Did you babyproof your house once your baby was active?

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Today my DS started crawling properly! Wooo hoooo! He is nearly one year old, he has been crwaling backwards a bit for a few weeks but today he started crawling forwards just suddenly out of nowhere, I am a very proud mummy. I had thought about babyproofing before but haven't done that much apart from push the sofa over the sockets. Most of the stuff in the living room is safe to explore (I don't mind him pulling books out etc as I think it's good that he can explore) but the fire is a hazard (we don't have it on but he could take all the coals out and try to eat them or throw them around which would be a major sooty mess) and our TV is low down (a large flat screen on a TV bench). Some people have said we will need to get a play pen but I detest them, they seem like jails to me, hardly any room for exploration. So just wondering what you did? Am I being really naive? Can you have a minimal babyproofed room or did you cover everything in bubblewrap? And playpen V no playpen?

We didn't go over the top. Locks on the cupboards with dangerous stuff (under the sink). A fire guard for the gas fire but it's not attached and more to stop them chucking the coals around. Stairgate to keep them upstairs - ds is a huge escape artist and would be constantly disappearing otherwise. Actually, that does sound like quite a lot, but he does really roam free. No playpen, and we do have single steps all over the house which he navigates freely - and he's very good at stairs as a result.

When we moved in ages ago we did get the glass kitchen door replaced with shatter proof glass, but it was just thin ordinary stuff and I was terrified one of them would walk through it (happened to a friend of mine at school who needed extensive plastic surgery as a result).

When our ds got crawling we didn't go mad with the baby proofing. Just got socket protectors, stair gates and put his toy box in front of the fire. I also make sure that all cleaning products and dangerous stuff is in the top kitchen cupboards so he is pretty much safe to roam and explore the other cupboards whilst I cook. I would advise getting a toilet seat lock though as my ds is fascinated with throwing things down the loo while I run his bath, I will be getting one today as I've fished yet another entire loo roll out there for the last time!

You need one of these to stop your whole living room being covered in soot. I think it's illegal to have a fire without one?

The only other things we bought were:
socket covers, stairgates and a couple of cupboard locks (which we never use as I can't unlock them!)

Playpen free house here - our feelings were that it was DD's home as much as ours and we should just let her explore even if she created a mess, which at 16 months she now helps me to clear up after her.

oh, and we have to keep toilet seat closed at all times now as DD enjoys licking the bowl or throwing mobile phones down there.

Dd started crawling at 7 months, which had been a bit of an eye opener.

I haven't done much and I didn't with her brother either, and at that point we were doing a major house renovation.

I don't allow them in the kitchen, except when ds comes in to help me cook, so that negates at the cleaning stuff etc.

But that's it really I let them learn the stairs in their own time, only move things out of their reach if it is irreplaceable, and watch them like a hawk!

If I can't watch her then I sling her so I know where she is.

The thing is I think id you over babyproof then you are a bit buggered when you go to other peoples houses as they are used to everything being 'theirs'.

Imo it's important that they learn 'no' and 'don't touch' early on.

my two year old likes pulling the plug socket covers out and handing them to me. sigh.

It depends on how inquisitive your baby is and how much time you're at home. For instance my friends ds is a bit of a bugger darling but coz he's fulltime at nursery and both parents are there when he's home they've hardly babyproofed at all.

My dd doesn't bother with much so have just rearranged the living room so nicnaks are high up or in our room. We keep doors shut except living room and her bedroom, had to get latch for cupboard under tv, fire guard and put hair bands over knobs on kitchen cupboards.

Oh and a stairgate, we don't have stairs but bought a travel one for when we go to granny's.

I've found proofing is more an ongoing project than something you do once!

With DD1, we just did the basics: fireguard, cupboard locks, socket covers, stairgates etc. She was reasonably curious, but would respond to 'no' quite easily.

Then along came DS2...!

All our bookcases were already bolted to the walls, which was just as well as he ransacked everything he could reach. Our books were thrown all over the floor, our DVD covers broken, the inners torn and the DVDs snapped. Once he'd emptied a shelf, he'd then pull the shelf out. So all our books and DVDs had to be locked away in crates as things were getting a bit dangerous (not to mention destructive!).

He also managed to write off one computer, one DVD player and cause the near-death of the amplifier too. The DVD player and amp had been hidden away behind a piece of board to try to keep him away (imagine how lovely this looked!) but he always found a way round it.

Imagine what fun we had once he could reach the taps!

DS was beyond curious and we just had to keep up with him as he tried out new tricks. Fortunately he never hurt himself seriously (I'm thankful he was a trasher and not a climber in a way!) but it did get a bit stressful at times!

ds has been crawling for a while but so far we've only put a stairgate at the top of the stairs. Lets mum have time on mn while he crawls away upstairs.
However, he has started to stand the past week and I did start to babyproof a few things. Just a lock on the chemical cupboard and knives drawer as the latest thing is opening and closing doors. I've left all the other cupbioard and drawers free as there is nothing dangerous in them and I believe babies need to explore a bit. Oh yes, and corner cushions on the coffee table but that's more because my bro has scars round his eyes from hitting them when he was a baby and I don't want the same thing to happen to ds.
I think another stairgate at the bottom will happen soon as I caught him on trying to get up them yesterday.

