Tell Lindam when you started thinking about child safety in the home – you could win a Full Lindam Home Safety Pack (worth up to £378)! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Lindam has asked us to find out when Mumsnetters first start thinking about child safety in the home.

Here's what Lindam says, "Safety is absolutely paramount for any parent and in fact, latest research by Which? has found safety to be a top priority for new mothers and fathers. Research findings showed that safety gates are the most popular and useful products for new families and in the run up to Child Safety Week (23rd-29th June) we're really keen to raise awareness of just how important safety gates are, and which ones are best for each individual families' needs.

Finding the right gate can be overwhelming but there really is something for everyone. Pressure Fit or Wall fix are available to fit a range of openings. Gates also have a range of handles and closing mechanisms depending on your requirements. From a Pressure Fit option such as Easy Fit Plus Deluxe to the top of the range Wall Fix NUMI Aluminium Extending Safety Gate, safety, quality and value are key for all gates and each now comes with a lifetime guarantee.

For further information, and to see the wider Lindam range, please visit //www.lindam.com"

You may have seen that we've run a survey with Lindam recently about safety at home. It emerged that approximately 34% of you start thinking about including safety products in the home once baby starts crawling. We'd now love to hear when other Mumsnetters started considering how best to safety proof their homes. Would you fall into the 34% that start considering it when baby starts crawling? Or would you consider it earlier or later on? How many gates have you bought for your home? What do you think is more important, product features or value for money? Do you buy safety products to install in your home, or do you create your own safety measures instead? Or perhaps a mixture? Whatever they are, or whatever it is, we'd love to hear it!

Everyone who comments on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a Full Lindam Home Safety Pack which is worth up to £378 (depending on what you choose!).

Please be aware that Lindam may use any comments posted here in future marketing material (anonymously, of course). Please only post if you’re happy with that.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

[TheDudess]

I started thinking about home safety when the baby was about two months old. A lot of our friends have babies who are a bit older than ours and we realised that when they came to visit us that we had to do a quick survey of downstairs to make sure that there was nothing dangerous for them to get hold of. We soon realised that whatever we did wasn't enough! We started asking friends for tips on how to make our home safer and that's how we ended up thinking about it at that point really.

I think it's best to think about these things before as you need time to research the right product to get rather than making an impulse purchase based on reacting to a situation.

[tinypumpkin]

More when the children started crawling I think. We did buy products but also devised our own! It's thinking at their level isn't it really.

I did do my research to find the right product although price does also come into it (not the primary factor though).

[MangoBiscuit]

With DD1 we got the bottom stair gate in when she started crawling, quickly followed by one at the top too. Now DD1 is almost 5, and DD2 is just starting to drag herself about, so we're having to think about it all over again, having gotten rid of most of the bits. We did keep the upstairs stairgate though, for peace of mind over night wakings.

We actually need to buy another stairgate for the bottom as the last one managed to make a big hole in the (80 odd year old) wall, so it won't be going back in.

As with everything, I tend to weigh up price vs features. It has to safely do the job I want it for, but anything extra has to be worth the change in price. I wouldn't fork out a lot for home safety products though, on the grounds that we won't be using them for a long time.

[Nouseforausername]

We tended to have a safe house to start with as we puppy proofed before even ttc. no corners nothing low down. plug sockets behind furniture and a gate. we do need another gate at the bottom of the stairs although 1 year old ds doesnt really bother going that way, the dogs bowl is more interesting!! one thing I have learnt is that cupboard locks that go on the outside of the cupboards are absolutely bloody useless. ds had taken them off the door and taken them to pieces before id finished putting them on.

[mrsminx]

I started thinking about safety before my baby was born. We have a dog so we wanted to make sure there could be no problems right from day one. We got 2 safety gates from Lindam which were higher than the usual so the dog could not jump over them and put them on our family room and the baby's room so we didn't always have to shut the door. It has been great. Now that the baby is crawling and almost walking we need to think more about gates on the stairs! I know some people don't have safety gates at all but I think they are important, especially if you have a dog

[mjmooseface]

Living in an upstairs flat, having a stair gate at the top of the stairs was very important to me! It also keeps the dog away from the door when people knock!

We baby proofed the house after my son rolled off the bed!! He had only just learned to roll and couldn't go far (or so he led us to believe!) I turned my head for a second and he'd rolled on to the floor. I felt terrible, of course. I wish it hadn't taken something like that happening, and that we'd been better prepared. The next day, we got a stair gate for my son's room so he could roll around, crawl, walk etc and be safe in his room, but still be able to see and hear us.

Now, we have 3 stair gates - one on son's room, one on the kitchen and one at the top of the stairs. We also have plug socket covers. That's it, as far as purchasing safety equipment goes. When my son is wandering around the house, I make sure to move things out of his reach that I'd rather he didn't have and close the bathroom door - though, it's only a matter of time before he can open that door!! I've been quite creative in my safety measures, too!

