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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to do no babyproofing whatsoever?

126 replies

MogwaiTheGremlin · 13/03/2013 19:20

DS (8 months) has just started crawling and every single person has reacted by saying 'ooooh time to babyproof your house'. Maybe I'm thick but I have no idea how to babyproof a house - surely it's virtually impossible?
Ours is split level so we'd need about 5 stair gates, endless door/cupboard keep-shut thingys and god knows what else. Aside from all the hassle, i don't want to live in fort bloody knox! Plus I'm sure DS would find the one thing I hadn't 'proofed' to bump into/chew/destroy.
Our cleaning products are already stored in a cupboard well out of reach so I am planning to leave everything as it is and over time teach DS how to negotiate his way through our home. And in the meantime I'll supervise him at all times.
My NCT class looked at me as if i was the most neglectful mum ever when i admitted this. So am I being unreasonable or just incredibly naive?!

OP posts:
Original poster
MogwaiTheGremlin · 13/03/2013 19:49

Crossed posts with the latest posters who said no to stairgates!

Horry that would scare the crap out of me but luckily our hob is set back and the knobs are on top Grin

OP posts:
louisianablue2000 · 13/03/2013 19:50

We have a fire guard and that's it. No stairgate, no locked cupboard of cleaning products, nothing. No point putting things up high because they are all climbers. They are all remarkably uninterested in going into the cleaning cupboard, and the only child that has fallen down the stairs is the five year old. My trouble with 'babyproofing' is when do you stop? It is a lot easier to teach a 6 month old to crawl up the stairs and slide down the stairs than it is to persuade the same child several years later to walk up and down the stairs carefully and not hang off the bannister like a monkey (which is why she fell down the stairs).

VisualiseAHorse · 13/03/2013 19:52

We put all the chemicals in one cupboard (under the sink).

Attached bookcases and heavy/big furniture to the walls after reading a couple of awful stories about babies being crushed to death by their nursery furniture.

I used to take LO with me everywhere in the house - now he is 10 months and HUGE, I do not want to carry him all the time. Plus, as he's crawling, I can turn my back for one second and he's licking dirt off a shoe. He is FAST. I recently had to take everything out of my bedside cabinet (hand lotion in particular) because that is his favourite cupboard to open and empty. It now has just books and a few of his bricks.

VinegarDrinker · 13/03/2013 19:56

We haven't moved our cleaning products either. And DS is free to come in and out of the kitchen when we are cooking, in fact he usually helps.

I did draw the line when he wanted to use the matches himself today though.

WilsonFrickett · 13/03/2013 19:57

You don't need to stair gate the lot. Just the gate to the place where he spends most of his play time (so in our case it was the living room, the thinking being we would want to be able to relax with him and not be chasing him up the stairs) and a safe place where can be unsupervised, so you can contain him there if you need ten minutes to do a poo

Basically, somewhere you can all chill out, and somewhere safe to plonk him out of harm's way for a small amount of time. That space should be babyproofed - but that's why I suggest the baby's room for that. And agree re cleaning products.

WilsonFrickett · 13/03/2013 19:58

Oh, we did have a mahoosive fire guard too, but that was because we had a stove which stood on a bare brick platform, and the edges on the bricks were lethal. It would definitely have been an A&E job if he'd fallen onto them.

ceeveebee · 13/03/2013 19:58

Oh yes I forgot we screwed our TV and tall furniture to the walls as well

VinegarDrinker · 13/03/2013 20:00

I think stair gates at the top of stairs make more sense than at the bottom from a safety POV - but having said that I could always hear if DS starting up the stairs and from about 10 months he used to say "up, up" as he climbed, if I hadn't already noticed!

sausagebaconandtomatobutty · 13/03/2013 20:04

We never bothered with stair gates, the only time I think we would was if they learned to climb out of their cots but they never did

My parents had one when the dcs stayed over for quite a long time incase they woke up in the night a bit disorientated and fell down the stairs

teacher123 · 13/03/2013 20:05

We have a stair gate on the living room door and a playpen. Therefore if we're in the room with him he can have free range of the room, and if I need to leave him we can stick him in the playpen. We have a retro hatch from the kitchen which means I can talk to him whilst cooking and doing jobs and he doesn't go too bananas. If I'm doing jobs upstairs I stick him in the cot.

EdBird · 13/03/2013 20:06

I did n't use stair gates or anything else for that matter but depends on what sort of stairs you have. Max fall for mine was 6 steps on to carpet on floor boards - may have thought differently if 13 laminated steps on to marble floor!!

