Baby-proofing the house Old Style?

Winky,_The_House_Elf

My DD is 9 mths and crawling/cruising so I need eyes in the back of my head! So far I have used the elastic bands the postie has dropped to tie some draw handles together, and bought socket covers, but have any of you clever os'ers suggestions as to what else works?

As I am on the unpaid part of Mat Leave I'm really strapped for cash and really appreciate any tips.


Winky x

ETA: She has a play-pen, but gets frustrated if in there more than 5 minutes!

Football_Widow_2

When my little girl started crawling we had to cover the sky card and tv on/off button with brown packing tape!!

If you need stairgates etc you could try freegle.

We put some sponge on the doors to stop them slamming and trapping little fingers.

Old belts or tights work well on cupboard doors too!!

Old style - make sure you hoover and sweep up often so that isn't anything that LO can put in their mouths and move all precious items up to a higher place. We also had to turn around a cd tower because she used to pull all the cds out!!

Good Luck it is a great age ... :rotfl:

kerleytops

To stop our son pulling down on door handles, opening the door and then escaping, we reversed the handles so you had to lift it up to open the door.It fooled us as well.

valk_scot

NCT sales are a good source of second hand safety gates etc. But the best baby proofing is a good old fashioned tidy up tbh. Get as much as possible out of sight...just putting it up high encourages climbing practice.

You can tie drawers or cupboard doors shut with strips of cloth. Babies eat elastic bands.

Pad sharp corners with strips of cloth or squares of cardboard, plus masking tape so as to not damage the surfaces. Keep an eye on them though. Babies eat masking tape as well.

Use small hooks and eyes up high to keep doors shut. These are usefulk for keeping a baby in their room at night btw...you don't want to lock the child in their room in case there's an emergency but on the other hand you don't want kids roming around the house at night. A hook and eye won't stop a determined adult for even a second but it will prevent a child getting out a room, same as a door gate or high door handle will.

Put the cat tray and cat/dog dishes somewhere the baby can't sample them.

Make sure that bookshelves etc are fixed securely to the wall with fixing brackets. Ikea are a good source of cheap ones. Ikea have a lot of cheap safety equipment btw, in their Patrull range. Socket covers, door fixings, bath safety mat, glass safety film etc.

Flibsey

I swear I thought my daughter woudl turn into a roll of masking tape the amount she managed to eat as a baby hahahaha!

I agree, tape the on/off switch to the tv, put the dvd player or skybox up high if you can... everyone knows if you put a slice of ham in a dvd payer, it will play a film about pigs .

and until she's walking, a blanket can be used as a babygate. it's more of a visual barrier though. good for between rooms, NOT for stairs. get sticky velcro, put the loops on the blanket and the hooks on the doorway. then just stick the blanket to the doorway. make it just above adult knee height, makes a crawling/toddling barrier for places like kitchen doorways.

this actually worked for my little girl until she was 2 and managed to work out how to push on the top and get it down. but my girlie was kind of slow with escapology, if it seemed like too much work, she'd not do it!

meritaten

common sense - put coffee tables against walls for now - when toddlers first start walking the corners of coffee tables and toddlers foreheads become magnetic! they always fall into them! all Glass, Ceramic and otherwise breakable items should be kept above an adults waist level! or they get broken. all electric wall sockets below waist height - put spare plugs in them! the kitchen is particularly hazardous when kids start crawling. forget keeping bleach and cleaning products in cupboards UNDER the worktop! they should go in wall cupboards! this is one doorway I would say NEEDS a gate! nothing worse than picking up a pan of boiling veg to drain in the sink and find your baby right under your feet!
as for the climbing the cot sides - pillows! lots of them beside the cot! and its better to start when they can stand - most accidents happen because the parent didnt realise they could climb like spiderman BEFORE they can walk!
Dont keep medications in your handbag - or perfumes or anything you dont want them eating or drinking! or if you do, keep the handbag way out of reach! the one time you leave it on the floor they will merrily take the childproof top off and eat the contents! Dont worry too much if they eat cat or dog food - I am reliably informed (when I have phoned pet food companies in a panic) that there is NOTHING in pet food a human cannot eat!
Saying all that - Most children will somehow find something you overlooked!

Dazi

kerleytops wrote: »

To stop our son pulling down on door handles, opening the door and then escaping, we reversed the handles so you had to lift it up to open the door.It fooled us as well.

hahahaha that reminds me of the fridge lock we fitted, kids opened it easy but I broke a finger nail every time

Tink_04

My little girl pulls at all the doors and pulls them closed behinbd her with her fingers on the sides and im so worried she will jam her fingers one day and it was my dad who said to put an old towel over the top of the door so it doesnt bang all the way closed you can buy door jams that look like the letter C to go over the top too but a thickish towel does the job i found!

Winky,_The_House_Elf

Thanks!

I've already learnt some things the hard way...like just because she had never pulled herself up before, doesn't mean she wont.... cue one dogs water bowl over her head and one spluttering startled baby! (I thought I was being smart putting it out the way:o)

I love all the ideas, particularly the turning the door handles upside down (for much later) and the hooks and eyes, we had an incident where she had been left on the landing, all doors closed, so it was like a large play-pen, whilst i was hoovering in the next room (We do have a stairgate) when she pushed open the bathroom door and I found her rolling the loo-brush holder over the floor:eek: The next couple of times I let her play there she zoomed straight over and was shoving on the door and got quite frustrated!

So far I've made a couple of baby-safe zones where she can roam freely, but need to get the rest of the house up to speed sharpish as its only a matter of turning my head for a second and she's off!

Thanks again

Winky x

squeaky

Hi

There will be quite a few ideas on MoneySaving in Marriages, Relationships & Families

And for any things you see that require an outlay why not try...

http://ilovefreegle.org/

or

http://www.freecycle.org/

carefullycautious

Playpen ?

Brilliant for when you want to get on with other things