DS is a very active 13 months, but so far we haven't done that much. Stairgate at the top of the stairs, cupboard lock on the cupboard under the sink with cleaning stuff in. That's it. I'm not saying I'm never going to do any more baby-proofing as he gets older, but I do honestly think that leaving your house reasonably similar to normal makes it easier/more essential to teach your DC 'rules' early on. For example, DS already knows how to climb down objects and stairs backwards (always supervised!) and generally leaves things alone if he knows he's not allowed to touch them (ie he only opens certain drawers in the cupboards upstairs, and he only removes things from 'his' kitchen cupboard). You do need to watch them all the time though, because you obviously can't rely on them yet to obey your rules 100% of the time. But I will leave him alone in certain rooms of the house for a couple of minutes - but only rooms which don't contain anything too hazardous.

Oh, and we have got socket covers, but an electrician told me the other day that they're redundant on modern sockets, because it's so difficult to electrecute yourself on them.

I really think it depends on the child.
Some children are into everything and need to watched like a hawk.
I think I was over anxious. I bought one of those kits - table corner covers, things so that doors didn't slamb and shut ds's fingers in etc etc.

I needed nothing.
That kid did NOTHING.
I don't know why I bothered.
And yet, I bet you, if you thought of EVERYTHING. One day something unexpected would happen, where they would really really hurt themselves, and you would be rushing to A&E , on a ....... bean bag/ soft toy, something you never could have predicted.

Try not to worry.

plug socket covers and a stairgate...that's all we used.

Try putting coffee table in front of TV as a barricade - you can always move it back in the evenings.

Really you have to respond to the child. Some are just not curious (or so I've heard) but for us cupboard locks, Dvd shield, some strategically placed Velcro straps and a child lock on the washing machine were essential.

The drawer latch on my make-up drawer will probably stay there for next 5 years!

Playpen - we just used it a month or so, but it was really useful to pop baby in to be safe for a few minutes while cooking/ mopping floor/answering call of nature etc. It's not like you put them in it for hours on end.

By the way, it's not quite true that baby can't electrocute themselves. If they stick say a pencil into the earth socket then other two slots become live.

Also a plug cover will stop them plugging things in too - like hairdryers.

I would see how you go, not rush out and buy everything but barricade/cover up/remove the obvious or really dangerous stuff. And what ever you do don't get sucked in the argument about how relaxed a parent you are, and "surely they should just respond to 'no'". They are all different and the ultimate goal is to not let your child kill themselves, doesn't matter how you do it, just don't go over the top so they at least learn some boundaries themselves

Thanks for all these helpful replies! I can't believe how much DS is crawling already, given he only really started yesterday. He is going quite fast and today when I was washing the windows, he came crawling over from out of nowhere and tried to tip the whole basin over! I had to laugh, it was quite funny as he moves in a kind of robotic baby-from-Trainspotting type of way LOL. Thanks for the hairband round the cupboard knobs idea, I will do that. We have a stairgate so will try to fit that and I'll get socket covers from somewhere too soon. I had to take down my lovely fairy lights that hang in the hall today too as DS was frantically pulling on them.

I guess the good thing about all this moving is that he totally zonked at bedtime- he's knackered!!!

my ds (9 months) is a climber, cruiser and crawls very very fast. Stair gates, socket covers and cupboard locks essentional. Also have sharp pointy corner covers (which he keeps taking off now). He can climb out of cot so lowered that, he climbs on anything, pulls up on anything. best thing to do is crawl around so see from babys pov and then do stuff that way.

I would babyproof once and for all ... esp if you intend to have more than one child. If you do have more than one, you will sometimes have to leave one to change a nappy etc and you don't want to have to worry about them sticking things in sockets/drinking bleach/cutting heads open.

You may as well do it once and relax.

Socket covers. Because my LOs plugged things in otherwise.
Catches on a few selected cupboards in the kitchen to save crockery, poisons and sharp knives.
Stairgate at the bottom (which I have trained ds1 NOT to helpfully open so ds2 can go upstairs). I also taught ds2 to go down backward when he was 12 months or so, but sadly he now thinks he should be able to walk forwards like ds1. He is wrong.
Stick on soft corners on a few bits of furnitiure at head height.
Pond cover.

ds2 (18 months) has:
a huge bruise on his right cheek (tripped over fav yellow truck, hit the wall)
a bruise by his left eye (fell onto slide while carrying a plastic telephone)
a bruise on his forehead (he really can't go down steps standing up...)

but at least I've tried

birdly ds2's fav game is scattertoys and bookshelf emptying. Takes him about 2 mins to chuck 200+ on the floor...
he is fab, honest

I blocked DS in the main bit of the living room with an old telly . Kept him out of the kitchen and all his toys in one bit. Big Fire guard though as we had a working open fire, you could use a smaller spark guard to keep out of the coals, might have to put little hooks somewhere to stop him pulling it down.

Oh meant to say he did have a small lobster pot type play pen so I could have showers and pee etc without worrying, but he was a big lad and it was more like a cot than a play area.

i agree with you on exploration an d think little kids do kind of know when something is really beyond them. didn't bother with stairgates. if it's your first you can watch them pretty well and my ds seemed to be well aware he could not manage to come downstairs to start with so never tried till he was ready. the tv you just have to keep cleaning! but we have an old one that didn't mind geting tapped. didn't bother with safety in kitchen. ds touched outside of oven door once and realised it's hot! i used plug socket thingies though and taught him not to chew wires - a big NO.

We did the basics like put catches on the cupboard doors that have chemicals (cleaners etc), child-proof sockets, edge protectors on some sharp corners.

Not enough though.

DH was emptying the dishwasher the other day and DS2 started to eat the dishwashing tablet that hadn't disolved properly.