We use 1 Lindam pressure fit gate and it's great. I think pressure fit gates are amazing and really helpful if you can't/don't want to drill into the wall. I feel reassured when my son is wandering around, that he is safe.

We can't watch our children every second of the day, nor do we have eyes in the back of our heads. Safety gates were the one piece of equipment I knew I wanted before my son was born.

[WhatWouldCaitlinDo]

We didn't start thinking about safety until DC was crawling; so at about 6 months. We have 3 stairgates, and cupboard locks on selected cupboards in the kitchen and playroom. The safety gates are an absolute must have - we were in my parents recently and DC fell all the way from the top of the stairs, head first, and spent the day in A&E. Miraculously she was fine, but I just couldn't live with that risk every day.

We also got an airwrap bumper when she moved to her cot from the Moses basket. She will be moving to a big girl bed soon; we plan to get a normal single - rather than a toddler bed - and to buy removable bed rails.

We didn't buy plug socket covers as advice from the British Institute of Engineers is that they are unnecessary and actually unsafe.

The products we chose were based on a mix of features and value; we didn't want to spend a fortune, but it was vital that the products actually did the job properly.

[SmallBee]

I'm just starting to think of home safety now as DD is 8 months old and starting to get ready to crawl.
She has a cousin who is exactly a year older & every time she visits she shows us exactly how unsafe our house is, even when I think I've cleared everything away!
I've yet to do any research into how to make our home safe but I know there is going to be a lot to do.

[sharond101]

We have a young dog and started thinking about child safety in the home when we got the dog which was around 6 months before we conceived our son. We wanted a family do with a good nature that would grow up alongside our son so our choice was very important.

[WowOoo]

I considered it earlier. This was because I had looked after our niece in my home before having my own children.

I even bought stair gates for when she as with me for the weekends as she was quite the escape artist.

I also decluttered at floor and child level - some of my precious and breakable things are still stored away in the attic!

[TheSporkforeatingkyriarchy]

When my eldest became mobile, though really it was only baby gates, a lockable medicine cabinet, and more shelves as we didn't really have much. When I replaced the curtains in their rooms with blinds, I did notice all the blackout blinds had the quick release child safety feature (which is nice though I have had to put them all back up a few times because of it).

I am wondering why Lindam and others still sell socket covers that haven't been approved for use in the UK which could damage the socket's inbuilt protection device and make them more easy for a child to hurt themselves. Even Ofsted have come to their senses about promoting those.

[OrangeBlossom2]

We put foam covers around the fireplace when DS started rolling, so a bit earlier, but he is crawling and pulling himself up onto furniture now and we haven't done anything else yet other than tucking wires away and not leaving hot drinks / sharp objects on low tables . We are looking into stair gates and cupboard locks at the moment.

[ScrambledEggAndToast]

I started thinking about it before DS was even born. When he was really small there were different dangers, for example, things like me putting him in a bath that was too hot. To combat that I made sure I put cold water in fast and then added hot as advised by my midwife. This helped to avoid scalds. As he got older and was crawling and then cruising, I made sure that plugs were covered so he didn't electrocute himself. I made sure that I removed any tablecloths so he didn't pull them on himself when holding onto the table. We fitted safety gates on the stairs and in rooms so he couldn't escape!!

[Holfin]

I started thinking about safety when I was pregnant as we were moving house so looking at safety at the prospective houses, like was there a pond in the garden and how easily we could fit stair gates. We actually started using safety products when DD was about 6 months, so fitted stair gates (one each at top and bottom of stairs) and cupboard locks for cleaning products. We also got a cover for the oven door but that didn't work well. We bought Lindam stair gates as they had good reviews and we had no first hand recommendations to go on.

Other than that we just try and be sensible with keeping items out of reach, especially hot drinks and scissors etc.

[GetKnitted]

thanks for the public safety announcement on plug inserts Spork. we have the covers demonstrated on the site, allowing electricity to light an led. I knew that uk plugs couldn't be operated without the top pin in, but thought the covers were to stop kids using a pen in the top one and then electrocuting themselves.

[ekt55]

DD (8mths) isn't quite crawling yet but she's rolling all over the place so we started thinking about safety at 5 months when the rolling started. So far we have just done things like barricade the fireplace with cushions but now she is starting to haul herself up onto her hands and knees we are looking around to buy some safety products. Watching this thread with interest...

[georgebear103]

Cupboard locks to keep the cleaning products safe were important to me. We also put a lock high on the outside of the bathroom door to keep little people out!

[violetlights]

I thought about it and bought products when I was pregnant. The antenatal courses I did told me a few horror stories which rather panicked be. Still, I'm glad I did most of the child proofing early as later on If find it difficult to find the time.

[StillNoFuckingEyeDeer]

We started thinking about baby proofing when they started crawling. We put up stair gates when they started showing an interest in trying to climb them. Our only other baby proofing was putting things out of reach.

[TheDetective]

I thought about it when pregnant - but thought it would be something to look at when the baby was crawling.

How wrong was I? My baby was a crazy roller. He rolled full lengths of the (8m long!) room at 4.5 months old. He would get anywhere and everywhere in seconds just by rolling.

