We finally finished baby-proofing this weekend, at least for now! Over the last month, we...
- covered all the electric outlets.
- rearranged the cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen, so all the cleaning supplies, medicine and such are out of reach.
- anchored our two bookshelves and two dressers to the wall.
- bought a fire extinguisher and checked the smoke alarms.
- hung a shelf in the laundry room so we don't have to keep the detergent on the floor.
- moved the paint cans from the laundry room floor to the shelf in our hall closet.
- covered up the fireplace so the babe can't crawl in there.
We still want to anchor our tv, but we are planning to get a new tv stand soon, so that's on hold for a bit. And, of course, I'm sure we'll need some baby gates eventually. Our bathroom and laundry room have pocket doors. The little girl I nannied for last year figured out how to work those when she was about fourteen months old, way before she could reach regular door knobs.
I feel like my detergent is on display now and that they need to be in prettier containers! It's kind of extremely laughable how hard of a time we had getting this shelf up. We tried four different dry wall anchors before one finally worked. At that point, we had many so many holes in the wall that we had to patch them first. But then it took the maintenance guy more than a week to get back to us with some touch up paint. Six weeks later, we finally finished.
We decided to use industrial strength velcro and plywood to cover up the fireplace, that way we can remove it anytime we want. But when we went to Home Depot for the supplies, we saw that chalkboard was only a few bucks more than regular plywood. We got to skip painting it and maybe we'll let Claire use it as her easel one day.
So, much wiser parents than us, are we missing anything? It seems like most of the check lists you find online are a bit extreme. One recommended covering sliding doors {like the one we have from our living room to the balcony} in bright stickers so your kid won't run into them...
sounds great! My only thoughts are that you might want to keep Claire out of some if not all of your bottom cabinets in the kitchen so she doesn't make a mess with pots/pans/tupperware on the floor. Also, someone mentioned to me that babies will eventually pull up on the stove. They can smash the door into their heads. So you may want to get an oven lock when you notice her starting to do that. Then take the oven knobs off and keep them in a basket on the counter so she can't turn on the gas/electric. Once that all starts to happen, keep the dishwasher locked when not in use so she can't smash her head on that either. See how she does with the curtains. She may try and pull on them. Lastly, if you have any blinds, make sure that there are not multiple strings on the part that you pull down. If there are, untie the group, and make them individual pulls so Claire can't choke herself on it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jenn! Unfortunately none of these apply to our situation {we always keep the oven and dishwasher locked, all the knobs are at the back of the stove where she can't reach, and we don't have long curtains or mini blinds} but they are all great ideas to keep in mind.
DeleteP.S. Our outlet covers are from Ikea, but you can find them anywhere!
what electric covers did you get? we're going to need to get a bunch soon!
ReplyDeleteAHH, keep remotes or anything with batteries away from her reach! My pedi patient last week was in the ER because he had eaten batteries and was so so sick!! The parents felt awful and there was little we could do to console them .
ReplyDeleteWow, that is so crazy! Definitely moving those remotes off the coffee table immediately.
Deletegood call on the velcro. i'm gonna copy that. right now we just have the wood piece kinda crammed in our fireplace. we're pretty much living on the edge over here! ha!
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