Clever baby-proofing ideas?

[AnyDream]

Hi all, just getting on to some baby proofing around the house this weekend, wondering if any of you have got any really clever ideas for baby-proofing?

Obviously, the old one about putting the christmas tree/ironing board/stereo inside the playpen is pretty common, but I bet there are some other really good tips we could all learn from.

[rosehannah]

Get down on your hands and knees and take a look around.

[Phteven]

We keep all our medicines up so high that I have to stand on tip toes and I can barely reach.
We have a baby gate on our laundry and the cat's food and litter tray are in there. In the last week Imran has figured out that if he puts his head on the side and his shoulder near the floor and wiggles like crazy he can get in there so we have to change that.

[MistyFying]

Make sure DH remembers to keep his shaving equipment up high.... not on the bathroom bench or in a low cupboard.

[mum3girls]

We have brilliant childlocks on our kitchen cupboards - they're magnetic and you have a magnetic 'key' that you line up with the lock (which is inside the cupboard) and it clicks open!! They're really cool - just have to make sure that you have a spare key for when one of your children (or even DH) locks the key inside the cupboard The best thing I've found about them is that you can flick the lock open if you want the cupboards to stay unlocked and flick it back when you want it locked again - great for when you're putting dishes away, and great for grandparents' houses that don't need to be childproof all the time.

[Mother Goose]

Mum3girls - what are those magnet locks called and where do I get them?! I am so frustrated with our Ikea locks!!!

I put power point plugs in every single power point in the house - regardless of how high it is. DD is a climber and I sometimes let her sit on the bench in the kitchen whilst I'm next to her... so I consider those ones just as important as the ones on the ground.

[mum3girls]

They're made by DreamBaby and we picked ours up at Bunnings

[Mother Goose]

Thank you! I'll be sure to stop in on my way home from work tomorrow!

[AngelPunks]

curved corners on things - even if you have to pad them with foam (yes it looks daggy but it is better than a bump).

rosehanna had the right idea, get down at baby level and look around, you'll find some amazing things at that height

in an emergency - zip ties are great for keeping doors closed

[Emma1979]

i must say, we haven't done one single thing to baby proof our house.... oh actually i lie, i bought a fire guard from bunnings, but its not secured, so could still fall on her if she touched it....

i dunno why we haven't had to baby proof?? she is 13 months... if she goes for something she isn't allowed to touch i just tell her no and the reason why (don't touch or you'll trap your fingers, don't touch or you'll go bump) and she stops. i thought babies were notorious for 'getting into everything'?

am i incredibly lucky, or will she turn into a nightmare when she's 2???

(oh we have also put a hair tie around the knobs of the tv cabinet so she can't open and get into the dvds/cds)

[{sarah}]

Emma we didn't babyproof either, Zander just learnt from a very early age what he wa allowed to touch & not.

[Nikki_M]

We had our coffee table pushed against our TV cabinet as our TV is low... that way the boy could stand up to it, but not wipe his grubby hands all over it...

[Lucy]

I didn't need to baby proof with Olivia......I found that when I just had one, it was easy to keep an eye on her and talk her out of getting into stuff.

However, as soon as I had Charlie (and of course then Lexie) this house has become a baby proofed haven!

Talking works fine, but not if you cannot physically be in 3 places at once, LOL!

So:

~ Dogs bowls in the laundry: our laundry is external, and has a doggy flap.
~ Bins in the loos and in the bathroom have been raised to the window sill. Attractive, NOT, but it saves little fingers getting trapped in the lids, or them strewing old razors/empty shampoo bottles round the house!
~ Tiolet brushes on the same window sills........nothing worse than finding a toddler sucking a toilet brush!
~ Door locks on everything, and the "under the sink" chemical cleaners (bicarb, washing up liquid, dishwasher powder, jaysol etc) in a plastic tub with a lid.
~ I used to have a large freestanding kitchen bin......which Charlie delighted in getting into......I know have a smaller bin shut away under the sink.
~ Wine racks.........have been relegated to the garage
~ Keep the BBQ cover on the BBQ so they can't fiddle with the buttons
~ Get a lock mechanism for the rainwater tank tap so they can't empty it.
~ Wall mount the dryer so they can't get in it, or put other stuff in it.
~ Wall mount the TV and DVD so they can't pull it onto themselves/fiddle with the DVD player.

[leebee81]

We aren't at the baby proofing phase yet but I plan on gating off the bathroom. For starters, its falling apart - the sink is propped up with a bit of 4 x 2 so its not a safe place to be until its renovated, but even then we keep the cat food and litter box in there. "The cat box is not for snacking!" is a concersation I never, ever want to have.

[Liz]

We gated off a whole room, and that is the 'kid safe' area. The TV in there is in the playpen, and the rest is just lounges and a cupboard of toys. Our kitchen overlooks it so it is just perfect. The rest of the house isn't baby proofed except for safety plugs in the sockets, and locking the bathroom cupboard. It's good like this, coz they can be free to do what they want without me having to hound them whenever they go for something, but at the same time, if they're not in there, there's still opportunity to teach them what not to touch iykwim.

[AnyDream]

Ok, ladies, I fess up - we didn't baby proof very much with #1 DD either. There were two of us and one of her and plus she was quite obedient about not fiddling with things we'd told her not to. However DD2 is quite different, she is a natural born 'fiddler' (fingers always busy), plus we now have an older DD who is prone to leaving little bitsy bits around *sigh*. But the main thing that has changed is that DH now works away, I need to be able to relax and not be on hyper-vigilant mode 100% of the time.

Anyway some really good tips here, another one I remembered:
The other day I found a single extension cord that splits into two plugs. So instead of having a fiddly double adaptor, you can have the one extension cord running behind a piece of furniture then have two things (lamp and baby monitor) connected out of reach.

PS I'm going out to Bunnings today to get the magnetic door locks.

[nay23]

Hi
Although I agree with baby proofing I also think that teaching "No" is a good idea
I have power socket covers and will get locks for our bathroom cupboard and kitchen cupboards with chemicals in them. But some things ( obviously things that arent very special! ) I have left where DS can reach them so that he knows some things are his, and he can touch them.... and others are "special" and he can't!
I am more aware of this cos when we go to the grandparents houses they have so many lovely shiny things at little person level that he needs to know he can't touch everything!
I know you can get a bathroom kit from Target that has a spout cover, themometer, non-slip bath stickers, draw locks and a few other things, I found it really useful cos it was all in the one kit! But good luck baby proofing!
Take care
xox