With our older son, we didn't baby proof a thing, aside from bolting shelves to the walls. (Okay, so we took the basic precautions one should take when a child enters your household.) But with our twin boys we bolted EVERYTHING to the walls! AND latched most drawers, cabinets, and doors. AND had a baby proofing professional come to our house to tell us exactly what he recommended should be done in order to make our home safe for our boys. It came as a bit of a shock to us that we would have to childproof so much with our twins. But once you become outnumbered, in our case 3 to 2, or 3 to 1 while my husband was at work, it was a necessity. I'm absolutely sure we avoided many ER trips due to our diligence and child locks.
There are baby proofing companies out there, like the one that came to our house, that will do it all for you, but we opted to do it ourselves for much less. However, I know I would have appreciated having everything done completely and not adding to our "proofing" as needed, which was our case. So, my recommendation is: Call a baby proofing expert and have them do it all for you. That's just my two cents after living through it and wishing it had all been done early on from the get-go.
(By the way, my husband just took a bunch of drawer latches off this past weekend-Woo hoo! After four years of those things on, we're finally rid of most of them. We still have a child safety lock on our front door, and bedroom door since the twins get in and out of everything. At four and a half years old, they still very much keep us alert and on our toes.)What are your recommendations for baby/child/twin/multiple proofing, and at what age were your children when you did, if at all?
We put locks on the kitchen drawers and cabinets when our twins started crawling (or just before). We used the plastic drawer stops (the ones you have to push down on to open the drawer), and still have them on today (our twins are 3 years old). We used the magnet locks for the cabinets and really liked those. You can turn them 'off' when you want to, and that makes it nice when you are doing a lot of cooking, and don't want to slow down to unlock a cabinet over and over again. We kept a couple of drawers open for the boys to play in. One that was empty and another with water bottles, etc. They really enjoyed having something they could play with in the kitchen. We also put locks on the clean supplies cabinet in the bathroom. We used outlet covers for empty outlets, and covers that kept plugged in cords protected. Gates on the stairs and we used the 6 sided play yard to block them in certain areas temporarily.
ReplyDeleteAfter baby proofing everything at our house when the twins started crawling, my parents thought they could get away with having nothing done at their house. Wrong! They did their cabinets and a couple of doors as well. Wish we'd had an extra gate for their stairs as well. That was always fun. Not!
ReplyDeleteLOVE the magnet locks, they are lifesavers! Much better than the "traditional" locks that can pinch little fingers!
ReplyDeleteMagnet locks for sure. We have adults who can't get into our cupboards. Best things ever! We started childproofing early at around 6 months and made adjustments when they found something interesting that we had no idea needed child proofing.
ReplyDeleteI own a local child proofing business at http://www.itsabelly.com and I just posted some baby proofing tips on our FH forum but wanted to share the most common issues I've seen as we've gone into homes to do safety assessments. Quite often parents need gates (on stairways) installed, locks on cabinets/drawers, flat screen TV/ Furniture anti-tip straps installed and electrical outlet covers. We also wrap/ tuck away long electrical cords as well as blind winders to protect the babies from strangulation. Usually, when I examine a home from top to bottom I look for anything that can cause burns, choking, strangulation, poisoning, drowning and falls. Always, ALWAYS put nasty chemicals, poisonous plants, meds, sharp objects, small objects (check if small object fits into the diameter of a toilet paper roll) far away from baby's reach! If you have any more questions feel free to email me at melissa@itsabelly.com or call at 503-297-5326.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Melissa! I just read your comment on the FH forum, too. I really, truly recommend having a professional like Melissa go through the house. Many things we didn't spot were noticed by the baby proofer.
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