How to Baby Proof House?

1Kenobi on 06/11/2018 - 11:55
Last edited 06/11/2018 - 12:01 by 1 other user

Calling all parents? How to baby proof our house? What needs to be done?

We are struggling to source some good quality child safety locks etc for drawers and doors.

Our baby is starting to crawl and soon will be into everything.

We've searched Bunnings, Baby Bunting, and looked on Amazon but the choice has been unclear.

We did buy some test products but the sticky pads on one lot failed, and the others didnt fit. I dont want to waste more $$$

Are the magnet locks best? or the press spring locks? Sticky pads or screws?

What brand/store/products have worked for you?

Any clues appreciated.

Home & Garden Baby Accessory

Comments

  • nocure on 06/11/2018 - 12:02
    +8

    Use protection…

    • 1Kenobi on 06/11/2018 - 12:08

      I did have in the title that its too late for contraception (but it got edited out).

  • [Deactivated] on 06/11/2018 - 12:08
    +8

    Biggest fear for me would be coin sized batteries. They can do serious damage.

    • 1Kenobi on 06/11/2018 - 12:10

      ok I'll sort that one out asap

  • myusername on 06/11/2018 - 12:18
    +6

    a decent sized bird cage so you can just shift your kid around in

  • onetwothreefour on 06/11/2018 - 12:18

    Doh

  • DarthAntz on 06/11/2018 - 12:20
    +1

    houseproof the baby. stack-hat, spit hood from don dale, a bit of bubble wrap and you're safe

  • geek001 on 06/11/2018 - 12:20
    +7

    All we had were the corner pads for tables/coffee tables and cabinet latches. We did have a large play pen. It is better to child proof the play pen than trying to child proof the entire house because we had stairs, stepped floors, etc. Don't stress too much, children are pretty resilient. Despite all the pads, we still manage to have one child with a dent at the top of his head one time, he turned out mostly ok. :)

  • rompastompa on 06/11/2018 - 12:22
    +8

    Put a fence around your property. They can't climb that well until they're a toddler.

    If you're serious about stopping babies from entering your house, a small moat will definitely work.

    In all seriousness though, just keep sharp/dangerous objects away. We've got a couple of baby gates up, one particular is a step with sharp tiles. At the beginning, have a dedicated play area / food area. Your baby doesn't need a run of the whole house.

    We've also dedicated one draw that he can play with, and he doesn't touch the other draws.

    Kids are durable. I was in the same mind set, where we were trying to baby proof everything. You probably only need gates for <6 months, then they're pretty good at mobility and receptive to your commands (or being a brat and doing the opposite on purpose, but you know when they're in those moods!).

  • Melb69 on 06/11/2018 - 12:23
    +6

    Stop looking at your phone and watch your child.

    Use the mag locks for drawers and cupboard doors.

    Remove all dangerous chems from low shelves.

    Anchor all low drawers, and any shelves, so they dont topple over. This can be done with chain and screw fix to stud and sold part of furniture.

    Fix LCD screens to wall. Fix with chain.

    Get one of those fences to keep them out of certain sections of house.

    • rompastompa on 06/11/2018 - 12:37
      +1

      Anchor all low drawers, and any shelves, so they dont topple over.

      Agreed, it's common sense, but old furniture that you don't look at can be forgotten/ignored..

      If you're like me, and lazily put book shelves up without anchors when you had no kids, check the stability.

    • Some Human on 06/11/2018 - 20:01
      +1

      Stop looking at your phone and watch your child.

      Too right.
      Reminds me of this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjz-ngp_DYk

  • bargainhunter87 on 06/11/2018 - 12:26
    +4

    FENCE THE POOOOL!

    • k-rokfm on 06/11/2018 - 13:07
      +2

      SHUT THE GATE!

      • Quantumcat on 06/11/2018 - 13:40
        +3

        And learn how to resuscitate

        • gooddealmate on 06/11/2018 - 19:39

          Too eager QuantumCat, missed 3 & 4.

  • Archi on 06/11/2018 - 12:58
    +5

    hadn't baby proofed our apartment or house and we have 2 kids. 1 is now 5 and the other 2.5 only ting we did was put some foam on sharp corners of low cabinets and moved all sharp or harmful objects to higher cupboards.

    funny thing is if you stop them from opening a draw… the more they want to do it. just let them do it a couple of times and they'll stop opening it themselves.

    instead of putting a play pen around the kid, my sister put the play pen around the tv cabinet so the kid cant get to it.

    • try2bhelpful on 07/11/2018 - 07:11

      My sister put a playpen around her sewing machine.

  • spackbace on 06/11/2018 - 13:18
    +14

    1st child - how to baby-proof the house?
    2nd child - my child has a bump, not sure what's wrong?
    3rd child - not sure where my child went to, can anyone assist?

    😂😂

    Definitely get more complacent as you get more kids

  • Archi on 06/11/2018 - 13:31

    you could always wrap the baby up so you don't need to do anything to the house… bubble wrap around the belly thick enough it goes past their reach… that way cant use their fingers to open draws a little helmet would be required too.

    trying to picture this on my child… pretty funny

  • [Deactivated] on 06/11/2018 - 13:52
    +1

    I took the handles of the cupboard doors. I found the locks were not that good as the kid just pulled hard on the door and forced them open, also at about 20 months she figured out how to use the magnet to open the door.

    The best thing is to put things up high, there is no chemicals in low cupboards they are on top of the fridge. (Dishwashing tablets are really bad).

  • chumlee on 06/11/2018 - 14:20
    +1

    Baby proof the parents, much simpler

  • altomic on 06/11/2018 - 14:34
    +1

    We only put a gate at the top of the stairs. Other than that we never did any "baby proofing "

  • John Kimble on 06/11/2018 - 14:36

    Only thing we really got was baby gates. All that other stuff we found unnecessary.

