Baby Gear: General Safety Items
Crawl around your house on your hands and knees and look at the things you can get into: electrical outlets, cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink, the toilet, the dog’s bowl, the cat’s litterbox…. the power supply under the desk has lots of different colored wires that look like fun to play with, and look at these dried flowers on this table, I wonder how they taste, they look like they might taste interesting…. look at that shiny thing on the fourth shelf up over there, I bet if I can get my feet onto the second shelf and hold on real tight I can reach it…
Luckily, modern society has come up with a plethora of products to help us make our homes safe. Some things we can do without having to buy special products, we can use twist ties or rubber bands to shorten any curtain pulls that are long enough for baby to reach – those loops can present a strangulation hazard. And we can use rubber bands to shorten electrical chords, too. Of course, there are blindwinders
Speaking of electrical chords, I’m going to start with electrical outlets. Take a look at these options:
I started with the cheapest, and the item most people use. You just plug them into an unused outlet and the child can’t stick something into the outlet and get shocked. The next option is to change the outlet cover to a safety outlet cover, and that option is a bit more expensive (there is a bulk pack of 25
But then we get to power strips – how do we make sure little hands stay away from power strips? As you can see to the right, there are options for that as well. For those of you thinking that you are going to supervise your child so this isn’t necessary…. all I can say is that it depends on the child. Some children are experts at finding that 20 seconds you are otherwise occupied (the phone rings, the oven tells you dinner is ready, your other child trips and falls and needs a bandaid, etc) in order to do what they know is forbidden, others find out it is forbidden and they see the fear on your face and they never bother it again. For some things I’m fine with letting natural consequences teach them why I said it was off limits… but electrical stuff is not a place I choose to allow natural consequences to do the teaching.
The other thing that I’m not comfortable allowing for natural consequences has to do with kids climbing on furniture. Furniture tip over deaths are real, and they happen far too often to ignore. Most IKEA furniture comes with brackets to hold furniture to the wall (or to the floor if it isn’t something that goes against a wall). I’m not aware of other furniture manufacturers who almost automatically do that, though. Look around your home and then attach shelves, curio cabinets, armoires, entertainment units, etc. to the wall. Anything that could tip over and kill or seriously injure your child should be secured to a stud inside of the wall.
Okay, what’s next? Let’s move to the kitchen, were we probably don’t want the kiddos playing in the cabinets and drawers. We did not put locks on all cabinets or all drawers. If your drawers can’t pull all of the way out then you probably only need to lock the ones with knives and forks and other things that can present a safety issue. But, if your drawers pull all the way out then it’s probably best to lock them all. There are a ton of options for this, the absolute worst has to be the designs where the outside cabinet handles are connected to each other. That might be easy to install, but it’s a PITA to have to undo it and redo it in order to get in either side. And the ones that require a magnetic key to open? No thank you, I don’t want to have to deal with keeping up with something. The ones I’ve pointed to will take a few minutes to install on each cabinet or drawer, but once they are installed they are a breeze, you just pull the drawer or cabinet open about an inch then reach in and press on the bar and then push it back in slightly and then pull it open. It sounds ten times harder than it is, for adults you’re looking at barely a second longer to open the cabinet, but kids just can’t manage it, they do not have the combination of strength and coordination necessary. If you have a door or drawer that for some reason won’t work with those, the next best option I’ve found is the locking strap
I’m going to talk about things I consider unnecessary for a moment: door knob covers
And that brings me to another point – litter boxes and pet food. At our other house the laundry room had a normal door and we put a pet door into it and kept the litter box in the laundry room. In our new house there were bifold doors so we put a four inch long hook and eye closure
There are a number of safety products I never felt it necessary to use, like the toilet lock
And finally, let’s talk about hard and sharp edges in rooms that get horse play…. brick hearth, glass coffee table, granite topped end tables, less expensive laminate desks with corners sharp enough to cut. All of these things can hurt a child who is running full out and crashes into them. I’ve pointed to some options below that are made for this sort of thing, but to the left you’ll see a less expensive option. Now, understand that this option is for older kids who are no longer chewing on things. At your local big-box hardware store you can pick the 3/4 inch stuff up for around two dollars for six feet of it. It has a slit in the side already, just slide it on, no work required. This works to go around the outside edges of tables that aren’t too thick, but it won’t work for the hearth or most of the desk corners or for really thick surfaces, for those you’ll have to go with one of the other safety options. For many of these options they aren’t designed to be a permanent object – they are made so they can be removed. That means you’ll have to teach your child to leave them be. But by the time children are old enough to be fast enough to harm themselves by crashing into something at high speed, they should mind well enough to leave things alone that they’ve been taught to leave alone.
Did I miss anything? It feels like I did, but that’s all I can come up with. I covered baby gates yesterday, that’s why they aren’t covered today.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree on the importance of window locks….
