making it safe

when your bubs started crawling and getting into everything was in necessary to put away things like CD racks, DVD racks, pedestal fan and books in low shelves etc? my bub has just started to get around a bit and i am afraid that the racks will tip over onto her but then again i don't really want to have to put them away in another room if i don't have to. also what can you do with electrical cords that lay up against the wall, i don't want her to pull on them. i think i am a little paranoid but don't want any accidents.

Me and my brother put up those little plastic fence things around the entertainment centre, and put up baby gates to the rooms with fragile stuff like the dining room. Also, we put valcro around the cabinate handles (valcroed them together so she couldn't open then) I was very paranoid with Shan getting into trouble. I took everything off the lower shelves but she still managed to grab things. So we just made sure therewas nothing sharp or breakable in her reach.

Ummm yeah I think you'll have to put them up ;)

It does get very dangerous with anything they can climb/pull up on that can topple - and they will do it because they're too young to understand no yet. When they're a little older you can bring things back out again and start enforcing rules about what they can and can't touch...but for now it's best to put things away, both for their safety and to protect things you don't want broken.

I must say we put everything up ...its funny but your house will go from looking like an ikea catalouge to a simple child safe home !. with the power cords I had then all tucked in behind furniture...Cds will become a point of fascination so they will end up having to go anyway :-)

We taped a lot of our cords to the floor or wall with duct tape, made sure our bookshelves were weighted well so they are less likely to tip. I wouldn't worry too much about CD racks DVD racks unless they are quite heavy might make a good learning experience as long as you don't mind cleaning up the mess when they get emptied. There are a lot of good child-proofing products out there to make things easier

With my first we just said no and moved him away from whatever he was touching and told him why.. We did this right from when he started moving..

We moved a few things as we felt it was easier but electrical cords we weren't able to but he soon learnt no meant no... and he stayed away. We moved our plants ect as he kept getting into them.. Life was easier just to move them for a few months

IMO nope, not necessary. We didn't "baby proof" the house at all aside from having locks on the cupboards under the sink (for the bin & chemicals). From the minute Alexzander started crawling, he was told no & he absolutely understood. Of course it took him a while to remember what he wasn't able to touch, but now he can roam the entire house without me being concerned that he'll get into something he's not allowed to.

For us it was a matter of why should things be moved when we'll just want to move them again a few months down the track? And then once they are all moved back he'd have to be taught not to touch, seemed like more work to us!! As well as that, none of our friends have children so we thought that when we went visiting it would be much easier on Zander (and us) if he knew the sorts of things he's not allowed to touch. So much so that when we visit a particular friend that has candles on her coffee table I'm not worried about him getting burnt. Of course I still watch him like a hawk, but all he does is walk up to them & blow them out LOL!

With Olivia, I adopted the same approach as Sarah.......

Since having #2 and #3, I realise I don;t have eyes in the back of my head, so we have the most spartan looking home on the planet......LOL, everying is locked away, on high shelves, or in the shed........

We moved things higher as I was pregnant when Gem started crawling with terrible m/s and couldn't run after her for fear of vomitting.