Comments on: Ask Unclutterer: Simple baby-proofing solutions

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:15:21 +0000

I’m going to have to go with Naomi on this topic. I think some baby-proofing is important, i.e. stairs, chemicals and outlets but I thinks it’s even more important to set boundaries for your children and for them to learn and understand “no”. Baby-proofing every potential danger doesn’t teach them that they shouldn’t touch certain things it just makes them unaccessible and doesn’t help when they are at someone else’s house.

By: Homestead

Homestead — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:05:28 +0000

We put the power strip that couldn’t be stashed away in a clear plastic shoe box with holes cut in the ends. Teething babies (and puppies) love to chew cords.

I could talk about baby proofing for a long time. But here are a couple things I know for sure.

1. Zip ties. We ran zip ties through the vents in the flatscreen tv to hook it to the stair railing and/or to eyebolts in the wall. Apparently falling/tipping flatscreens are a new big injury issue. We also do this with any large climbable furniture like bookcases and Sissy’s play kitchen.

2. Travel. A good roll of gaffer’s tape (or gorilla tape or duct tape) is great for baby proofing a hotel room or a temporary place to stay. Cover the outlets, tape the cabinets closed. And for the love of all…. keep the kids out of the suitcase and Grandma’s purse. (Yes, my brother drank Jafra facial toner and, yes, my husband ate his Gram’s heart medication… as children, of course.)

3. Pool Noodles. Skip the fancy babyproofing stuff…. get a couple of pool noodles at the dollar store. On windy days we put a chunk of noodle on the screen door (slit and slid over edge) to keep it from slamming tiny fingers. Works great on the sharper edges of life if you have an especially wicked coffee table. Also a great (but hideous) way to cover cords/cables/wires.

I’m not a fan of OVER-babyproofing but I also like to make it easy on myself and my kids.

By: Nat

Nat — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:24:42 +0000

Our daughter is almost 2. We did the usual babyproofing of the common dangerous stuff, but not so much for the electronics. The TV and stereo were already in a converted closet in the guest room, so that we could just close the door when we needed to. Most of the time we just close the door to the whole room to save on heat, so The Girl’s hardly ever in there unless we’re using the room. The remotes are on the table in the open, but it’s not like she’s obsessed with them. She hardly touches them except to hand them to me to turn something on.
For computers, we mostly have laptops that can be put away when necessary. I usually only do that when we host a playgroup. The Husband has an office with an old monitor and cords up the wazoo, but we don’t let her hang out in there unsupervised. Besides, the spinning chair in there is much more fun. Otherwise, The Girl has been taught over time that playing on the computer is a supervised activity. I did add a free keyboard lock out program for my iBook that activates a kid friendly typing program for her instead of whatever I was working on.
Maybe we’re just lucky. I do know kids that could find trouble in a padded room. In our case, teaching, decoys (ie give the kid her own laptop or electronic toy) and a little out of sight out of mind seem to be working.

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:42:10 +0000

Also, for all the parents who are saying their kids aren’t interested in or can’t reach or don’t bother with certain things – kids change all the time. In two seconds, two hours, or two weeks – they can suddenly be doing the very thing you thought they never would!

By: pluto

pluto — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:05:00 +0000

Heavy duty velcro was a staple when our son was that age. Our speaker stands were velcro’ed to the the tile floor and the (light) speakers velcro’ed to the stand. Not only did it keep them from falling on my son when learning to walk, but they also don’t get knocked down now when he and his friends decide to re-enact battle scenes or the football game. If you need to keep (light) stuff in place, this is an easy, invisible, and non-permanent way to do so.

My son was also “trained” not to mess with things, but that only goes so far. You don’t want one mistake to be costly or fatal. We have a stand with CD/DVDs that he learned not touch, but it took a few times of having them all over the floor. We also learned that his friends (and their younger siblings) did not know what could be touched and what couldn’t.

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:40:49 +0000

Moving with a toddler is great for babyproofing! You already known what s/he is drawn towards and can keep the tchotchkes packed away for a few more years.

The folks who say “just train the kid” are on to something, but only halfway. Some kids are a LOT more obedient than others and while that may work for a lot of kids, some need complete childproofing to stay safe and keep you sane.

Start with the dangerous stuff. No matter how well behaved your kid is, keep that completely unobtainable. Think through the consequences of a moment of disobedience and act accordingly. What’s the worst thing that could happen if they climbed the book case? It could fall and kill them. Bolt it. What’s the worst thing that could happen if they opened the cabinet under the sink and drank bleach? Use a GOOD childproof latch (my kids learned to work the cheap ones in no time) or better yet, put chemicals in a high cabinet. Mine are in the cabinet above the stove because it’s the only one without shelves.

Now, what’s the worst thing that could happen if they get their hands on your computer? As long as you have a password-protected screen saver, the worst thing is an unscheduled reboot. Inconvenient, for sure, but not life threatening.

