Child-proofing for the baby when you have slightly older children - help!

[sethstarkaddersmum]

aargh aargh aargh.
My 8 month old is very mobile and into everything. I have a 3yo and a just-turned-5 yo who are constantly undermining my efforts to keep him safe - leaving toys with lots of little bits around, opening and shutting the stairgate at random, moving things I have carefully put out of reach, etc etc.

does anyone have any tips on how to manage this? I turned my back for a moment yesterday and he got covered in red ink from a stamper pen one of them had left lying around and I had to do the school run with a bright red baby - it was most embarrassing.

there is no solution?

No, sorry

If it's any consolation, I had all this with mine and the youngest did survive

A playpen?

I have an 8 month old too, who is much more into stuff than his older sister was, so it has come as a bit of a shock. A playpen does help keep the two of them apart (she is constantly trying to 'feed' him). To be honest though I'm much more relaxed this time round, and don't panic so much about rescuing things from him. He has tried the stairs though, so I need to be more alert

I know how you feel. When my twins were born, the older ones were 3 and 5. I was always picking bits of polly pocket etc off the floor and now I have a baby and the twins are 7 and now it is lego bricks and l;eaving the stair gate off! All you can do is be really vigilant. Mine have to keep bitty toys in their rooms but it still ends up downstairs!!!! Mostly they seem to survive though!

I'm glad yours survived

I'm wondering if I'm going to have to go through the toybox and actually take away a huge proportion of their toys - anything that can hurt a baby basically. Did you do that?

Yep I did. Anything with bits went in their room (they tend to play up there anyway as they get to about 6 or 7 I found). (lego, dolls shoes etc)It still ends up downstairs though so I have to keep nagging but it is only till about 2 or 3 or whenever they stop eating anything they find. I let my boys play with lego in the kitchen but it stays in there as the little one doesn't play in there. The stair gate I am still working on. Even my teenager leaves it open...Basically I have to watch DS all the time like a hawk!!

I had a long thin living room at that stage and so partioned it off with one of those babydan things that are multipurpose - of course then the baby would sit t'other side and wail at not being allowed at the older toys but ho hum.

I didn't take anything away no, we live in a tiny house and all share one bedroom so all the toys live downstairs.

I did put things in boxes so the littlest couldn't just help herself, but I did spend alot of time picking lego out of her mouth.

Eventually she would just spit at the sight of an upturned palm.

The worst offenders were the bloody balls in the Magnetix kits they just look like they were designed to choke a child, and were forever in her mouth.