How do you make your home safe? Paedetrician's Warning

[missslc]

Our son is just starting to walk and pull at things so we are trying to child proof our one level home.

Now we have already done the obvious like make cupboards safe, move harmful liquid stuff but we are now looking at our flat screen tv in the corner and wondering how to prevent him getting near it.

What do people do? I am guessing just gate off the whole area with special gates?

The reason we are suddenly so concerned is we have just got back from hospital- baby has had bronchiolitis and 3 paedetricians all made a point of asking how secure how home was( theye were lovely and really trying to alert us to the risks). One of the things they said was that they see children on the ward with 'utterly horrifying' injuries from heavy things ( eg tv) falling onto them. So we are very motivated to find a solution before our son is fully walking.We cannot bracket the tv on the wall as we are in an earthquake area and the wall is not strong enough.

When you look on line there is so much but we want to know what people have used and has worked?

Thanks

I would put the sofa in front of the tv or put it away when you are not using it.

Can you rearrange the furniture so your dc can't get close to the tv?

say two sofas and put one in fornt and sit on the other to watch tv

Lots of people I know have a wide table with the tv on that the kids can't reach across.
Shelves are also a nightmare and need to be screwed to the wall. Also chests of drawers that they can climb up.

It's a minefield - and quite often you don't realise what they'll hurt themselves with until they've done it!

Good luck!

We have the footstool (big, part of the sofa type one) pushed in front of it, and it is in a recess anyway.

Have you seen the tether straps that attach it to the wall, but it is not actually hanging on the wall as such. Like this (even says they are for earthquakes)

Surely the stand on the TV should be wide enough that it can't be pulled over?

I would agree a wide table is probably the best way to go.

Can you mount the TV on the wall with a special bracket?

We had our TV mounted on the wall as I was so worried about it being pulled over. We paid someone to do it and it wan't cheap but I knew my ds would head for the tv all the time to work out where the pictures were coming from.

can you chain it to the wall, but sit it on the TV bench? SO it cannot be pulled over?

We used to push our coffee table in front of the TV when babies were in the area. It prevents them from pressing all the buttons on the dvd etc too.

I also think it's never too early to start teaching 'no', particularly wrt safety.

Be very aware of where you position your kettle and lead, also watch hot drinks, a cup of black tea / coffee could result in a large burn to a baby / toddler. Also, remember to run cold water into bath first so if children decide to jump in they won't get scalded. Secure windows with locks and opening limiters. Place locks high so young children can't lock themselves in the bathroom etc. Stair gates. Consider your use of rugs. Make sure visitors keep house rules re: safety e.g. placement of hot drinks, elderly relatives visiting with drugs in handbags etc.

I totally childproofed the whole of downstairs, was a big undertaking. I bought several of those large screens you put around things (fire place, TV etc.), doorguards on doors near hinges, safety gates for all doors so I could keep dd in a room if I had to, hob guard, bolts on some doors to prevent her going into bathrooms on her own. Those foam corner things on table and cupboard corners, socket protectors everywhere, name it and we had it. Very expensive though. I got a lot of the stuff from JoJoMamanBebe. Mind you, we never had an accident!

I did all that too dikkertjedap. DD1 still managed to cut her head open twice - once on the doorframe and once on the leg of the tv stand. Hospital glue treatment each time. I think she would have been better off permanently wearing a helmet!

Thanks everyone- lots of helpful suggestions.That has given me something to think about. The TV is on a wooden table not a regular tv stand. As we are renting screwing things into the wall is a bit of a no no.

Maybe I need to think of putting something in front of it and at the side to prevent access.

What do people do with furniture- i popped to the kitchen earlier and my 9 month had got himself onto a stool- caught him before superman style launch?He can also get onto the sofa which is quite low......

I am realising you just have to be at their side constantly.....ahh the baby days are much easier in this respect!!

missslc I rent as well and decided losing part of my deposit to fix holes in walls was less important than my son being safe.

So bookcases/cupboards are bolted to wall etc.

We have an old fashioned CRT TV. DH wants a spangly new flat one, I am refusing until DS (2) is older, for these very reasons. Could you get a second hand "old fashioned" TV for a while?

DS pulled the TV over a few months ago, it broke but thankfully he didn't. It was a horrible tv anyway, a huge beast of a thing that XP's dad had gave us - I was slightly pleased to see the back of it.

DS has just learnt to open the kitchen stair gate so I'm putting a bike padlock on it.

Don't forget windows too. When DS was about 2 he realised he could climb onto the toilet then into the sink and up to the window sill. Keep the windows locked (even when open on the latch) or get window restrictors.

And on a similar note make sure you have your smoke and carbon dioxide alarms.

DP wanted to buy a flatscreen but when we were at dsil's house we saw how easy it was for DD to push one over .

We have now stuck with our old silver one which is on a stand and screwed safely into it.

Also watch out for kichen cupboards my dd loves going into ours and messing about with all the spice jars and heavy tins .

We have a safety gate at the bottom of the stairs and are about to put one on DD's bedroonm door -I was going to have one at the top of the stairs a few years ago when I had ds but Surestart came out and said they had heard of a lot of accidents with LO's climbing on to them and then falling :(.

Another one is everyone remembers to switch the iron off to prevent burns but don't leave it out on the ironing board my friend did and came back to a dead puppy it had jumped up and knocked the board and the iron had fell on its head :(.

Could easily happen to a climbing toddler.

Have you thought about getting a playpen? Your situation sounds quite hard to babyproof, would it be easier to either be with him, or put him in the playpen when you're not?

One of my daughter's friends (at age 5 or 6, playing in my daughter's room opened the drawers of her very heavy chest of drawers a little way, climbed up them and pulled the whole thing over. From downstairs I heard a big crash! Luckily no-one hurt, but could have been nasty. But what would you do to prevent such a thing? And we're not talking about a toddler even.

We bought this for our TV:

www.safetots.co.uk/Safety-Essentials/Living-Area-Safety/Furniture-Straps/c1_18_20/p2568/-babydan-anti-tip/product_info.html

Its for flat screen TVs though. Its worked really well and was easy to install

My advice is don't leave leave them tbh, all the baby proofing in the world and they will find something to hurt themselves with.

My plan is basically not to put him down until he's 5

Haven't read the thread but Riven flat screen TVs are much lighter/unstable and therefore easier to pull or knock down than CRT TVs so this seems a valid concern to me.

Having said that, we're just planning to do the old chair/foot rest in front of it and keeping an eye on him when he's in the living room (which is possible in our open-plan tiny flat).

Riven .

Right, sounds like DS is waking up!