To Childproof or Not?

the only child proofing I did (my child is also 18mnths) is the outlet protectors and two kitchen cabinets have locks on them. oh and I did move some fragil stuff. mostly hand blown glass that was left to me in my grandmas will. but my son knows the words no, so we use that instead of major childproofing

We have some childproof stuff. Stairs and china cabinet, half the cabinets in the kitchen, but only under one bathroom sink.

Save for the stairs, I childproof my stuff, rather than to protect my child. I am usually with them, and the world has sharp edges. It's all just part of life.

Well, my husband owns and operates a baby proofing business so we baby proofed practically everything (LOL!). But, in all honesty, we really had to. When we started the business, my son, who was 13 months old at the time and had just started walking, was showing the signs of what was later diagnosed with moderate to mild autism. He had no danger awareness and he was (and still is) such a floppy, uncoordinated boy, that there was a huge safety concern. Couple that with giving birth to my baby daughter a month later and having to care with my mom who has some pretty bad health concerns at the time, I really needed to have everything baby proofed just for my peace of mind.

I think that you can't really generalize too much. Little kids can be VERY different. It isn't just the "parenting" or the lack of, or the household and what is around, etc. A lot of the childproofing requirements are based upon the CHILD and their personality.

My son, our first: We could leave NOTHING dangerous out or within reach- which included on kitchen counters or tables, nightstands, etc. He climbed and was very 'hand'y... lol. I couldn't even sit at the table with him in my lap at 8 months old, because he was so into reaching/grabbing things. I had to scoot my chair back away from the table or he'd have my plate, my fork/knife, my coffee cup/glass, etc... Telling him "no" just made him work harder/faster to get at whatever he was after. While I was cleaning up one thing or putting it out of reach.. he was already moved on to the next thing that I needed to keep him from. Non-stop. All day. Every day. Every where. He even BROKE the child safety latches on my kitchen cabinets.. he just yanked so hard until the plastic broke.

My daughter, our second: Was perfectly content to sit in my lap and snuggle. She didn't tear the pages when we read books. She was careful around fragile/breakable items. She didn't climb anything. If you told her "no" she would almost cry. We didn't have to do anything to child proof with her... of course.. we didn't have much left after our son, lol.

Same parents. Same techniques. Same environment. Totally different requirements about how to childproof.

Electrical outlet plugs a must. Keep all doors closed and locked. We live on a canal so our property is fenced in, we have a locking gate at the top of our stairs outside. That's it. No overkill. With my firstborn, I bought a kit of childproofing stuff. My husband installed "locks" on all the kitchen cabinets and drawers. ONE HOUR after installing them, my precocious toddler figured out how to open a "locked" drawer. We then removed all the newly installed cabinet/drawer locks because they drove ME crazy anyway. Some parents just do too much. The way I see it, if you are watching your child, your kiddo won't get into anything he/she isn't supposed to get into. Yes, yes, it takes just one split second. I've heard this all before. But common sense must also be in place...you just never leave the room knowing that you have a hot iron on the ironing board. You unplug it, and take the kid with you.

Well, there's protecting things from the baby, and then there's protecting baby from things. I put a play gate around my potted plants so child wouldn't be digging in the dirt (or eat plants that would be poisonous). We had a gate on the stairs, and the kitchen doors. We put a hook high up on the door to the garage and used a foam block wedged high up on the sliding glass door. and we had door knob guards on the bathrooms and a few other rooms. We had plug guards for all electrical sockets. I guess we baby proofed a lot. By the time our son was in kindergarten most things were gone except for the outside doors and stairs.

My oldest never touched an electrical outlet UNTIL I put in the outlet covers. One day she discovered them and thought they were a game, I removed them and she lost interest.

Each child is different. Follow your instincts.

I think it depends more on the mom and dad than the child. If the parents are light sleepers and make a hard and fast rule about being awake when the children are awake, less is needed. If the parents teach the child from a very young age to be in a certain place, where the parents say to be, and to have bounderies, less is needed. So many parents give their children the run of the house. If they get tired of chasing them and teaching them to stay out of things, they either child-proof, or they put the child in a crib. Either of these things will keep the baby safe or keep the things safe from baby. But neither of these things teach the baby very much.

