Hurray and also yikes! He's crawling! Tips to prevent significant untoward incidents

[JessaJam]

Ok, 10mo DS started crawling last week, was fine then cos we were camping so he just wobbles round the field and ate grass....
Now we are home and he has developed a one sided love affair with the sky tv box and teh fire place (HOW do they KNOW!???).

DH has suggested putting DS in a small box with lid! I am considering gaffa taping cushions to his head!!

So, seasoned professionals (!) which safety type tips and devices are worth the investment/hassle and which are pile of pants and just make your house look fugly?

so, does no one care about ds being threatened with life in a box??

Any suggestions...?
Do I really need drawer locks and those foamy things that stop doors from closing? What about the horrid plastic corners that you have to stick to the edge of your nice table...worth ruining table for or basically catering for anxious mummies (now have picture of egyptian mummy-type biting bandaged fingernails!!)

We didn't bother with child proofing except to move bottles of bleach etc to higher cupboards.

Thankyou LucyJones for caring!

Last night DS was sitting happily on floor, being quiet and so I got on with the ironing, then looked over at him and he was sitting surrounded by contents of waste paper bin ( snotty tissues, broken biro's, empty pill packets...yum!) See now no ones sells a nice white plastic "waste paper bin safety dohickey" do they!!!!!!!!!

Plastic corners IME don't stay on unless you superglue them. We have things looped round the handles of the most hazardous cupboards but when childfree happily went for designs of most things (drawers, fridges, etc) that now prove almost impossible to childproof. Hazardous stuff keeps getting moved higher and higher, but he will keep getting taller. Mess happens (favourite pastime: emptying cereal or loose-leaf tea onto the kitchen floor and then sitting in it wiggling his legs around to make patterns and giggling).

Safety sockets for the plugs are a good idea for when they start "posting" things - and for later when they think it might be fun even when they know it's wrong.
Corner cushions were useless they fell off and left marks that won't come off.
I have a foam door stopper to stop my living room closing but only because the elder ones close the door on the little ones and I am worried about fingers getting caught this way - I would think that door stops were more imortant to protect the walls from the handles once your LO starts swinging the doors open and closed.

We have door catches on the kitchen cupboards for saftey as there are not enough high places in it and we have ceramic tiles on the floor so broken things could be dangerous once they try to get things out of the cupboard - and also under the sink where the bleach is.

We also have a video guard as we did get stuff posted into the video.

If the fire can be turned on by little fingers then it may be worth getting a fire guard - otherwise wait until the winter when you will be using it and get one then - just make sure it is one of those that screws to the wall as they make good objects to pull up on and cruise around.

We needed the stair gates for my sanity as they were too inviting a place to play on when they first discovered how to climb - and this was very shortly after crawling and long before walking.

If I sound paranoid I also have to add that I am a childminder and need a lot of these things anyway - but did have them for my little ones before I minded

Oh and my sky card is taped in with parcel tape as it kept on beig taken out, hidden and bent

We did very little child proofing. DS learnt well and I was worried that filling the house with 'safety equipment' might make me complacent.

Friends who safety proved their house had the shock of their lives when their sprog got through their devices into their COSSH supplies

Vigilence and common sense works for us, but it's a personal choice at the end of the day.

We put cheap cupboard locks on door containing bleach, glass,etc, but left most for dd to play with (pots, pans, tupperware). Messy but easily tidied. We put padding around marble fireplace base as I saw friends 2 year old nearly crack his head on it so will probably stay on for many years yet (possibly forever as I don't know how dh got it to stay put so could be superglue!). Gas fire turned off at mains (have central heating anyway). Other than that we've gone for the minimalistic look and have various wicker baskets of toys dotted about (and a great Ikea coffee table with space for them!) so dd feels she is getting into things. I just suffer the tv being turned off/on constantly and aim to teach her how that and dvd player work from young age so hopefully the buttons won't seem so fascinating.

We moved into our house when dd was 9 weeks which sort of gave us a head start on child proofing as we didn't bother making it look "gron up" and nice!

electrical socket covers
stairgate
video lock (although they soon work out how to remove this)

That's all we did.

Corner bumpers are a waste of time as someone else said. cupboard locks are a PITA - just watch your child duh. We actually put bleach and stuff on a high shelf though.

Oh, fix tall heavy furniture to the wall before they start climbing.

"they" being the children, not the furniture.

we put a guard on the dvd player and one of those plastic covers for the slot on the video player, socket covers on all the sockets, and a stairgate at the top of the stairs (the stairs lead straight to the living room on the first floor - weirdly-arranged house - and there is a door at the bottom of the stairs).

It depends on the child, but I haven't found the need for cupboard catches yet (ds is 20mo), I just kept telling him they weren't for playing in and now he doesn't bother trying.

I think if you've only got one and they're only averagely "into everything", you can do it mostly by pre-empting things until they get used to what's ok and what's not ok. I'm prepared to be told I've got a ridiculously easy child though .

LeahE - lol at image of cereal wriggling. Ah these wonderful things I have to look forward to. Are you supposed to be cross when they do that type of thing - I think I'd have uncontrolable giggles!