A Bunch of Baby Proofing Q's for Bathroom and Kitchen... LONG

[etwahl]

KITCHEN:
so we've decided we will move all cleaning and toxic things to upper locked areas or locked closets.

my question is, what IS safe to keep in lower locked cabinets? or for that matter in upper unlocked cabinets? if we know that there's a chance they can get into the lower locked cabinets, what can we safely put there? for instance, we have fire extinguishers stashed in cabinets around the house. they don't fit in upper cabinets (too tall). is that not safe? is the safer alternative not having the fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen?

also, what about upper cabinets of dishes and such. if we know they can get into those cabinets, do we need to lock upper cabinets?

and one final question - knives. we have our regular kitchen and steak knives in the cutlery drawer. are they safe enough there with a lock? and we have our henkels in a knife block on the counter. where do we put those safely?

BATHROOM:
we have a closet in our bathroom and no medicine cabinet. plus we have cabinets and drawers. i have started moving all the medicines, toiletries, hair products, etc. to the closet where we will put a latch lock on the top of it. the question i have here is, what IS safe in the bathroom? this is our master bathroom, and it's not like she's going to be spending a lot of time playing in there, but she will have access to it (although i'll keep the toilet room shut and locked). can i leave hairspray on the counter? what about liquid hand soap on the counter? i know that's not an issue until she can get on the counter. when can that happen? also, can i leave my blowdryer in an unlocked drawer? or should i lock it? any other tips?

thanks for the guidance. call me clueless in the kitchen and bathroom :) TRULY CLUELESS

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[egoldber]

Wow. Hmm. I keep cleaners and things in locked lower cabinets. I also keep lots of things in unlocked lower cabinets in our bathroom. She's never in that bathroom without someone else with her, so I never worried about it. Our cutlery is in a knife block on the counter and I'm planning to leave it there.

I guess my advice would be to watch Lauren. If there are things she gets into then I would worry about it. But my DD has never expressed an interest in the cabinets in our MBR. She also is not a climber. I DO have to be careful about what I leave on the counter within her reach, since she likes to reach up and pull things down, so I've had to train myself in that area. But I think you're better off doing the basic things now and waiting until Lauren is more active to decide what (if anything) you need to do next.

HTH,

[Momof3Labs]

I think that you have to strike a balance. For example, how much will an unplugged hairdryer hurt Lauren? She might drop it on her toes, but it's not likely to require even a doctor's visit. If she gets handsoap on her fingers and sticks them in her mouth, will it do more than taste bad? Probably not.

You have to consider how long you will leave Lauren unsupervised in these areas - the longer you leave her alone, the more trouble she might get into. But, honestly, it sounds like she is a while away from climbing on countertops - Colin isn't there yet (knock on wood), though some babies are by 18 months.

Now, cleaning products can be poisonous and cause damage even in small amounts, so those are worth worrying about IMO.

[kijip]

I tend to worry only about things that can do serious damage to son or to property in a short period of time- for example plastic bags, standing water and cleaning supplies or computer equipment. I try not to wig out about smaller stuff like eating soap or bumping his head on the leg of the table. While mostly mellow on the property side of things, I can not afford to replace certain things, like my IBook so I make sure not to leave the power cord dangling!

We had similar issues with our kitchen and bathroom. Here is what we did:

Kitchen: Moved all death causing substances to upper shelves of pantry, gated off the entrance to the pantry, moved knives to high magnet on wall, locked the undersink drawer to keep son out of trash (mostly a time saver for us-who wants to clean up trash spread everywhere?), and finally we gated the kichen off from the living room. We did not bother with refrigerator/oven latches.

Bath: Stocked up on plastic containers that are harder to open, went through bathroom and put like groups of stuff into a plastic container (one make-up, one, lotion, one hair clippers etc). This saves us time and allows us to let our son chill in the bathroom while we shower or get ready. It works great and has kept our bathroom looking neat even though cleaning effort and time has dropped since baby! He plays with the boxes, but can't mess up or eat the contents. We moved the box with medicines to a bedroom closet shelf- keeps it out of moisture anyway. We moved toilet brush and plunger out of bathroom and latched the toilet shut to prevent him from drowning (unlikely but possible) and to prevent him from giving us a plumbing bill by shoving toys down the toilet (seems likely).

It seems like a lot when I write it out but in life it seems pretty easy and not too much. I really want to keep him safe but I don't want a kid who has no boundries or respect for rules like "don't throw the dishes or eat the plants" etc...

[sparkeze]

It also depends on the individual child. I could never leave knives in a knife block on the counter. DS can carry a stool or a chair from his table to the counter in a flash and will actually use something long to swipe at things too far for his reach. We put our knife block away and got a wooden block that goes in a kitchen drawer that's locked. So we have locks on all the kitchen drawers and anything remotely dangerous goes in a drawer or in an upper cabinet. Things like silverware are locked, as are aluminum foil, plastic wrap, etc. Those boxes have sharp edges!

DS is not allowed in the bathroom without supervision, but we don't keep anything within easy reach that could be dangerous. The only thing he really could reach is the soap at the sink, which I'm not too concerned about. I'm actually more concerned about him touching the toilet, which always seems to need to be cleaned! But if you're careful about appliances, medications, and bath/hair products it should be fine. And be careful about toothpaste! Ingesting fluoride toothpaste is very bad for infants/young toddlers.

I think for everyone there's an adjustment period where you can learn what your child will/can do and for your child to learn what she can/can't do. There are things at my home that DS completely ignores because they've always been there, but if another toddler comes over it could be a problem.

HTH!