Childproofing gizmos

[apenn]

And it begins . . .

Where is the best place to purchase such things (e.g. corner protectors, outlet plugs, etc.) and what do you reckon are essential? I already have a gate.

Thanks in advance for your advice,

-A

[The Nappy Lady]

Mothercare do them, but you may get a good deal on eBay. You can get kits but I found they included stuff you may not need.

We had: socket covers (but not everywhere), kitchen cupboard locks and staigates, plus Babydan around fire/pond (winter/summer).

I think it depends on the nature of your house and your child. Mine were not really into exploring cupboards etc (was lucky) and I did stuff like moving cleaning products to high cupboards and leaving Tupperware down low for them to get into.

If you have the right kind of handles you can pop an elastic band around them to keep them out of a cupboard!

Oh, door safety things worth looking at too, to save trapped fingers.

Pretend you've had a flood and move anything precious to above 3ft!!!

Molly

xx

[Fuschia]

Stop them puloing your CDS out and turning your PC on and off

WE have a gate to stop them gettiung into kicteh and bathroom and cleaning stuff locked away too

Locked cupbaord with dvds/player

CDS all move dup

plug sockets

corner protectors just get pulled off as does anythin that relies on sticky pads

[Belle]

We've not really had anything barring stair gates and the playpen which we separated so have one half in front of the fire (not used but big dirty grate thing he likes to pull out) and one half in front of the drinks cabinet (! he liked to pull out the bottles of whisky...). no door locks or corner thingys. He is a baby that's into everything so it's meant moving some stuff and also just being quite vigilant but I just never got round to getting all the other stuff and now figure we can do without.

[Pickle]

The only thing we've ever used are stairgates, and only at the top of the stairs when our eldest son was a bottom shuffler (and couldn't turn himself backwards to come down stairs safely). My youngest daughter is a mischief maker, but we've managed without cupboard locks etc., and we took our stairgates down prior to her crawling and have taught her to go up and down stairs safely from an early age.

Obviously it's a very personal thing, but we simply keep things that shouldn't be touched (cleaning products, sharp things) out of reach and don't use any of the other childproofing things you can buy.

[apenn]

Many thanks for the tips! Think I'll start by moving stuff out of reach (which urgently need to do) and then see what I need as he starts making trouble.

Has anyone found corner protectors that do stay on? That's the think I'm actually most worried about because our TV stand has some pretty nasty corners, as does our bedframe.

-A

[BellendenBear]

Get your health visitor to refer you for their safety service. You pay ?10 and they come and provide and fit ?60 of stuff, you just chose what you want from a list. Only available in Lambeth and Southwark I think. They fitted 2 stair gates, kitchen cupboard and freezer locks and provided lots more including corner covers, high chair harness etc etc. A real bargain.

We recently had some re-wiring done and the electrician told us that you don't need socket covers on the new 'MK' sockets.

[Moos]

We got corner protectors from Mothercare for a particularly wicked set of fireplace corners and a few times in the crazy early toddling days had cause to be glad of them. Damn kids of course pulled them off whenever they could but such is life.

[buggie]

The nastiest common accident (as opposed to the nice common accidents :-S) I see in ED is fingers shut in the hinge end of doors - there are foam discs with slits to go over doors (put them up high so DD/DS's can't pull them off!!) which would prevent nasty finger squishes/fractures/nails ripped off.

[clrky501]

I found it essential to have corner protectors on our dining table -the corners were at eye height for toddlers! and there were numerous occasions when my daughter and her friends were running around and bumped into them,once resulting in a nasty black eye so would have been much worse without the protectors-I found the ones shaped liked hands from Ikea stayed on really well-dont look that attractive thought-suppose it depends on your furniture and space around it.

[snowboarder]

Naughty baby snowboarder LOVES opening all cupboards and drawers. After a nasty incident with a heavy cast iron pan and a small foot we have locks on every door!! Freakin' annoying. And stair gates as sliding down the stairs is fun. And little hand corner protectors from ikea. The cupboard locks we have can be turned round to allow normal opening of door when the little monster is in bed - think from mothercare.

[curlykaren]

go with bellendenbears suggestion...for the ten pounds I paid we had a stair gate supplied and fitted, socket covers, fire blanket fitted in kitchen, door stoppers, cupboaed locks and a safety harness/reins...its a real bargain and if you need things not covered in their budget they can tell you what is necessaey.

[apenn]

Thanks to all and especially BellendenBear. That sounds like a great service and I had no idea they do that. In fact, I was just at the Health Visitor on Friday for my son's 8 month check up and she didn't mention it. I will definitely enquire. Interesting that they include a fire blanket on their list. I would never have thought of that although I have often thought that I should get a fire extinguisher. It's great that they do a full safety assessment. Don't know why they don't publicise this more!

Thanks for the suggestions about door hinges. Wouldn't have thought of that either!

-A