  • savage bargain on 06/11/2018 - 16:44
    +5

    We:
    - installed a gate to the kitchen (a pull-out fabric one as the entrance is on an angle)
    - bolted furniture to the wall (just used a normal angle bracket)
    - gaffa taped the back of anything with small batteries that wasn't protected with a screw
    - moved anything we didn't want kids touch/drink/eat to higher cupboards
    - made sure we emptied baths/mop buckets immediately after use and kept stuff soaking on the laundry bench
    - only put on the latches on cupboards that would be a pain to tidy up if the contents were emptied, but left most as either kids learn to get around the latches or the latches are too complicated and adults stop using them
    - kept bathroom doors closed until we finally got through telling them that playing/licking the toilet is not a good idea

    We still did the constant "don't touch that", "ovens are hot", "climbing that is dangerous", etc. education too as most places we were visit weren't child proof, and apparently I got through the child proof stuff by 2 years so wanted to be prepared if the same happened (and it did). I had to exaggerate though as the oldest was a daredevil. e.g. about to play with the baggage carousel, she only stopped after I told her "if you touch that, it'll rip your arm off." Or the BBQ "that's so hot it'll melt your hands away and then you can never play with any toys ever again". Also consider doing a kid's first aid course. We did one with an ex-paramedic that helped put perspective on the dangers to focus on. Like burns, drownings, and choking were the highest call outs with adverse outcomes, and party balloons are the worst choking hazard as they don't come back out until tools are used.

    Remember even the best child proofing doesn't protect everything and you have to keep an eye out because they will always find something dangerous. It's like they want to hurt themselves at times… Like when our oldest pulled a packet of Nurofen out of a visitor's handbag and once we heard silence, I caught her about to each them like lollies.

    • John Kimble on 06/11/2018 - 16:49
      +4

      Haha, yep…silence is a big red flag!

      • savage bargain on 08/11/2018 - 22:28

        Yep, 9 times out of 10 it means I'll be Googling how to clean something or explaining how what they're doing will maim/kill them…

    • 1Kenobi on 06/11/2018 - 23:08

      Thanks for the considered response

  • pjetson on 06/11/2018 - 19:54

    How to Baby Proof House

    Are you trying to keep the babies out or in?

  • Mummy2 on 06/11/2018 - 21:03
    +1

    We used locks like these on drawer knobs, locking one drawer to the one above etc so they could only be opened all at once, so only the top drawer could be got into (we only have stacks of 3 drawers). We kept safe stuff in the top drawer eg empty hot water bottles.
    https://www.babybunting.com.au/dreambaby-flexible-loop-lock.…

    We used these on side by side cupboard doors https://www.babybunting.com.au/dreambaby-flexi-lock-2pk.html

    We also put cabin locks on the tops of doors to rooms we considered potentially unsafe eg the utility room where we kept all the cleaning chemicals (in locked cupboards) and the bathrooms and the spare bedroom if we using it for storage - however the cabin locks were mostly kept unlocked for the bathroom especially during toilet training times. Cabin locks are really easy to install and remove at the end when you no longer need them.

  • dp1 on 07/11/2018 - 10:03

    Multi pack of bungee cords for shutting cupboards, much stronger than specific baby locks. Choose one cupboard for the dangerous items and leave the rest open.
    No coffee table (we haven't had one for 13 years)-corners to hit their head when crawling, bumps when they crawl under it, then walking or running into it a few months later.
    Leather couches can be wiped clean, fabric will be ruined. For other non painted surfaces buy a bottle of acetone from supercheap auto which will remove most stains. Don't have cream carpets.

  • jacross on 07/11/2018 - 11:01
    +1

    Playpen/gating was probably the most useful thing.

    • skillet on 10/11/2018 - 21:53

      Yes if you start very early, if they get a taste of freedom they wont like staying in playpen. Start before they can roll. Its not cruel its actually keeping them safe, you can always let them out whenever you have time. Playpens are actually helpful when training them for standing, its safest place to fall. Dont let them sleep in playpen so they wont associate playpen with sleep unless you want them to sleep there.

      Once they start crawling you can buy a leash and tie them under a tree they love watching leaves.

  • HeWhoKnows on 07/11/2018 - 20:30

    Get one of those baby play pens

  • try2bhelpful on 07/11/2018 - 20:53

    I can't even cat proof my house. One of our little Houdinis keeps escaping out through the front alcove gate, even though it is now it looks like a chicken coop out there. Anyone know a good wrought iron gate maker - we are going to need to start from scratch.

  • Euphemistic on 08/11/2018 - 10:37

    It’s a moving target. Most important thing is supervision. Don’t go and do everything all at once, you might find it is wasted effort. Eg our kids never climbed so didn’t need to worry about stuff up high.

    For a crawler make sure dangerous things are up high enough.
    For a toddler ensuring they can’t get out doors windows, yard etc.
    Putting things in locked or child proof positions.
    for a climber a while level of controls above.

    One thing you should do is allow some access to cupboards etc that are safe. Ie te Tupperware cupboard/drawer so the kid can explore, but be less tempted to go for the chemicals.

  • try2bhelpful on 08/11/2018 - 10:42
    +1

    You need to be very careful with hot things, like saucepans, cups of tea/coffe, etc. Kids can reach up a suprisingly long way and will pull things down on top of themselves. Things like turning saucepan handles in, rather than out. Maybe taking your drinks a bit colder, turn down the thermostat on your hot water system, etc. Also make sure you don't leave the kids and pets alone together - even the best of animals has a limit when it comes to being prodded and pulled.

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