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

Ah the thigh bruises from stairgates 😫
Lots of stoical posters on here saying they don't see these precautions as an inconvenience- I'm afraid I'm not that noble and I can't WAIT until the buggers are out of our lives. (Stairgates not children)

Even though I have all of my cleaning products stored in a high cupboard, I have installed a cupboard lock also, this means every time I wash (which is almost daily) it's a daily chore to undo and reattach the devices.

they are gone - thanks for bringing this to my attention (they were given to me with other safety equipment)

Keeping medicines well out of reach of tiny hands - even though it was inconvenient to climb on a chair and get them four times a day!

I didn’t bother with stair gates for long , mine learnt to scale them pretty quickly!

I find it annoying keeping all cleaning products high up and out of reach. The downstairs loo has nowhere to store them safely so I have to keep them elsewhere.

We did have particular annoying stair gate and pointless locks on all the kitchen cupboards- both dcs could get in those alarmingly young.

I suppose the most inconvenient thing was not using the front hob on the cooker, the front right one is a better size than the back ones, but obviously not as safe when small kids can grab at pan handles. Rather glad youngest is nearly 6 now and I can stop worrying as much.

We have a child lock on the drawer with knifes. Cleaning cupboard is out of reach.

I got rid of my coffee table while my toddler was on the move and have never put it back. She's now such a whirlwind and I worry she'll crack her head open running around.

Also safety locks on cupboards. I forget every time.

Like a pp we have blocked DD from the kitchen altogether, it makes cooking and storing medication less scary knowing she can't get to any of it. Plus, she kept turning my washing machine on when it was empty!
Haven't bothered with stair gates, I'm trying to teach her how to come down them safely instead.

For DS1 it was the safety gate (I had 3 - one for the kitchen and 2f or the bottom and top of the stairs) which made navigating the house, and getting in and out of the house with the pram a military exercise. For DS2 safety gates are not a safe option as DS1 can open them, so I have doubled up ! two at the bottom of the stairs so I can get to the stairs if I hear the gates being opened. I am practicing getting up and downstairs slowly -holding the bannister and going down one step at a time.

SN kids, the keypads on all the doors is really inconvenient but, as with anything to keep your child safe, you adjust to it and your environment becomes relative to their needs.

I have a fireguard, 3 safety gates and cupboard locks, foam covers over doors to stop trapped fingers, the most inconvenient is the safety gates, they all have different fastenings and it takes an age to get from the kitchen to the loo ! Been almost caught short a couple of times.

My children are now of an age where I don't have to make change to take precautions in the house as my youngest is nearly a teenager. However, when my children were younger, I was also a childminder, so had to be even more stringent (as in could teach my own children about certain risks and, although explained same risks to minded children, still had to take precautions).

The worst thing was the safety catch my husband put on the cutlery drawer - it was so tight that I could barely get my hand into the drawer to release the catch. As my children grew older, they could squeeze their hand in easier than me and so I would often ask them to open the drawer for me! We moved last year (when my children were 23, 21, 19 and 12) and the catch was still on the drawer, although had loosened over the years!

A mission of a stair gate, foods in high cupboards I can barely reach, and not eating anything my lo is allergic to bc I feel too bad about it!

Being past the need for stargates, the main thing we still have are locks on cupboards that contain cleaning products etc.

The worst I had was the stairgate which fitted over the bottom step. I'm sure it was more dangerous having that than having no stair gate sometimes! MIL even fell over it and landed on the floor
Also, cutting grapes length ways. It takes ages if you're doing it one by one but it's so important. Same goes for hotdogs!

My middle child was such a climber when they were a baby that I had to put a mattress on the floor in front of our sofa for a while. They would climb up on the sofa, then onto our windowsill. It used to worry me so much that I couldn't leave the room for a second until I thought of putting the mattress there.

Stair gates! I managed to get my dressing gown cord stuck in once and tripped and smashed my self of the wall I was fuming to the point I wanted to rip it off the doorway then and there, of course I didn't and just did that mum thing where you want to explode but if anyone asks you say your fine

We had a fire guard for an empty fire place .

We have a reusable cable tie round the cupboard door handles on the bathroom cupboard. Every time I go to replace the toothpaste or get some paracetamol I wonder if DS is old enough to get rid of it yet

I lock all medicines away and supervise my child in the kitchen (he's 11 & has just started making tea but I'm there behind him whilst he's doing it).

Cupboard locks - which are probably not essential other than on cupboards with cleaning products in, but are helpful to avoid the crash of china or the numerous rearranging of items onto the kitchen floor. They drive me demented to remember each time when I try to open the cupboard in a hurry. They have probably been on the cupboards far longer than is necessary too.

We did nothing. We kept an eye on them. We don't have guns or drugs. No stairs either. They have survived till now.

Stair gates were the only thing that spring to mind. I do remember it being a very intense time having to keep an eye on them all the time back in the day, it was exhausting! Never got round to buying any of those things you put on cupboard doors to prevent trapped fingers. It just comes down to common sense parenting and being aware of what your DC is up to at all times.

stairgates without a doubt, the ones downstairs aren't too bad but the one at the top of the stairs is a different design and it's really difficult to open with one hand, especially the left hand. It's really hard managing a load of washing, what I wouldn't give for a dumb waiter in the house!