Share the things you never thought you’d need to childproof for - £200 voucher to be won

[GraceEMumsnet]

Created for Duracell

What unexpected things have you child-proofed in your home? Whatever measures you’ve employed (however surprising!) we’d like to hear about them.

• Post your stories in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw
• One lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice

Here’s what Duracell has to say:
“Every year, hundreds of children accidentally ingest lithium coin cell batteries, which can have devastating and even fatal consequences if they do not receive medical attention immediately. Duracell is calling on parents across the country to #Take10 minutes to search their house for the 10 most common devices that take coin cell batteries and check those batteries are secure and not able to be accessed by children.”

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

At one point we had 5 stair gates up in our very standard sized house to keep Ds safe. We’ve also childproofed almost every cupboard and can’t leave things out on the kitchen wirk top. We’ve had to childproof the oven and the fridge abd the freezer - a couple of weeks ago he opened the freezer, turned it off then shut it and we didn’t realise until a week later and everything was ruined. Which sums up his destructive nature and how much child proofing we need. We’ve even had to move the chairs in the sitting room to stop him pulling and breaking things he can then reach

This thread making me laugh! All grown up but remember a 2 Yr old emptying full bottle washing up liquid on groundsheet of tent and his stupid mother (😳 me) thinking it a good idea to clean with a mop bucket and water, the resultant foam slick pouring out of the door was a great source of amusement to other campers.

Remembered another, had to call out video repair man one day as not working (yes I'm that old😢), he started pulling things out of it that had been 'posted' in the front (which admittedly did look like letterbox). Collar from toy spot the dog, various bits of duplo and finally remains of a honey buttie😳

I had to bolt a cot to the wardrobe to prevent my 18 month son pushing it over. He had got behind it and was playing peekaboo with me, while I changed his twin sister on the floor and all of a sudden he just pushed it over on top of us.

Ok so he didn't ingest it, but tea bags. My nearly two year old decided they looked like great fun. There was a large pack of tea bags in the lower cupboard and I left the door open while in and out cooking. The little ninja swiped them and ripped several up. Tea went in his face and as he tried to rub it off,smeared it in his eyes.

I know contains tannic acid so it could be bad. It took me, dad and brother to clean him up with lots of cotton wool and saline solution.

I wish I'd have locked it away or put it on a higher shelf. I just didn't think! Innocent tea bags! That day, they were moved along with spices, herbs and stock cubes.

Toilet brushes

My DS has a habit of dropping an entire loo roll down the toilet

Baby wipes. DS used to like to pull them out of the packaging one by one. If he was out of sight and silent, we knew there would be a sitting baby and a mountain of wipes.
They had to go up on the high shelf with the bleach in the end.

The houseplants!

We had to childproof anywhere that contained pens - so handbags, drawers, older DC's art box, desks, under the bloody sofa....

He was obsessed with scribbling on every surface he could 🤦🏻‍♀️

I never thought I'd have to child proof the baby gate! My daughter would always get her thigh and knee stuck in the bars after putting her leg through! We taped grey pipe insulation to the bars to close the gap and that worked a treat :D

Also the hardcover books, Xbox games and DVD's... my daughter loved nothing more than taking off all the jackets, opening any booklets and inspecting the discs and then just dropping them to start on another! I'd make her lunch and come back in to the big job of having to match everything up again. Sometimes she'd 'post' her DVD discs down the recliner sofa or the tiny gap between the wall and cupboard... it took me a long time to find them; I had to buy most of them again in the mean time! We tried to keep them away but we mostly just had to wait that one out!

The fish food, the cat flap, the dial on the chest freezer, the radiator knobs... it's all coming back to me now! 😅

The car keys! Who knew that breaking the master key would end up costing hundreds of pounds and leaving me without a car for a week!

Cat tray [grim]

Dog food bowl

Cat litter trays - they are seemingly mesmerising to small people…

I second toilet rolls too - so much time rewinding them!

When I was around 8 or 9 I was given the job of supervising my younger DSis in the garden. I took my eyes off her for 2 minutes to throw a ball for the dog, turned round to find her eating a worm!!

Fortunately my DC was quite tame in comparison!

The shower. Heard water followed by 3yo shouting “It’s raining!”. We now have to turn off the power to the shower after every use.

I didn’t imagine they’d try and wash their dolls in the toilet!
On a serious note though, I never realised just how dangerous the button batteries are before I had kids.

The toilet - when my toddler was using it to fill up her teaset...

Thanks everyone for all of your comments! This thread is now closed - congrats to @AudTheDeepMinded who is the winner of the prize draw!