What necessary but inconvenient things do you do to make your home safe for your children? Share with Fairy Non Bio - £300 voucher to be won

[JustineBMumsnet]

Unassuming things in the home can be a danger to small children, whether it’s food you’d eat yourself without concern, a small step from one room to another or a box of laundry detergent in the cupboard. Fairy Non Bio would like to hear about the necessary but inconvenient things you do to keep your home safe for your children.

Here’s what Fairy Non Bio has to say: “Keeping your home safe from your little explorers can be time consuming, but because of all the chemicals in laundry detergent we want to ensure only mums & dads can access them. With our new Pods Child-Lock pack this can give you extra peace of mind, close with a ‘Click' and store up high behind a closed cupboard.”

Do you have stair gates in every doorway that you curse every time you simply want to carry a cup of tea AND a snack to the sofa? Perhaps you use foam padding on your table corners that your child pulls off thinking it’s a game or have cupboard locks that take ages to undo?

All who post the necessary inconvenient things they do to keep their home safe for their children below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Nothing to keep your child safe is 'inconvenient'. Poor wording. I'd make my whole house 'inconvenient' to keep my baby safe and happy.

I think the cutting grapes is essential not at all inconvenient given the choking risk.
But I do have physical locks on cupboards with cleaning products and laundry detergents.
Having small children is about adapting the environment to keep them safe and so everyone’s needs are met. I really don’t feel “put out” it’s part and parcel of being a parent!

I had everything when my eldest two were little. Most was pointless as it didn't stop them in the slightest. They could do the toilet lock, cupboard locks, fridge locks etc. They pulled the corner guards off of everything i put them on.

With younger 2 we've ditched the coffee table altogether. More room to run around and nothing to bump into. Ditched the rug so that slip/trip hazard has gone. We don't have a fire. Only things we use are stair gates. Obviously for the stairs but also to completely lock them out of the kitchen so all of the individual things aren't needed.
We do have a thing on the top of the door that prevents fingers being jammed as well.

The most annoying, but obviously necessary, things are those childproof caps you get on medication bottles and cleaning products. Takes me ages to get into them 🙈

The only thing I can think of is stair gates. My boys share a bedroom and my eldest can open the stair gate but if he needs the loo In the middle of the night instead of opening it he bangs on it until one of us comes to take him to the toilet! The number of times Ive injured myself on them as well!

Stair gates! They drive me insane but are a must in a house of five children, the youngest being 10 months!I am forever banging into them :(
I also keep all cleaning products locked away well out of reach.

Agreed! Stair gates are annoying, but necessary. And those little plastic covers to go on corners of furniture which look rubbish and still hurt when you walk in to them. 🤷‍♀️

Stair gates! The lay out of our house is that our kitchen is upstairs from our front door so trying to get the shopping from the car, through the stair gate with the toddler in tow is tricky. To add insult to injury we have to open the gate, go through the gate into our sitting room, then close the gate to allow us to go along the hall to the kitchen. Counting the days until my child can be trusted on the stairs without a need for a gate!

I agree regarding stair gates! I've had countless bruises on my thighs where I've walked into them, but they've kept my children safe so it's worth it.

Stair gates but I'm happy to have them, especially as we have 2 sets of stairs. Although safety catches are annoying to open nothing is so annoying that it trumps my childs safety

Plug covers on anything at floor level - they give me peace of mind - but are so hard to remove.

We have internal doors which lock which are a pain but since they are there we feel we need to lock every night.

Corner protectors on tables don't look the best (but I have recently swapped my white ones with clear ones) since my toddlers are still unsteady they are much needed.

We've just started looking at baby proofing our home for our little one so looking forward to getting some tips here! Moving medicines and cleaning products out of reach of little hands, trouble is finding space somewhere else to put them!

Make his food with his toddler knife so that when he wants to help and cut it’s safe! But not very effective at cutting!

Catches on cupboard doors, plug covers, plastic cups, corner cushions on tables, latch on the door, I am trying to think of anything else.

I shut the cat out of the main living areas which is quite annoying for him and also for me as I have to be careful he doesn't slip past when I open certain doors, especially the door to the garden. But I wouldn't trust either the cat or the children at close quarters.

Plug covers are more dangerous than open plugs FYI.

Quartering grapes. They are dd’s favourite fruit and I find myself daydreaming about an automatic grape-quartering machine. But grapes worry me so much I’ll still probably be trying to cut them up for her when she’s 30.

I moved my beautiful coffee table from the centre of the living room where it belongs to the side so it can't be run around anymore. I wish I thought of this before DD tripped and cut her chin on it but you live and learn.
I did all the obvious stuff; stair gates, cupboard catchers, window locks, special blinds etc.

The shelves on the front of my glass tv cabinet all have pipe lagging gaffa taped to them to stop the edges from causing injury.
It looks awful but the number of times that ds has bounced off them proves that it is worthwhile.

We had stair gates, cleaning products up high, corner bumpers on worktops and island, bathroom door locks on top of the doors not half way up, window locks, blind cord holders screwed into the walls, cupboard locks. Cupboard locks were the only things that didn't work they managed to get in and empty my cupboards anyway!

It’s been a few years since I needed to child proof my home but I remember stair gates, socket covers, catches on drawers and cupboards, soft table corners etc. I work in a primary school now and one of the most obvious safety measures is to have our hot drinks in lidded, insulated cups to avoid scalding accidents.

I actually gave up completely with child-proof anything ... my kids were little tinkers- they could unlock, undo, and cause harm or damage whether I tried desperately to prevent it or not. My late Mum advised me that the best thing was to take necessary precautions (re cleaning products and sharp knives) but otherwise not to stress. I can remember when my kids were little and my son had just cut his head open - running into the fireplace (old stone) , totally unpreventable and I was told to keep him calm and quite for 10 days until the cut healed. My son was beyond active ... I put cushions everywhere, and invited his 'quitest friend' around to sit and watch dvd's with him. I left the room to go to the loo .... and came back to find the boys jumping off the sofa into the heap of cushions! I mean seriously .... boys will be boys ... kids will be kids! Phhhht.

I installed safety gates 18 years ago and was too lazy to remove the bottom one. Came in handy for my Empty Nest puppy though

Im only little myself so its mega inconvenient to have medicines/chemicals up high as I cant reach them without the toddler step.