There have been several cases recently where either slightly older children or forgetful family members have opened the windows around children and unfortunately children have fallen out these windows. Once case was in Lawrence, MA were amazingly a passerby caught the baby falling from a 2nd story. Another case the window was open over the couch, the parents (I guess) just forgot about the hazard since the couch was in front of it. The toddler pushed on the screen and fell out onto the driveway below. I am hoping the child is doing better now. (haven’t seen updates). The window locks that are recommended actually allow you to open the window a small amount…you determine the exact height… as you are sliding it up you hit the “lock” and the window can’t be opened any further.
If a visitor was in your house, they may not realize they shouldn’t open the window past a certain point…but the locks ensure that happens anyway.
These locks are very inexpensive…..in my opinion totally worth it on the off chance someone might slip and open the window far enough to allow a child access to fall out.
July 9th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I forgot to add….
don’t forget about window sills when considering padding corners and edges….we did ! One of our little guys who is very active climbed onto an ottoman and then tumbled off towards the window…..DH almost had a heart attack. little guy had an huge egg right over his eye and a deep indent that now weeks later still is red and not totally healed. We were lucky that it didn’t cut through and need stitches….the things you don’t think of until it happens……uggh!
-jello
July 9th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Wow, RQ! This is a very comprehensive treatment of child proofing your house. In our part of the country, there are contractors who will come into the house and do the child proof analysis for you. They provide a written report and you get to hire them to do some of the child proofing or you can do it yourself. I always thought that crawling around and looking for stuff to do was more fun than hiring it out…but that’s just me.
I have purchased almost everything on your list and my husband has even invented some sliding closet door locks with velcro and lengths of wood. Our daughter is one of the “Out of Sync” children talked about in all the sensory books. We found that accidents happen with even the most ordinary objects such as shoes, tables and chairs. Fortunately, she is growing out of this phase but the first year was really amazing in terms of what she could make happen “by accident.” This is all great advice. The kids go through phases too…at first she showed no interest in plugs but now she is interested in the electrical sockets so we are glad they are closed up.
July 9th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
jelloanyone – thanks for your perspective. The windows on our upper floor are high up, and there is no furniture near them, so when they are open I’ve never had to worry about a child falling out. The downstairs windows aren’t that high off the ground and there are soft flowerbeds to land in anyway, so I never worried about it downstairs.
I pointed to the things I didn’t use and noted others may have a need for those things. It sounds like you had a need for them, thanks for explaining them, and why they are important.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
As a soon-to-be first timer, all I can say is that this is all scary and OVERWHELMING. Please, someone, QUICK, talk me off the ledge!!!
:)
July 9th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Don’t forget to take these on vacation as well. Our first hotel visit once little one was walking we had to place pillows in front of outlets. Then we went to a big cabin with friends and there were TONS of outlets. Had to go out and pay 3X what I would pay at walmart for them at a grocery store.
So now I keep a ziploc bag of outlet plugs in my overnight bag that I keep filled with bath essentials. I also keep a nightlight as it gets kind of scary in a dark place at night. The nightlight I have is an LED one that has no lightbulb so it won’t break.
So make sure you keep this stuff in your travel bags as well.
July 9th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I would like to chime in as a mom to both bio and adopted….I knew that when my twins were born I would have to “baby proof” many many things around the house. It is amazing what two can get into by helping each other….so when I received my referral for a soon to be 3 year old (who turned 3 immediatly after coming home) I thought…well she is three and aside from the pool and high locks on the doors, I think we good. NO!!!! Do not let the childs age fool you. Yes they may be 2 or 3 or 4 or even 5…and while you may not think of them needing to be babyproofed….think again.
My three year old had never seen outlets, plugs, or toilets. Things that by the time a non institutional child of the same age may not find interesting your new little one will.
Our daughter was obessed with the toilet … drinking the water… playing in the water and flushing everything she could find down the toilet. 3000K later (the very first week of being home) we finally had a friend come over to explain in catonese all of the dangers around the house and that all of the toilets were OFF LIMITS. Becuase we had two five year olds at the time we were not able to use toilet locks since they needed to be able to open as needed. She climbed, open you name it…if an 18 month would do it so would our 3 year old.
So it is worth a double take when thinking about the age of your child and whether or not you should child proof.
samba in sac
July 10th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Thanks for these posts RQ.
One thing for everyone to keep in mind…
I babyproofed my house as if someone other than me was watching my child. So, while I don’t leave her alone in a room at all, other people might do that. Eventually we all need babysitters and they might not be as diligent as us.
and toddlers move fast! My DD is dying to get at the knobs on my stove. She can’t wait for me to turn my back for a second. So I have the stove knob covers. And I have some other safety things in place that I don’t really need when she and I are alone. Also, when we have company, it is harder for me to have my eyes on her all the time. Inevitably, I have to turn my attention to food, or drinks, or someone who is talking.
I could use some ideas from this community. I wish I could find a good solution for my tv. I can attach the tv stand to the wall, but the tv itself is not attached. In the meantime, I have a gate blocking her from touching it. But I sure would l ike it attach it instead. Anyone have any ideas?
