what is the bare minimum when baby proofing?

[goodstuffhappens]

I have a 20 month DD and another baby due in 5 weeks. Up until now, I have been keen to keep our house 'as normal' The house is safe (nothing fragile, glass she can pull down, all knives etc away from her, stairgates etc.) However, I haven't got all my cupboards on safety locks, one of those big firepens etc.

Unfortunately, my toddler has finally hit the really really curious stage and I know I need to do more to keep her safe as she rummages in every possible cupboard and drawer. SO... I was wondering, for those of you who still want your house to feel like an adult home (good for my sanity), what measures have you made to make your house safe?
Hope that makes sense.... garbled pregnancy brain!
Thanks.

I kept ours the bare minimum. We only have drawer locks on the drawer with sharps in and one with the dvd's in, no cupboard locks, the only stair gate that is always closed is the one leading down to the garage with stone steps.

Everything else has been moved around to be child friendly with a few wall shelves and a bookcase tucked in a corner they are not aloud in (blocked by sofa).

I got a door stop when they went through the door slamming stage but it's gone now, most of the doors are never closed so blocked with toddler chairs or a beanbag or similar.

We just have a gate on the kitchen - knives, dishawasher tablets, cleaning products etc are all behind that gate.

i used to just have one stair gate on my living room door. dd only came out of the living room when i did. now she is just over 2 and she climbs up and down the stairs. so now i just have the gate on the kitchen door. but i have a lock on the outside of the bathroom door so she cant put her hand down the loo!

We re-arranged the kitchen. Half the cupboards are stuff the kids can play with - cake tins, tupperware etc. The rest have child locks on, and contain the breakables, and cleaning stuff etc I wouldn't want them getting their hands on.

Stair gates top and bottom, and thats all we've done. Some people would say we've done too much, but it was more about what I could let DS1 get up to while dealing with a small baby, and thats where I was comfortable.

Stairgates bottom and top.
All chemicals, sharps and plastic bags out of reach
Safety clips on all blinds
Close doors of rooms you don't want them in

They eventually get bored of rummaging in cupboards. If the stuff that's in there is safe (saucepans,tupperware etc.) just let them rummage - it takes 2 mins to stuff it all back in, and keeps them amused while you cook.

We have magnetic cupboard locks on the lower kitchen cupboard doors (except one that dd's allowed to rummage in). They're invisible from the outside and just stick on (though are very effective) so don't spoil the look of the kitchen. I put them on a cupboard in the bathroom where cleaning stuff is kept too. But dd (18mo) has just learned the art of dragging a chair to climb on to reach higher things, hoping to rely on firm discouragement now she's that bit older, but we'll see...!

I've no door locks at all. Anything too dangerous was moved to higher presses and keep boring, safe stuff down low. With the exception of the bins, then it's a firm NO and show her the press with all the Tupperware.

Maybe she's just not as curious as some but it's working out fine. Sometimes it's a pain when she pulls all the clothes out of the press but it's not dangerous so I won't put a lock on it. 3 times she did last week. Grrr.

We have cupboard locks on sink cupboard with all the nasty stuff. That is it.

The bare minimum is what you've already done! We moved chemicals to well out of reach, likewise glass and breakables, but that was it. I don't really mind if they get into the kitchen cupboards (they don't do it nearly as often if they know it's not verboten!) and I've found that with the fire it's actually too hot for them to even get close to it, never mind fall in/fiddle with it.

You don't have to lock everything to make the house reasonably safe, just think through which things a toddler won't get a second chance to learn about.

So - sharp knives need to be kept out of their reach, but the ordinary cutlery doesn't. Cleaning chemicals are the other biggy IMO - we moved ours up to a high cupboard instead of the "normal" under-the-sink cupboard. Likewise I just moved all the sharp knives (and the corkscrew and anything else that sharp) but didn't lock the drawers.

If you have an open fire that could be fallen into/against then you need to do something about that.

But generally, if they rummage through drawers/cupboards and pull everything out, then it's just about it being inconvenient rather than dangerous, so personally I didn't bother. I suppose it's trickier if you have a child who will do the "inconvenient" thing several times every day though...

I think we have gone with the real bare minimum. Knives live ina pot on the counter now.

Oh and kettles and hot saucepans of course - using the back rings, keeping the handles un-grabbable, that kind of stuff.

We baby proofed in an evolving style - whenever DD discovered some new danger, we removed it. Never had stair gates. DD was OBSESSED with stairs and I spent hours of every day going up and down with her. She's now 16 months and pretty damn reliable on them. We moved the cleaning stuff but really, that was about it. We found that once we removed something, it became desirable. So it was easier not to bother. She got bored of whatever it was within a day or two.

But each kid is different. Shouldn't really condone lazy-arse parenting!

I don't think it's lazy to do the minimum of childproofing, it's about your own attitude to risk and whether you spend a lot of time with your children (as you say, Moel, teaching them to go up and down stairs) or whether you basically want to be able to leave them to it.

House stuff - similarly we are putting poisons and sharps out of reach or behind locks. Stairgates installed. I've replaced a blind which had a long cord with curtains.
We may decide to put lagging on some pipes this winter - DD is obsessed with a radiator valve. We've put a spark-guard on the fireplace to prevent her trying to eat the coals.
Some of the rest is habit - saucepans on the back of the the hob, hot drinks out of reach, putting things away promptly and so on.
Then there's things which are precious - ornaments or whatever. I've put a simple latch on a cupboard of musical instruments, for example.

fireguard on open fire, keep doors shut in rooms you don't want them in, cleaning stuff out of reach and sharps, stairgate if not possible to shut off hall and stairs but teach to go up andd down safely as soon as you can

saying NO firmly if they touch stuff they should not and it is not possible to move away or higher; as you will visit people with rooms not child friendly and your child needs to know not to touch others peoples stuff

We got a fridge lock after I dared to go to the loo on my own and ds took this as the signal to dive for the fridge, haul out 2 pints of milk and empty it all over the living room rug (which had to be binned as could never fully get rid of the smell).

Other than that, a cupboard lock for the under sink one with the bleach etc, make sure any accessible drawers don't have anything dangerous in them, remove valuables from places they could get grabbed and that was about it. We don't have stairs though.

I think the bare minimum for me is a fire guard if you use the fire, all cleaners and chemicals and medicines away.

But yes all dc are different ds didnt really bother with anything but was a demon for the stairs, dd was really very easy. It always amazes me when toddlers come round and go for the DVD player or the fruit bowl as mine never did it.