Practical advice wanted: how to child-proof my house??

[MrsMc]

So - the boy (6 months) almost did a forward roll into the radiator today. I guess there's no way of protecting him from every sharp edge but it got me thinking about broader child-proofing issues. I've been looking on Amazon tonight for plug socket covers and have been overwhelmed by a whole range of security locks etc for cookers/cabinets/drawers - the list is endless!

Before I go wild in the aisles and buy a lot of 'stuff' in a knee-jerk reaction to safety worries, can I open the floor to practical advice on what's useful/what's pointless?

Many thanks in anticipation!

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

Ahh, it is a whole different challenge when they are on the move.

My little man is loving discovering a whole new world now he is on the move. I just purchased some Prince Lionheart Cushioned corner/sharp edges covers as though you cannot prevent all accidents at least when they bang their heads it will soften the blow a bit!

I have also got some safety gates so he cannot fall down the stairs or leave the lounge if I am in another room.

I have not bothered with socket covers as they are all covered up by sofas/beds/various other pieces of furniture etc so he does not have access to them. I have not bothered put a lock on cupboard doors as there is nothing dangerous in all the lower cupboards. Same as the drawers, I would never bother with that as he does not have access to anything dangerous as the knives are in the top drawer and by the time he can reach those he will be going school and will be old enough to know he cannot touch those.

The cooker is high up and he is unable to grab anything from the hob so not bothered with that.

I have covered the TV/DVD player with some scatter cushions, though he is quite tall and does manage to 'smack' the TV all the time.

I think you just have to do what you would do in a flood, move all your precious things up higher.

You could wrap everything in bubble wrap and trust me, they would still have an accident at some point. Just got for what is the most dangerous and what they are most likely to come into contact with on a daily basis ( ie if they spend lots of time in the lounge and you have exposed wires/sockets/lots of sharp furniture then that would be priority to make child friendly).

Babies...the worry never ends!:))

[buggie]

while prob bit early at 6mths, one of the most common preventable accidents I see are children getting fingers trapped in doors (normally the hinge end) - there was a thread I mentioned this on a few mths back which IIRC covered similar themes.

The foam "C" shaped things for doors would help stop this (and can be put up high on the door so impossible for lil'uns to remove!

[curlykaren]

get in touch with your health visitor as the council run a scheme where someone will come and baby proof your house for ?10. Its really worth the money and they can give you advice on what to do if you need safety measures beyond their budget x

[Pickle]

I have two kids, now 3.5 and 2, and we didn't use any of the safety equipment you can buy, barring stair gates for a short time (when I had my 2nd child, to keep my older boy contained while I fed the baby in her nursery). I'm a firm believer in teaching kids about the dangers as they get old enough, and while they are babies I didn't find it difficult to keep them out of harm's way.

I have nothing against safety equipment, but just wanted to put a different perspective on it as I feel a lot of it is unnecessary.

P x

[kristymac1]

I worked on the basis that I would baby-proof areas which could do serious harm - ie undersink cupboards with cleaning products etc, stair gates to prevent climbing/falling down and up the stairs, plug sockets which were accessible to wet/sticky fingers. Everything else - including table corners and door hinges I tried as best I could to keep an eye on things and explain/yell 'n' grab when things looked precarious. I have to say it seems to have worked reasonably well, not too many accidents (certainly nothing dangerous) and my daughter now has a healthy respect for cupboards when we go to friends houses.....

[pebbles]

I totally agree with Pickle. We have "locked" our under sink cupboard as it contains poisonous stuff however other than that it is a case of teachign them no and what not to do.

as soon as our no1 was able to crawl up the stairs we never carried him down (unless we had carried him up in the first place if that makes sense) - it was a case of saying turn around turn aroudn turn aroudn and pysically turning him around - i know this sounds like quite a while but it took us less that 4 weeks and we never had to say it again, if he was upstairs he would come down backwards - i was lucky to be at home so was able to inforce this

i suppose it also helps cos he will go round to all his/my friends houses and will never go for cupboards, drawers etc cos he knows he can't go near them at ours however the friends of his (my friends kids) who have every cupboard/door/room locked will take first opportunity to open them at others houses and then accidents happen - if that makes sense

my advice woudl be - be sensible but don't go overboard

[katgod]

Agree with moderation. We locked the cupboard with the bleach etc, and had a stair gate to keep number 1 in his room when I was unable to keep an eye on him, but taught him to go down the stairs, repect things that were out of bounds and find it is easier to visit grandparents and child free friends with children who have boundaries. Saying that some kids are more inquisitive than others, you can always reassess when a bit older. I'd save your money for now.(And we were not DIY savvy enough to figure out how to fit stair gate on curvy bannisters!)

[observermum]

how things have moved on

playpens with tops or is it an igloo

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001801&langId=-1&searchTerms=398/7443&_$ja=tsid:11527%7Ccc:%7Cprd:3987443%7Ccat:nursery+%3E+baby+monitors+and+safety+gates+%3E+safety+gates+and+guards

[Rogue Apostrophe]

We haven't babyproofed anything in our house, we have taught our daughter which are the no-go areas and she is fine with that. She's bumped herself maybe once on a table edge, but nothing more than that. Of course we keep an eye on her whilst in the house, but then we have a small place so that is mostly easy, and I've moved the bleach out of the way, just in case! I find that teaching her about safety is very useful for when we're out and about, particularly as in the big wide world, not every plug socket is covered, nor is every sharp edge covered in comfy foam.

[MrsMc]

This is great guys - thanks for your comments.

[Moos]

Lots of good advice here.

