Home Safety Now That She Is Crawling

A.,
Relax and know that your lil one will be just fine. We have 2 cats and have yet to move the food bowls. My boy did end up covered in water 2x and has dumped the food but he has learned now by "NO" said about a million times and expaining why not to touch. You are lucky, wait till she can reach the stove (still trying to keep him from turning on the gas pilot). At least you don't have stairs! Ours are set that there is not one gate out there that fits properly so we depend on the tension one that barely works and have trained him that when it is up he does not mess with it. It is a lot of "no's" and training. Your hubby will need to remember that you have a little one crawling and to take off the clothes and shoes at the door. I do that with everyone (removal of shoes not clothes ha ha ha)...they may get mad or don't see the sense in it but this is our house and if they don't like it well, they can not come over. Rocks already got tracked in and I found them in time. Close the door to the room with the cords, or move the computer that is dangerous. Keep bathroom doors closed too. I never used the pack and play and my son is doing great. Not saying he is perfect but he does listen and he is just 16 months (I am sure as he gets older that will change...ha ha). Good luck and remember that she will get into things but remove the breakables and the things you do not need right now. But make sure you keep an area that has "the pretty's" like a shelf with photos and knick knacks and teach her to not touch certain things this way she will respect that in others homes.
Good luck!
Chris

Get down to kid level and look around. That's the best way to see from her perspective what she will be around and what may look interesting. I used to have to clean my hardwood kitchen floor everyday when my son was at the "living on the floor" phase--because I have a furry dog! I would put cabinet locks on all of your lower kitchen & bathroom cabinets. Lock up or move higher any cleaning supplies, detergents, etc. Make sure dressers & tvs, etc are secured to the wall with safety attachments as it is VERY easy for a child to pull something big over onto themselves if they are trying to pull up to standing. Also, I bought the plug safety things for any open outlets. I was kind of lucky becasue my son wasn't the kind of baby who put everything into his outh but it sounds like you've got O. of those! Good luck--and remember, always better safe than sorry!

WEll first off, I have a great tip for you. Anything you don't want her to touch because it is dangerous (hot, electric outlet, dirty, or a chemical, etc.) I yell "danger!! No touch" THis does two things, one, teaches her that she should not touch that and two, when she is older and running in \to the street and you yell "danger!!" she already knows that word and will react immediately. It works wonders on my 20 month old. As far as completely baby-proofing your house, this is good, but also not needed. If you remove small things that she can swallow that is one thing, but by moving everything out of her reach is not teaching her, it is just moving them. We have knick knacks and pretty things around and just teach her not to touch. She WILL put everything she finds in her mouth so look for small things, ,but give her the toys she can eat/chew and she will learn.

Crawl on the floor yourself to see things from her eye level. Children explore with their mouths, some more so then others. Also have your husband take his shoes off before he comes in, have everyone take their shoes off. Anything that anyone has stepped in outsder will be tracked onto the floor(animal fecal matter, people's spit et). Since babies are on the floor on thier hand and knees and then put their hands in their mouths they can be injesting all kinds of stuff.

Since she's crawling, do the obvious first. Plugs and outlets with plug protectors, locks on drawers. They make covers for surge protectors and they work great! Also put the animal dishes up high when the animals aren't using them. I know that pet food really can't cause harm but with the big pet food recall that was last year, who knows what is really in the stuff (yuck!). Another thing that is REALLY important is to secure your TV if its not wall mounted. There are a couple tragic deaths each year due to children pulling TVs off entertainment centers. They make tether straps that can be helpful in preventing this. Also, if your little ones turn out to be climbers, they make furniture brackets too. Yes, we tell them no, not to climb, but just in case we aren't looking that ONE time they do, its safe to have a security measure in place.
I would also vacuum at least once a day between what your hubby is dragging in and the pets.

I would move anything that is small enough for her to choke on out of her reach. There are many child safety products that you can purchase to help with keeping her from pulling plugs out of the wall. I have three kids of my own and I have successfully made my living room and dining room completely safe for my children. When we are in any other room, I just keep my eye on the youngest one so that she does get into trouble.

One thing I did not do with my older two but worked great with my triplets is to put up gates! A gate on the kitchen where the pets dishes are is great. The hands free one is great for kitchens so if you're carrying food just push the lever with your foot and go through. And other gates you can use are pressure mounted ones (unless you own the home and want to drill holes) that have an easy hand lever on top to open. Bottom (and top) of stairs are good. Keep bathrooms doors closed. Get down on your belly, not just hands and knees, and look at her level to find things to take care of. There are plenty of child safety sites that can fill you in on things to use for wires and what not. Hubby HAS to be included in the safety of your child and you'll have to adjust how you do things. Pet hair needs to be vacuumed regularly and hubby can brush the dogs out daily as well to keep the hair down. Good luck!

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrisburgPAChat

use baby gates where you do not want her to go. sometimes,you have to put them in the pack and play. if you do not exercise the word not now is the time to start.
make sure you buy cabinet slide locks so she does not get into things at her level which contain chemicals. You are going to have to make sure to vacuum more often with the baby on the floor and may be ask husband to take off shoes when he comes home so he does not track things in the house on his shoes since she is at the point of putting things in her mouth. don't worry my ten month old likes getting into wet cat food and beginning of the month sampled the cat food. hopefully, you have the computer cords plugged into a safety strip. you can plug multiple plugs into a safety strip. unfortunately, it would be nice to let our babies do what they want while they crawl around but they put things in thier mouths and can get hurt so we have to watch them.

Hi A., we came to the same realization around this time. I have a very active boy who was walking at 10 months. I vaccuum every day and make my son a part of him. I bought him his own play vaccum and sometimes I'll even hold him while I run mine. I do put him in his pack-n-play every morning so I can sweep the hard wood floors. We had a computer room that we would gate off, and the dog bowl would only be put down when my son was eating in his high chair or when he was in bed. It also helped me to crawl around downstairs, sounds funny, but that put me on his level to see exactly what was in his reach. Far gone are the days of the cute picture frames on the nice coffee table... they all had to go for now.
Hope that helps a little. Good luck!

What Tammy S mentioned is the Superyard.

If you have an extra room (like a living room that you don't use much) keep it set up there. I've seen it work well. Put her toys in there and she has plenty of space to crawl around safely during the times that you need to get things done.

I used my pack-n-play in my bedroom for a while so my son could play nearby while I showered or got ready to go out.

I would recommend browsing the child safety section in Toys R Us or Babies R Us to get some ideas on what you may need. One product I highly recommend is the magnetic Tot Lock. They are locks you install inside your cabinets and drawers, and only open with the help of a magnetic key. They are strong enough that even an adult can't get it open without being Schwarzenegger. As for the pet food and dirt on the floor, you may have to resign yourself to the fact that kids eat dirt sometimes, unless you plan on mopping and vacuuming 3 times a day. All 3 of my kids got a kick out of watching me freak out when they ate the dogs' food. Now the toddler just likes to dump the dry food into the water dish. Another good resource is the One Step Ahead catalog. They have a lot of safety products that you may not be able to find in stores. Good luck.

Friends of mine (who are safety nuts) used the "kid fences" where you snap everything together to make a big fenced in area for kids to play in. They got more than one set to make the "yard" bigger and you can arrange it however you want. My little guy is only 3 months old, but once he gets mobile, i'm gonna get the fences and make an area for him to be in. you can find them at babies r us. not sure how many fence panels come per pkg, but you can add on as many as you want. hope that helps.