I don't believe that any child should ever be alone unless the child is in a room with very few hazards, they are old enough to know and trustworthy enough to obey the rules. Even when you trust a child, never go more then 5-10 minutes without poking your head in. Sometimes poke your head in the room every 3-5 minutes. In other words, the child needs to know you are NEVER away, even when you are technically away. It's not unlikely for me to run to the sink and wash 2-3 dishes and rinse and place them in the drainer, walk around the house and check the various computers, play stations, and desks to see that the children are doing what they are supposed to, go back to a few more dishes, go to the bathroom, check on the kids, back to the dishes, sweep some floors, check on the kids,... you get the picture.

I do almost ZERO proofing. It makes me CRAZY that my toddlers bring me the electrical socket coverings. The only way to keep a child safe is to SUPERVISE. I think that child-proofing often allows some parents to be laxadazy in their parenting.

Every kid is different. Every parent is different. I was raised in the midwest with the attitude ~ if they do it once they won't do it again! I put locks on the cabinets with glass ~ things that could hurt them. Tuperware and pans I left alone. The kids have had a blast playing in them while I cook, and I don't mind the mess. They help clean up. That was the only babyproofing I had. We didn't even put gates at the stairs. My kids learned how to manuver the stairs so quick I wasn't worried about them. They can't reach the stove. Ummm.... you know best ~ go with it!!
www.SpecialNeedsCEOMom.com

With baby #3, the extent of my child proofing is 2 baby gates to keep him in the living room only, and a few outlet plugs. The rest... I watch him like a freakin hawk. Now, at our friends house, we have WAAAY more child proofing stuff (the cabinet locks and all that), because... it's not my house, not my stuff, and we're over there all the time. I brought over a little bin with all that junk to help save THEIR stuff, LOL. My son is 13 months old, he can and will get into everything and anything, regardless of our 'safety measures'.

All that being said, I'm pretty sure with my first 2, who are very close in age, my apartment was on lockdown. It was like a damn bouncy room practically because I was so nervous... and you know what? THEY STILL HURT THEMSELVES AND GOT INTO EVERYTHING... and survived ;) So this time I didn't waste my money and I feel less imposed upon by overload of baby safety stuff!!

baby gate stairs and cover the outlets n thats really it and put things up that she can hurt her self with, knifes pointy things and such and USE no

We childproofed quite a bit - gates, locks, outlet covers - but we didn't go all-out like some people do. Our toddler has learned that drawers pinch (we allow her to play with tupperware) and ovens are not to be messed with (not out of an accident, but by monitoring and training). I guess we are in the middle.

We still have gates up, but they are mostly to keep her in an area, not because she'll roll down the stairs or something. She's 2 now and I can leave her for a few minutes in the livingroom (maybe with the kitchen gated off) to swap laundry.

I was surprised to see that many don't child proof. Im the same though. With my 4th child (now 15 mo.) we didn't child proof anything except gate off the stairs. When she was 13 mo. old and began climbing the gate we removed it. But there are 5 more of us in the home and someone is always nearby.

I have twin boys, turning 6 in March. We really did no child-proofing when they were young except the use of the gate so that they would stay in the area I was in at the time. I just redirected and explained why they shouldn't be doing or touching or whatever. We never had any major incidents.

I put handle lock things on the dangerous stuff like chemials, but every other cabinet is open to O. I put up the preassure gates while we are in the kitchen so that he has a stomping ground that I can see him. Electrical outlets. Every single one is covered. dangerous items are put up high, other than that, nothing. When he starts to learn how to open doors, I'll put the knob covers on, but that's not for a bit.

I childproofed everything with #1, but #3, minimal. Only big safety issues, like stairs.

I think it depends on how strong-willed the child is. A friend of mine had a house full of little knick knacks and glass figurines, and when each child was old enough to crawl she took them around and showed them which things they weren't allowed to touch - and that was it! But my son would have destroyed her living room in about 4 minutes if he had the chance. We had to re-babyproof our house every couple weeks because he was too smart for it. He figured out how to remove the outlet covers, then how to push down the cabinet locks & open all the kitchen drawers. It only took him 5 minutes to snap the plastic doorknob covers off the bathroom & basement doors. Then he figured out how to reach over the baby gate and pull the latch! So we gave up on spending money on any babyproofing products, and we basically just got rid of anything in the house that wasn't safe for him, including our coffee table.

I had one appliance lock and it was for the oven... and my son broke it! I installed locks in all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. I put the doorknob locks on the outside doors and bathroom before potty training. I also have outlet covers and the box outlet covers for cords. We have 3 baby gates: one in family room, one in play room, and one at the top of the stairs. Whew...more than I thought!

