Worried about toddler getting up without us

[KarenOLantern]

My DD is 2 and a half and she has just learnt to climb out of her cot so we took the railings off and converted it into a bed.

And now I am terrified of all the things she could get up to if she ever were to wake up in the morning and we don’t hear. She’s very adventurous and fiercely independent so I’ve just got loads of images in my head of her trying to, say, make us a cup of tea or getting a chair to climb up and reach high-up cupboards and find things like knives or scissors or chemicals that we thought we’d hidden well enough but hadn’t. I just keep thinking about a family friend when I was little who set fire to her house one morning and the neighbours saw the kids shouting out the windows and called the fire brigade – while the parents slept through all of it. Or a news article I read a few years ago about a little girl who got out of bed in the middle of the night and tried to run herself a bath and fell in and drowned. We have a baby monitor in her bedroom, but if she let herself out of the bedroom silently (which she can easily do) then we wouldn't necessarily hear any antics going on in other rooms.

I know they are extreme examples, and I know you can’t eliminate every single risk, but does anyone have any tips for basic safety measures, or perhaps just ways I can make myself feel less worried?

Stair gate over the bedroom door?

Yep stair gate on her door, stair gate at the top of the stairs.

Baby gate on her door.
You're right to be concerned and should make sure she can't wander about without your knowledge.
Weirdly DD loved her baby gate and cried when we took it away. She was at this point old enough to open and close it herself!

Baby gate on room and stairs

Mine is still in a cot but can open a baby gate no problem.

Fortunately or otherwise he makes sure I’m awake when he is!

We have a lock on the outside of the door. We share a wall so if they're UPSET I hear them and go in. If they're awake and moving around and I don't hear them they're safe. They just go over baby gates so worse than having nothing. Can climb onto the sides in the kitchen via the washing machine. Don't have the wherewithal to pop a kettle on but would totally flood my bathroom

Get her a gro clock and make sure she knows she can't leave her bed until it says so.

Explain to her that she must not leave her room by herself at night, she should call you.

Get a baby gate across the door or if she'll climb it, then think about locking her in (or alternatively lock all the other doors so she only has access to her room and yours).

Gro clock and make it the absolute law. Make it part of her routine that she comes into you once the sun comes up. Do not allow just going downstairs.

Stairgate her door. Additional one at the top of the stairs just in case. If she does have form for extreme climbing then get the dog ones as they’re higher. Babyproof her room properly. Maybe put a few toys in there so of she wakes there’s something to do but only if it won’t disrupt her sleep.

Put a lock on the kitchen door something like a star lock so if she does get downstairs she can't get into the kitchen. Make sure front and back doors are locked and key's where she can't get to them. Have some of her toys where she can reach them so if she does wake she might sit quietly and play. I never put a gate on my children's bedroom door. The stairgate stopped them getting downstairs anyway. If they did wake early they would get into our bed.

Also if she's a climber take out any furniture that can be climbed unsafely - so chest of drawers for example and make sure any windows with reachable handles that she could fall out of are locked.