Kid Proofing...

prospect

OK,

So our little one has discovered crawling, and has already proven to be a rather destructive little goose, so have been kiddy proofing the house, here is what has been done so far:

- All trailing lead items removed, or leads put out of reach
- Floorstand bookshelves have been fixed to the walls
- Dangerous items have been moved up to higher shelves

We need to
- put child locks on kitchen presses
- Protect the plug sockets
- Do something with the sharp corners of the coffee table

Any advice on good/bad products and any other tips would be greatly appreciated. Also, where to source these items.

P.

Davidth88

Do put locks on the kitchen presses/drawers, practice on one that does not matter , ie a high one . I found them quite tricky to fit on the presses because they have to line up.

Nevyn

I found that a lot of the things needed could be found in boots at reasonible prices rather then other stores.

6th

Yeah boots is great but I think I got a kit in Tony Keeleys which had a selection of everything ... including a guard for the front of the VCR to spot things being put in!

looksee

I found the single most useful bit of kid-proofing was stairs gates (assuming you have an upstairs of course!)

deisemum

I didn't put locks on the kitchen cupboards or drawers when I replaced my kitchen because the locks can cause accidents, eg fingers getting caught.

I think Tesco have some safety gadgets

littlebug

I only put locks on one of the low kitchen cupboards, the one with the cleaning stuff in it. They've both had lots of fun taking out and putting back saucepans, plastic bowls, tupperware stuff with pasta/ rice etc in them for shaking. All breakable stuff goes in the higher cupboards.
You can get guards for the front of the cooker too, keep them away from knobs or grabbing pot handles etc.
You can get rubbery "C" shaped things for slotting on to regular doors so they don't close over on little fingers.

deisemum

Smyths have an extensive range of safety gadgets

Victor

Also doors - and small fingers.

Linford

You can get a little crazy trying to child proof a house. As a previous poster said the most important thing you can do is get a stair gate. That's all we have.

As luck would have it our sockets are mid way up the wall, but I am not sure you can get an electric shock from just putting a finger/object into one of the holes, I think all three holes have to be pressed in (correct me if I'm wrong)

Doors can be nasty, but its really important that kids learn that they have to be careful around doors because although you might have safety things in place you will visit places that don't.

Locks on presses are more dangerous than an open presses, just keep the poisonous stuff closed and out of reach.

Hanging wires from appliances are dangerous as they can be pulled down.

Sharp edges can be nasty, but you can't be bubble wrapping your furniture, bumps and bruises happen.

kashi

The problem I find with kid proofing anything, is that it is often then adult proof too!! Well maybe slight exaggeration, but not that much. Of course some things are essential, but as someone said, bumps and bruises do happen (and not just to children either!).

Good luck in your search for kid proofing equipment:)

deisemum

kashi wrote:

The problem I find with kid proofing anything, is that it is often then adult proof too!! Well maybe slight exaggeration, but not that much. Of course some things are essential,

So true. As a childminder I have to have everything as safe as possible and safety aspects are inspected annually

bushy...

Linford wrote:

As luck would have it our sockets are mid way up the wall, but I am not sure you can get an electric shock from just putting a finger/object into one of the holes, I think all three holes have to be pressed in (correct me if I'm wrong)

Something stuck into just the righthand lower one will so , shouldn't be too bad as the leakage breaker will( should!) cut the power .
I saw a neat guard for the hinge side of the door lately , it was just a plastic strip . Small fingers getting caught in tha side of the door would be really badly injured.

nesf

Figure out what the child should never touch (cleaners, bleach, steak knives, the camera etc) and put them somewhere the child can't get to. Very high up/in a room that's always locked and "out of bounds"/whatever.


A playpen is possibly the second most important bit of child proofing (after a stairs gate). Having one means that you have somewhere you can put them when you can't keep an eye on them where they are safe when you can't watch them.

Press locks etc are not a substitute for supervision and all that. They help but bear in mind that they aren't foolproof.

nesf

bushy... wrote:

Something stuck into just the righthand lower one will so , shouldn't be too bad as the leakage breaker will( should!) cut the power.

+1

Your circuit breakers should prevent any serious injury. I wouldn't show my son how to short circuit a socket or anything but I wouldn't get overly paranoid about it. There are bigger dangers to worry about, like stairs.


Edit: Actually, assuming that your sockets are in decent condition (ie all the holes are covered when there's nothing stuck in the top hole) the problem isn't so much the child sticking something into the socket. A finger (for most children who have the motor skills to do it) is far too big to actually fit into it. You also need a fair amount of force to get past the plastic piece covering the socket holes and finally you need something thin, longer than an inch, and conductive to put in there. For the vast majority of households that means a thin piece of metal, most likely a screwdriver, fork or knife etc. All of which should never be in a young child's hands unsupervised to begin with.

foxy06

My sister in law was looking after my house for me while I was away and spent most of it without milk because she couldn't get the fridge door open with the safety latch on it!

Peteer

prospect wrote:

We need to
- put child locks on kitchen presses

The best thing we found was the DreamBaby Mag Lock, Smyths have them.
http://www.dreambaby.com.au/new/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=27

I highly recommend them!

Cheers,
Peter

littlebug

foxy06 wrote:

My sister in law was looking after my house for me while I was away and spent most of it without milk because she couldn't get the fridge door open with the safety latch on it!

Lol. I came home one night to find the babysitter leaping over the gate at the top of the stairs as she couldn't get it opened. Just a good job it was an agile teenager babysitting and not granny!

Linford

Peteer wrote:

The best thing we found was the DreamBaby Mag Lock, Smyths have them.
http://www.dreambaby.com.au/new/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=27

I highly recommend them!

Cheers,
Peter

What happens when you inevitably lose the key?

prospect

Peteer wrote:

The best thing we found was the DreamBaby Mag Lock, Smyths have them.
http://www.dreambaby.com.au/new/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=27

I highly recommend them!

Cheers,
Peter

Ha,

I bought one of these yesterday, wasn't cheap either, €16 for two locks & one key !!

I brought it home and we studied it, and have not decided wether or not to open it yet. We would deffo need at least two keys.

I suppose moving the dangerous items too higher presses, and then only having to lock a handful of presses is a better option.



Thank you all for your helpful comments.

CJhaughey

Any piece of furniture that has drawers in it is potentially dangerous,Kids quickly discover that drawers can be pulled out to form stairs.
To prevent toppling over fix nylon strapping to the back of the cabinet and then to the wall use large washers to stop the screws pulling through the material.
It sounds kind of stupid until you pull a drawer out and see how easy it is to make a chest or wardrobe topple by pushing down.
There was a very sad case a few years back in the UK where twins were killed by this, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/3702580.stm