I feel like Smokey The Bear, but really, only YOU know what your kid needs. Is she drawn to outlets? Get the good outlet protectors where you have to push a button to get them out. Does she ignore them? Then don’t bother with any at all. The cheap ones you press in just attract kids to the outlet and their little nimble fingers are perfect for fishing them out.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:35:02 +0000

We have a large number of electronic devices in our house, and here’s what we did:

I bought clear Plexiglas sheets at Lowe’s. I cut them to fit over the front of the shelves on the entertainment center (easily done with a razor blade or a utility knife), drilled little holes in the corners (can be a bit tricky), and then hung them from upside down cup hooks in front of the stereo equipment. If you wanted, you could buy small hinges and fasten them on. This solution is lightweight, has no breaking glass to worry about, makes it easy to see the readouts, protects the contents from flying sippy cups, the little person can’t yank it off, and she usually can’t wiggle her hand behind it.

This will also work for a TV screen that is fabric (like our rear-projection DLP) that you need to protect. Oh, and it does wonders for bookcases without doors.

We actually drilled holes in the floors and ran our speaker wires and CAT-5 cable through the floors. We also ran them *up* the walls and across the ceiling. White duct tape is great for white ceilings, as a temporary measure.

Laptops are great for easily moving computers away from small children. We bought a net-book and use it as our primary “surfing” computer.

When the temptation to bang on it became too much for her, about a year old, I hooked it up to the TV’s VGA port, tucked it behind the Plexiglas, and used a wireless keyboard to surf using the TV screen.

I also shared the computer with by downloading Giggles software so that she could bang on the computer, get used to it, get tired of it, and then go find something else to do.

Our printer was actually on a high shelf, along with the router, modem, etc., so that she couldn’t reach it.

I work from home, and at one point, made a practice of barricading myself in a corner behind the couch with a baby-gate so that she could run about and not be tempted by all the shiny lights, including the power-strip switch.

Now, at 2, our daughter is old enough to lay on the floor and watch Kipper or Caillou while Mommy & Daddy watch their shows.

By: Morydd

Morydd — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:13:19 +0000

A couple of things to keep in mind too… what’s a “high” shelf one week, may not be the next. Some kids like to climb and will get into anything they can. Also, any tall piece of furniture should be secured to the wall regardless of the presence of little ones. Especially if you live in an earthquake prone area, or an older building that’s not quite level.

One thing we’ve found that seems to work well so far (our little guy is 21 months) is that we set aside the low shelves for his books and toys. He’s generally not interested in climbing up to grab our stuff if his (more fun) stuff is easier to get to.

By: Jasi

Jasi — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:58:50 +0000

We installed a wall cabinet from Ikea and hid our computer away in it. Also Ikea cable management tubes can be cut to size to minimize mess. Love it.

By: Beverly D

Beverly D — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:41:08 +0000

It depends on the child. Some kids are fast, and you can’t take a chance on them getting seriously hurt, or causing $$$ in damage. My grandson is a case in point, he is like a lightening bug. You can’t turn your back on him for a second, even now that he’s 3. And this has been since he learned to roll at 6 months. What worked with him was the baby fence method mentioned above, to keep him out rather than in. You do have to resist using it as a clutter magnet for anything you want to keep out of reach but it worked well.

By: April

April — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:53:42 +0000

Like Naomi, we simply teach them not to mess with it. Never has been a problem, and is certainly much cheaper (free, technically) than trying to rig your computer station to guard it from a toddler.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:00:33 +0000

I vote for an armoire w/doors that close and childproofing latches if you need it – we have a media armoire that we got specifically because we didn’t want our toddler pulling the TV down on top of himself – there’s no learning from a fatal accident.

It was actually the first piece of brand-new furniture I ever bought and it was *so* worth it. It has drawers underneath that he can access, but the knobs for the doors are so high he still can’t open them himself.

By: Rue

Rue — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:49:38 +0000

They make computer armoires that are made for using the computer (i.e., have a pull-out shelf for the keyboard and a place you can pull a chair up to) but have doors that can close. My mom has one, and it even has a lock on it so you can close and lock it when not in use so that your child can’t get into it. These won’t look too much different from a TV armoire so it won’t look out of place in your living room.

Like this: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Saud.....sh/6051640

By: Naomi

Naomi — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:49:01 +0000

Hi. We pretty much avoided baby proofing too much. I was always told (not sure who by!) that kids need to learn about safety and putting everything out of reach makes this hard. We didn’t bolt anything down or move anything. We just taught our kids what they could and couldn’t touch/play with and actually with consistency it worked. Now they are 2 and 4 it isn’t such an issue but there’s still only one kitchen cupboard they are allowed to root around in. They call it “our” cupboard.

By: Dad is in the House

Dad is in the House — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:12:34 +0000

I agree with all this stuff. If I was doing it again, I would probably take an armoire and cut the doors in half so I had dutch-style doors where the bottom could be closed while working on the computer. However, I wouldn’t go out and buy a bunch of new stuff before you get the feel of what your kid is going to be interested in. My daughter loved the computer buttons. But I have two nephews, one of whom couldn’t care less and left the whole thing alone; the other is even worse than my daughter was for playing with cords and buttons.