife]

When you're done with the pad, you can remove the velcro using a razor blade and any sticky remnants with goo gone and you should be fine- it won't damage the dresser.