Babyproofing

[AngelDog]

I've read various things about how you 'should' baby-proof your house, but I wondered if anyone could share what they've actually done to make their house safer for a mobile baby?

I'm particularly trying to work out what to do with:

• cupboard under kitchen sink full of cleaning stuff
• bins
• cleaning stuff/toiletries in bathroom (we've no cabinets and no space to put any up).

DS is 9 months, and reasonably mobile but is thinking about crawling now so I need to get down to it!

TIA

For the cupboard under the sink you can either get a door catch or else move everything dangerous out of it and into a high cupboard, if you have one.

Bins - I never did anything about them....

Bathroom - put the cleaning chemicals in the same cupboard as the kitchen stuff for safety. I never hid away toiletries - I always assumed they aren't likely to drink enough of any of them to come to harm! Nowhere near as dangerous chemicals in shampoo as in bleach for example.

The other biggie is pan handles not grabbable - use the back burners when you can, and kettles/mugs as tipping hot water over themselves is very dangerous and scarily easy.

I always had a baby gate on kitchen door so they could not get in there at all, and just keep the bathroom door closed so they cant get in there either! Stair gates are a must I think & a big fireguard if you have a fire/wood burner or similar. Its handy to have dvd players in a cupboard or out of reach - mine always went for that, I had to put tape on the door so they couldnt open it!

We didn't bother with stairgates or any major babyproofing. As regards cupboards, dd still hasn't worked out how to open them at 16 months, but there's nothing dangerously chemical in reachable ones anyway. She's nowhere near tall enough to reach the cooker or worktop either. Basically our philosophy has been: dangerous or precious = out of reach. Anything else she's safe with/allowed to play with or we keep an eye on her.

Different folks have different views though - my SIL padded every corner of every table in the house, put all the lamps away, bought plug socket covers etc. Not my style!

I have all cleaning products in a top cupboard in the kitchen. I also have locks on most lower kitchen cupboards to avoid breakages and stop me having to 'tidy up' constantly.

I have all my upstairs bins on top of chests of drawers to again prevent the constant tidying up of spilt contents.

I have bathroom products etc on top ofa high cabinet but used the window sill before he learnt to get up there by climbing on the loo!

Also think about what normal household things are lethal like salt, and make sure there are out of reach.

Blind cords also apparently cause quite a few deaths each year so make sure they are all rolled up out of reach.

I didn't bother with the foam edges, the odd bump will just remind him to be careful, but I did want to be able to relax knowing he wouldn't kill himself!

Did all that for DS1 realised we didn't need quite so much for No 2, no 3 got taught as soon as he could crawl how to safely go up and down stairs.. lots of NO's firmly said for dangers has NEVER opened a kitchen cupboard. Taught them early to throw their own nappies/ rubbish in the bin so they know whats in there and have no interest. No4 the same.

Thanks! :)

In addition to everything that people have already said, I bought a hinge finger protector for the door from the house to the garage. It is a fire door, so very heavy. I broke my finger when I got it caught in the hinge last year and it hurt like hell for 3 weekss. Goodness knows what it would do to little fingers.

One of these finger guard. He needs to learn what hurts, what doesn't , I know, but he doesn't need to learn about this one at 2.

Thanks, BikeRunSki; you had me wincing in sympathy! I've seen these, and had wondered about them. At the moment I've got the foam cushions that stop the door from closing properly - but fortunately we only have normal doors, I think.

It varies- the kitchen is a complete no go area unless we are there and not cooking.

Ds took a fancy to plug covers-obcessed with pulling them out so more harm than good. We have cellotaped the plugs he can reach-now completely disinterested!