I didn't child proof. At all. I think it's funny when I go to someone's house and the toilet has the "thing" on it so you can't open the potty! lol
I really and truly don't remember doing one single thing that is considered "child proofing." Nope, I lied. My husband put screws in the back of the dresser and bookshelves so they wouldn't fall on the kids, that's it.
I think that if I lived in a place that had stairs I would use a stair guard. But, when kids are that little they should be in your sight anyways, right? So, pretty much kept my doors shut and the little one nearby so I could see what he was doing!
L.

best advice I received was let the child learn to live in your enviroment, no need to child proof except light sockets... I have a 2 & 6 yr old boy and have had no issues.... love it!

We did no childproofing. Our kids lived in our world, we didn't change the world to avoid them. We taught them what not to touch, which was a great organic way to teach them lots of self control. It was a life saver when I ended up on bed rest with relatives in their homes at one point when my son was 18 months old with Christmas trees and decorations everywhere. I could just say "no" to him, and he'd leave stuff alone thanks to the diligence we used at home before that. Otherwise, I wouldnt' have been able to spend hours in my grandma's room with her and her trinkets everywhere. She's close to the end of life, so it was a blessing to spend that time and have my son with us in there. But we did move the toxic chemicals out of reach.

Chemicals, definitely. Electric sockets yes. Everything else is up to the parents. :)

When my girls were little (they are 32, 29 and 27 now, oh my!) I didn't "childproof" anything except the electrical plugs. Certainly I kept dangerous cleaning things etc out of reach but as far as just things they should not be touching or getting into...I just told them it didn't belong to them. I made sure they had their things and that they could do whatever they wanted with their things. I had a lower drawer in the kitchen for tupperware THAT drawer was allowed. The Christmas Tree....they had some of their OWN ornaments and could put them wherever they wanted, take them off...put them back on etc BUT the rest of the ornaments belong to Momma. Wall plugs....YES do put those little plastic things in. Anyone I have ever known that has used the cabinet thingies has said they are more of a pain than anything, for the adults. I was just not a fan of putting everything away for who knows how long. Little nes can learn what is ok to get into and what is not. If they haven't learned that, they should not be left alone long enough to get into trouble.

We pretty much cleared out anything dangerous. Some kids are really into everything, others are good about things. Our first would assess a room and find the tiniest weakness ("Ooh, a small piece of electrical cord sticking out!" "Ooh, a chunk of dirt on the floor!" "Ooh, a chair near a table ... I'll climb up!" etc.) and go after it. Our second stayed out of trouble.

We had heavy childproofing up after our first child and just left it up. In fact, we still have most of the door locks on even though our kids are in school! Just so much work to think of taking them all down now.

The only childproofing we have done is outlet covers. The rest of the time we just keep a sharp eye out. It's easy in our situation though, because we live in a 'cozy' one level house with my in-laws, so we have 3 extra sets of eyes keeping watch on her.

I am surprised that so many choose not to child-proof. I can respect the idea of teaching your child to live in your environment (and other's non-child-proofed environments) to some degree, but I don't like a home where we are saying "no" so often. I read somewhere that many times saying "no" cannot be avoided so when we can say "yes," to do so. I like this idea. Anyway, my son is almost one, so some of my opinion is based on the fact that he still is learning what "no" means and is not very trustworthy to obey. We have our house moderately child-proofed. All things safety concerned (stairs, chemicals, outlets) are child-proofed as well as a few others such as toilets and some cabinets. I have two older daughters who have a lot of small toys (choking hazards) so their room is off-limits to baby unless an adult is in there. I find it a huge convenience to me to be able to quick run into the bathroom or be cooking with baby nearby and not need to worry about his safety.

I childproof some cabinets with breakables, games with small pieces, a bathroom drawer with make-up, and my daughters hair accesories, toothpaste and whatnot. Had a gate, till my son ripped it down at 14mo. Still trying to figure something out for our upstairs windows. Right now we just don't open them in the summer. I don't like the permenant placement safetly latches because, what do you do if there's a fire. Suppose I could just do one window in each room. (feel free to email any suggestions)
I've moved all chemicals, and most cords out of reach (besides appliances like popcorn popper). My daughter was an angel, piece of cake. My son, well now he has learned to move the chair to where he wants to go. he's only 18mo, and thinks 'no' is just halarious. He's getting better everyday, but I think he's one that just needs to learn by experience.