Yfronts · 13/03/2013 20:07

We have done the minimal - stair gate at the top of some stairs and a cupboard lock on the bleach.

ceeveebee · 13/03/2013 20:10

Oh and don't rely on the jumperoo - my DD could just dive straight out of them by about 12 mo if she didn't want to be in it any more

getoffthecoffeetable · 13/03/2013 20:11

TV on the wall - more for the TV still being in operation than a child safety thing -DS loved to bash ours and it's DH's pride and joy. We've got a small lounge and it actually gave lots more space without the Tv unit being there.
I think that the cleaning products need to be out of reach, same with medicines. Other than that, I agree it's good to teach little ones to go up and downstairs from a young age. We've got a stair gate at the top of our stairs because I wouldn't want DS tackling the stairs in the dark or whatever.

space21 · 13/03/2013 20:11

We have stair gates due to steep staircase. Other than that we did very similar to others but .... You really cannot watch them all the time as you will go mad. We bought a huge playpen which was great up until he was strong enough to push it around and destroy it!!
Now he's two I really do have to watch him like a hawk :)

girliefriend · 13/03/2013 20:12

I never got all the babyproofing hysteria, I had one stairgate at the top of the stairs and that was it. But then my dd was never one for emptying cupboards etc!

RenterNomad · 13/03/2013 20:12

THe bath is a great holding pen for a baby when in a hazardous/unknown environment.

Living in rented houses, we've been limited as to the babyproofing we can do: drilling is a no-no, so we prop furniture in front of bookshelves (and wedge them from the front). Pressure fitted stairgates come with us, and we have a travel stairgate as well, which I think was from Mothercare. Cabinet doors with facing handles can be locked together, but we don't add drawer catches, as that's another drill job....

Oh, if the front door handle is within reach, keep the door locked. DS once made it onto the road outside! Shock

Pilgit · 13/03/2013 20:14

Stair gate at the bottom and penned stuff that we didn't want DD1 interfering with. Otherwise, no cupboard locks, no plug covers (whole other thread on why they're a bad idea - kind of surprised it hasn't already been mentioned!) and just trained her not to play with things. My DM did the same and she babysat DD1 at hers a lot. No stair gate and LOTS of trinkets at little people grab height. DM would let her play but not break, explore but not damage (and anything she would get upset over was moved - which wasn't much). Nothing got broken and most of it was ignored as it wasn't off limits and therefore not attractive. Weird how effective that reverse psychology is on toddlers (or that could just be mine!)

MyNameIsAnAnagram · 13/03/2013 20:15

The only thing we did is cupboard locks in the kitchen. I do think it depends on the child though, ds is not very adventurous and quite biddable, other children I know are more of a risk I think!

YouBrokeMySmoulder · 13/03/2013 20:17

We were very lax and were in a townhouse but as others as said we did stairgate the top floor which included the bedrooms and bathroom so that dd could crawl about whole I went to the loo.

Moved breakables up and have a cupboard for the skybox and dvd player that isnt openable but thats it. Didnt need any cupboard locks etc for the kitchen as it was on the ground floor and therefore dd was never down there without me. The one good point of a townhouse.

One of my friends had a horrible outcome of not having a fireguard. I would never ever rely on training and saying no with that. Its just not a risk I could take.

KitCat26 · 13/03/2013 20:18

We had a gate on DD1s bedroom, a stairgate at the bottom of the stairs and a gate on the kitchen. That turned most of the ground floor into a play room which worked well for us.

I didn't bother with plug socket things or corner bumpers, but anything we didn't want to get ruined went and still is in the spare room. I didn't want to be saying 'no' all the time.

Both DDs were inquisitive, bookshelf emptying, climbing monkeys! (stairs fine from 9mths each time.)

YouBrokeMySmoulder · 13/03/2013 20:18

Oh yes we did drill the bookshelves into the walls and put sofas in front of others so they cant be pulled over. Ds once pulled a whole toy cupboard over by climbing, it was terrifying.

GirlOutNumbered · 13/03/2013 20:19

We didn't do anything asides from a stair gate at the top of the stairs and a lock on the kitchen cupboard containing the bleach.
I think it depends on child though, I had SIL round with 8 month baby and he wanted all the electric cables, the plugs, the china, the TV. Everything!

MoreSnowPlease · 13/03/2013 20:20

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at poster's request

Oblomov · 13/03/2013 20:20

I did not do alot of babyproofing. We had a stairgate for a very short time and both slid down on their tummies. Very fast!!