At 5 months we had to get a fire guard, as he did this.... (see pic!)

We have had troubles with stair gates. Our door ways and stairs don't seem narrow to me, but apparently are. We ended up with a pressure fit stair gate on the living room/dining room, and confine him to this room. It was the only one we could find to fit that was less than £50 . And the worst thing was, it had to be screwed in to the sodding wood! So hardly pressure fit as I wanted! We can't get any to fit the stairs at all, which terrifies me. But at 18 months, he seems to have got by okay. He fell down the top 3 steps and hit the wall at 12 months (it's not a straight up and down stair case, it has a bend in it). As soon as he did that, he appeared to learn that stairs were not to be played near, and to always go down backwards (he had tried to walk down them which is how he fell).

We have struggled to find appropriate and reasonably priced solutions to be honest. I've got one cupboard lock in the living/dining room on a cabinate, but as the wood is very thick, we can't have drawer locks. We have another small unit which has the sky/xbox/dvd on, and a drawer on it. We can't find a solution that works for that. We got a stick on lock for it, but it's shit. It was pulled off straight away.

It's just reminded me we had trouble getting a fireguard to fit also as our fireplace was 1cm wider (as in from the wall to the edge of the hearth) than all the fireguards that were available.

I haven't baby proofed the kitchen at all. He doesn't get to go in there. It's easier.

[CMOTDibbler]

Just before ds was moving really - though with the cats, we didn't have much at ground level anyway.

[Ruby6918]

once mobility started i soon realised i had to think about safety, i bought screw in stair gates but wasnt happy with the fitting, sochanged to the pressure ones with a middle opening, i also started to use the tavel cot while i was cooking etc so i placed the wee one in it so i knew that they couldnt wander as long as they can see you and they have some toys this works a treat i bought mine second hand it it lasted for 3 kids, we had some nasty nipped fingers in drawers so i glued small erasers on the inside of drawers so that if they shut small fingers could avoid nips , i bought the usual socket covers but bought them in bulk and it worked out a lot cheaper and gave other mothers ones i didnt need, for kitchen cupboards instead of a lock i wrapped hair bobbles tightly over the handles to secure them together this works as wee ones cant get them off at all, doorstops can be useful too you can get really nice ones and two should be enough which can be moved about when needed, my doors used to slam due to draughts etc and this avoided baby getting hit with slamming doors, and always keep a small medicine kit on the ready and inside put ur doctors number hospital number so if an accident does happen you will be able to deal with it really quickly,

[KeaLea]

First started thinking about safety when pregnant as I have 2 big boisterous dogs and bought / improvised some bits, getting it completely wrong! Bought my first safety gate & installed in kitchen only to find dogs could jump it & once baby on the move it was easier to let him come in and out with only some cupboards child proofed. Fire guard a necessity although he now delights in pulling it over :-/ Corner cushions a godsend for me as baby went straight to walking at 9 mths but didn't crawl. This means safety requirements for my baby are totally different to those of his friends - the crawlers get everywhere FAST! My baby reaches higher and falls onto hard / sharp areas are more serious and OMG the toilet is just FASCINATING, but I get fair warning on where he is headed. For me, get know your baby and their preferred method of self harm before safety proofing or prepare for months of tired swearing as you forget how to use stuff in you new baby haze :-) And, as he is 10mths in 5 days, I am quite prepared to judge myself completely wrong this time next month.

[mamato3lads]

Prior to becoming pregnant with my first son in 2003, life had been very different and my home was reflective of that! I started to look around the house with fresh eyes very early on in my pregnancy. I found myself saying 'that will have to go', 'we will have to move that' etc as I envisaged what our baby would be up to! I bought some basic things like covers for plug sockets while I was still pregnant, they were just included when I was out & about buying new baby things. My partner & I had casual chats about what would need to change in our home but we didnt buy anything else until after our son was born. As first time parents, we had no experience to fall back on, just common sense and many potential hazards were actually highlighted by our son exploring rather than us actively thinking about them. (for example, the very handy gadget we found to fit onto doors - never allowing them to actually slam thus preventing trapped fingers).

Stair Gates, cupboard clips and much more came as we realised our son was about to become mobile. By this stage, we were much more aware of what a baby is capable of and what we had to protect him from.

10 years later, we now have 3 sons and we have learnt a lot over the years. I am now pregnant with our 4th, so we are about to start all over again and could do with all the help we can get! :)

[Ijustworemytrenchcoat]

I still haven't . I take him with me around the house or put him in his jumperoo while I prepare meals and in his highchair with toys and books while I wash up and make bottles. Other times I am on his play mat with him. All cleaning products are out of reach anyway, but may need cupboard locks for other things.

We are looking in to fire guards now to prevent falls on to the grate, as my scattering of cushions won't cut it. We also need stair gates etc. I have always found them fiddly to open and a tripping hazard so will be looking for alternatives to the types my siblings used.

Will be swerving socket covers though.