Suggestions for baby proofing the house

[Paris04]

My DS has just started to crawl. We are in the process of "baby proofing" the house.

I welcome your suggestions of what we should buy or perhaps alternatives to say a safety gate, cupboard locks etc. We also have a low bay window which he already seems very taken with, should I be putting something in front of it?

[MumsieMel]

I suggest not baby proofing at all, except dangerous ones of course.

Just teach them not to touch, it works much better than hiding everything, especially when you have more kids also.

Good luck. :thumbsup:

[LucyE]

I'm sorta the same as the previous poster. We have those plugs for electrical sockets but have also taught DS not to touch and that the only things that go in them are the plugs. He's generally pretty good and we also have a safety switch in case of an accident.

I haven't gated off the kitchen (although some days I wish I had *sigh*) and he's usually pretty good with that too. I've got a dedicated drawer for DS with his kitchen utenlsils (toy pots, pans, rolling pin, gloves etc) and tell him to use his drawer if he gets into the other ones. We have a cupboard of plastic containers, pyrex storage dishes etc that he likes to get into and I allow because he can't really do himself much harm. My oven dishes get some grubby fingerprints but I don't really care these days if they are going into a hot oven anyway. I don't have anything on the oven because it's high and also doesn't get very hot to the touch. The cooktop I don't have anything there either and just remind myself to always turn handles in and have taught DS to not go near it/touch it because it's very hot. Knives are the only thing I have problems with at the moment and we currently only have two knives from our knife block in use and stored above the rangehood. I wish we had a dishwasher with a child lock because DS is constantly trying to 'help' and turn the machine on.

Bathrooms, toilets and laundry, we have little latches at the top of the doorway (metal ones from a hardware store). We had gates at our old house but found them a pain to use (you either had to hurdle them or open the gate then open the bathroom door) and DS is at the age now when he pushes chairs around to leverage himself over barriers. The only gate we have in the house is at the top of the stairs and that's more for accidental fall downs than trying to stop him going down the stairs. I do have a cupboard latch for the laundry cupboard where I keep my detergents and any other chemicals that I don't want DS getting into. It's within the locked laundry but you can never be too careful with them.

The office we keep shut and anything that is not child safe we put in there. The rest of the house is pretty much child safe and we allow him free access.

[Mum&bubs]

Well you could always do what my sister does dont buy any nice stuff just have only toys in your house :laughing: she says its very baby proof! I wouldnt do that & i dont advise you to do that either, i agree with just teaching them the things they cant touch early!