The tv is in my bedroom and it’s one of those heavy 32″ tvs. I’ve considered replacing it with a wall mounted tv, but that would be a lot of money and the tv is working just fine.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:59 am
feelingthejoy
Try using heavyduty velcro to attached to the bottom of the tv & the stand. Is your tv stand where you slide the TV into a box opening? If yes try having a wooden frame placed a on the TV stand to hold the TV in place. Just some suggestions. Good luck
July 10th, 2009 at 11:04 am
As for traveling don’t forget a portable gate. We went on vacation a few days earlier than our timeshare week, so we had to stay in a different unit which had a staircase to the bedrooms. We did not sleep very well those few nights because we were afraid our dd would fall down them. The next trip we packed our fabric tension gate made by evenflo. Best thing we ever received. It gives a great peace of mind so we can sleep. We have even put it in front of hotel doors just as a precaution because our DD likes to open the door.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:05 am
The equipment straps
I linked to in the post get good customer ratings for holding TV’s in place. You may need two kits though, look at the weight ratings.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:18 am
i have 2 birth children and i’m working on my dossier. when we looked into storing cord blood for my first, i asked my doctor if it was worth it. he said if i was concerned about money, that i would be better off if i spent the money on babyproofing the house. i thought it was wise advice with a very strong point that little ones get hurt in homes all the time.
for those of you overwhelmed, put priority on potentially high injury like stairs, electrical things, locking chemicals… etc. usually the worse thing that can happen with a coffee table corner is a cut or a bad bruise… but a fall down the stairs just once can be fatal.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Our 20 month old son loves to pull open the dishwasher door if we don’t lock it. As you might imagine, we sometimes have knives in there waiting to be washed so we try to be very diligent about locking it. Like many parents, we don’t just let him play or wander in the kitchen unsupervised. Still, it’s something worth thinking about.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Devorah, I hope it is not too late to talk you off your ledge. Each child is different. I have yet to bring home our baby from China but I have 2 very active boys. There are solutions for every potential problem (almost) but every thing is not a problem for every child. That said, we have mounted baby gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. Although my youngest in the house is six, we still put the gates on anytime we have an inexperienced stair climber in the house. I have very few fragile items in the house, and none within reach of a child. Medicines and cleaners are in cabinets up high. If you plan to follow your baby around ridiculously closely (as I do) if they are even mobile, during the first few weeks, then we should have time to baby proof for the trouble areas as we go before the babies have freedom to move around the home independently. That should give time to figure out your child-proofing priorities. Just make sure you have a truly safe place to place baby when you do need to go to the bathroom, or cook (e.g. pack n play, or high chair, etc..) You probably don’t need everything out there, just use your head. If you have any glaringly sharp corners on furniture or mantels, etc… address those. Outlets will need to be addressed, but your child will determine whether you can use removable plugs or must use attached covers…Anyway, you don’t need to have everything in place before you bring baby home, thats all I wanted to say….
July 10th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
We have used just about all the safety equipment mentioned in this post ……but I must say how did we survive as kids???? My mother didn’t use any of these and my sisters and I never had a trip to the hospital. However, I think it is surely a step in the right direction to be safe than sorry.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Another thing—while we lock up cleaning items because most (all?) are toxic, we often don’t lock up other things that could be dangerous if consumed by a child: hairspray and other hair products, room deodorizers, and some make-up/make-up removal products.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
As a BTDT parent of 3 who has always lived in a 2 story home, I highly suggest that all parents teach their toddler to go down the stairs in a safe fashion. as soon as they are capable. The best way IMO is backwards, feet first sort of sliding down on their tummies. We came home with our dd when she was 11 mos old. She was already cruising the furniture by that time. By the time she was 12 mos, she could safely manage the stairs by herself. We taught her to turn around about 2-3 feet before she got to the stairs to begin her descent.
We still never allow her to go down the stairs by herself, of course, she’s only 18 mos and I go down backwards just below her so I can watch her closely BUT if by chance she did encounter stairs, she knows very well how to handle them.
Friends of ours with a bio son just 6 mos older than our dd thought my suggestion of going down the stairs backwards was “silly” and “wouldn’t work” –they had gates top and bottom but a visitor left one of them open and their poor little boy got to the middle of the stairs landing then wanted to come back down. He tried to do it like he’d seen mommy and daddy do and tumbled. Luckily, he wasn’t injured too badly, daddy caught his fall before he hit the tile at the bottom.
July 12th, 2009 at 6:29 am
We are big fans of Baby Safety Foam http://www.babysafetyfoam.com/ at our house. Our raised hearth is brick and has unusual angles so readymade products with right corners wouldn’t work. Our daughter likes to sit on the now foam covered hearth, and this product was worth every penny in preventing problems.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I agree with the hook/eye being better than doorknob covers, but there are doors in older homes that are set so that they cannot be hook and eye latched. We sadly have a few, and for doors like that, the doorknob covers are a lifesaver.
I think that window gates – which lock in place and let you open the window behind them, and can also be opened by a parent in case of fire, are a godsend for parents in apartments or for kids rooms above the 1st floor. Every year, our local news carries tragic stories of kids who fall out of windows and die, especially apartments that are above the 3rd floor. Screens do not hold the weight of a child, and in the summer months when you need to keep windows open, the gates are an amazing help.