We did invest in stairgates, as our stairs are quite narrow and steep. Not so important at the crawling age, but once our son started to run around we had a few hair-raising near misses with over-excited cavorting about near the top of the stairs.

Also, if you have any especially sharp corners I think that the stick-on corner pads are a good idea. New walkers are always falling over, and it's not like teaching them about dangerous things - it's just a fact of toddlerhood. A corner-padder can turn a fall from a cut to a kiss-it-better. I wouldn't bother with ordinary table corners and so on but we have a marble fireplace surround with particularly wicked sharp edges and kids' heads seemed magnetically attracted to them.

[snowboarder]

Whilst I like the teach 'em not to do stuff theory - either I am rubbish at it or baby snowboarder is particularly naughty! We have cupboard locks after he kept on gettin pans/plates etc out of all reachable cupboards and smashing them around - just couldn't stop him and started getting obsessed and having screaming fits when we tried to stop him....Also we move the cat food/litter out of the way during the day. Have stairgates more to contain him than for safety - he's fine on the stairs but otherwise he just belts upstairs and rifles through drawers etc.

We didn't do a big safety fit though - just as he found things we followed. Weirdly he ignors the fireplace....

[Fuschia]

Gate to stop them wandering into the kitchen and bathroom unattended, cleaning stuff locked away. Medicines up high. Socket covers, temp turned down on boiler so hot water from taps isn't scalding. Mirrors and cupboards fixed to the wall. No dangling blind cords.

CDs/DVDs locked away or up high

That's about it. Corner protectors are rubbish, just get pulled off.

Can leave even the twins unsupervised in our living room as its fairly toddler proof

[linzkg]

Also agree with Pickle and the others - my little man is on the move and climbing into everything - but its getting to a stage where he knows what he is allowed to go to what he must leave alone.

Anticipate I say! I automatically open the tuperware cupboard when I go into the kitchen (which I have now moved to a bottom cupboard) so he's not really bothered with the other cupboards.

We definitely got socket covers but ours are open.

I haven't got things for the corners of tables etc but they seem to become stable quite quickly so its only a short period when you're watching them at the coffee table etc.

[marscapone]

We had a bit of a mix n match approach - agree it's helpful to teach them about danger, but can't watch them so stop every single thing. There's only so many things I want to say 'no' to each day. So for instance, we had locks on most kitchen cupboards, but left the pot cupboard for him to open and play with the pots - I found we needed something like that for him to access and keep him entertained while I was cooking

[Smiler]

We had a stair gate on the nursery, which is a fairly safe area, useful for occasionally dumping Miss Smiler when she was smaller and needed a few minutes to do stuff without her under-foot!

As someone else has said, we taught her to use the stairs early on (split-level, first-floor flat).

She was a cupboard / drawer ransacker, so had to put the odd lock on for a while for our own sanity! Mr Smiler's CD/DVD collection has been damaged, but took no action to protect it as he has bad taste in films, hee hee!

Worst accident we have had so far was with hot water - hot tea spillage when out (carrying tea and trying to push the pushchair, slipped, tea splashed over Miss Smiler in her pushchair). Trip to Kings, pain / screaming, burns dressings, follow-up trips to check on burns / replace dressings, mild scarring etc. Awful, though the children's A&E at Kings were really good, especially the specialist burns nurses. Am now much more careful about anything hot, especially hot kettle / pans in the kitchen.

Kings said that the worst burns apart from kettles/hot pans are from herbal tea, as no milk to reduce heat of the drink.

The knife drawer is also now a hazard 'cos Miss Smiler likes to bring in her step from the bathroom and use it to look in the kitchen drawers, is also interested in the cooker, when previously would listen to "no, hot" etc. Going to move the knives to a knife block / container on a worktop out of reach somewhere.

[The Nappy Lady]

As others have said, it depends a bit on the child. No1 never bothered with cupboards, No2 did so I too left the Tupperware one open and locked others. If you have the right handles then elastic bands can be enough to keep them out!

Never did socket covers as they never bothered with them. Could just be me, but boys seem more prone to dangerous experimentation and mischief than girls!

Molly

[Moos]

My son and his friends must be particularly clumsy, as they seemed to be knocking their heads on fireplace corners and coffee tables for a good year!

[fairylamb]

Apparently plastic sockets covers aren't just a rip-off they are potentilaly more dangerous (make creating a circuit which is pretty difficult for a kiddie and nigh on impossible for your average baby that bit easier).

http://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/index.html

[kati]

you can also check this http://markets.about.com/about/?GUID=13159773&Page=MEDIAVIEWER ; they are really good and products impressive and child safety devices are definitely efficient

[helena handbasket]

Moos Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My son and his friends must be particularly

> clumsy, as they seemed to be knocking their heads

> on fireplace corners and coffee tables for a good

> year!

Same here! And going through any and all cupboards, and climbing bookshelves (which is why they are all screwed to the wall!), sticking things in outlets, falling down/off things, etc. etc.. Clearly some children are a bit more curious than others!

That said (and I am speaking as the mother with the nervous twitch due to adventurous child), I will always advocate being safe than sorry. I've been trained now to spot a crisis a mile away :) but you never know what might catch a little person's attention, even just for the fraction of a second it takes for things to go wrong.

I know that many people prefer to just "teach them not to do it" and if anyone has found a fool proof way to keep a small boy from running carelessly or not investigating something he can't possibly guess is dangerous, then I'm all ears.

[apenn]

I second what Curlykaren said. The Southwark Council scheme is great - for ?10 you get ?60 worth of safety equipment and the best part is that they fit it for you. I probably never would have gotten around to drilling holes for cabinet locks etc. myself.

-A