06 Jun 2011 5 Comments

Baby Proof Home

I know I should have posted this when Jordan started crawling but here I am months and months past our baby-proofing efforts and just getting around to  blogging about it. Anyway, when there is a baby or toddler in the house, there are always worries about him hurting himself with one thing or the other.

See what are the precautions that we made in order to try to achieve a baby proof home for our Small Fry.

Baby Gate
Since we have stairs, the most obvious first step was to install a walk-through, wall-mount on top of the stairs. We bought the Cardinal Special Gate off Amazon because it was the only wall-mount gate that would work on our stairs because of the crown molding on the walls. It worked very well for us, and super baby safe that we often have to provide visiting family and friends with a tutorial on how to open it.

Faucet Cover
The very first baby proofing item that we bought was the Skip Hop Moby bath spout cover. We bought it with a bunch of other Skip Hop items before Jordan was born and we used it from day one. We love it not only because it’s PVC-free but it works exactly as you would expect. It slides easily over the spout of your bathtub and is thick enough to protect little ones from getting hurt if they bang their head on the spout.

Outlet Plug Covers
We first bought the Safety 1st Secure Press Plug Protectors and they are horrible! They’re not just a complete waste of money (no wonder they’re cheap!) but a choking hazard too. Babies could easily rip these out of the wall and put  them in their mouth. I would not recommend it at all.

Then we tried the Safety 1st Ultra Clear Plug Covers which are better because they’re harder to remove. However, not hard enough once your child develops more dexterity and strength. Not to mention that they are small enough that they pose a choking hazard as well.

It’s so true that you get what you pay for so after wasting our money on those two horrible products, we decided to spend more and bought the Kidco Universal Outlet Plug Covers. They are pricey – almost $5 each per outlet and we had to buy almost 20 of them! They are so worth it though. They slide open to access the plug-in area and slide closed when not in use. If things get unplugged, the sliding part works automatically and they’re  difficult for little fingers.

Bi-fold Door Locks
Mommy’s Helper Slid-Lok are perfect for the pantry and closet doors in my Jordan’s room to keep him from pinching his fingers.

Door Finger Guards
When my sister was little, her ring finger got crushed by our bedroom door. It was really bad that her nail fell out but it thankfully grew back. Needless to say, I’m so paranoid that this might happen to Jordan so every door in our house has the Safety 1st Finger Pinch Preventer.  I really like how you can just hang it on the door knob when the door is closed. I initially bought the American Redcross Finger Guard but I didn’t like how I had to find a place to put it when the door needs to be closed. Also, if someone who is unaware that it’s there and slam the door, the screws are quite easily stripped from the door and it could actually take the door off the hinges.

Door Knob Covers
We weren’t even thinking about putting door knob covers until we learned that Jordan knows how to lock the door! Fortunately, we found that out before he could actually lock himself in a room. We accidentally found that out when one night, I was laying in bed while I let Jordan run around the room. Then I heard Michael knocking on the door asking me why I had to lock it. I told him I did not lock it so he asked me if Jordan did and I told him there’s no way Jordan could have done  it since it isn’t the kind of lock that you just have to push, you’d have to twist it. He was still suspicious so we let Jordan play in our bedroom while we secretly watched him. To my horror, I saw him tip-toeing and locking the door! The next day, I bought the Mommy’s Helper Door Knob Covers on Amazon. Lesson of the day: never underestimate what your 1 year old can do!

Sliding Door Lock
Just like the door knob covers, I never realized I had to buy a lock for our sliding doors either. Just a few days after installing the knob covers, Jordan unlocked the sliding door in the kitchen and went out to the deck! Needless to say, I bought the Sliding Door Flip Locks right away. I also bought extras and put them on the shower sliding doors.

Stove Knob Covers
One night while Michael was doing around the house check before going to bed, he saw that our stove was on. We thought we forgot to completely turned it off but few days later, we realized that Jordan’s been turning them on! That day of discovery, Michael went to Babies R Us and bought the Safety 1st Clear View Covers.

Within minutes of installing the knob covers, Jordan discovered them and became even more fascinated with the stove! He immediately began spinning them around on the knobs, and it took no time for him to figure out that if you pull hard enough, the cover and the knob come right off together! But hey, we’d rather have him pull the knob off the stove completely than set the house on fire!

Cushion Guards
We really like how the Prince Lionheart Corner Cushion Guards are very soft and provide great amount of cushion to sharp edges. Unfortunately, we didn’t have it installed yet on the coffee table in our family room when Jordan fell and had to be taken to the hospital for stitches on his lip.

Furniture Straps
We all know that toddlers loves to climb so we put the Kidco Anti-Tip Furniture Strap on the dresser in Jordan’s room and we also installed Kidco Anti-Tip TV Strap on our TV in the kitchen. We didn’t need to put it on the TV in the family room since it was enclosed with the Baby Gate Play Yard.

Cabinet/Drawer Locks
These Safety 1st Wide Grip Latches are pain in the butt to install! They work okay but a little hard to push if not installed 100% correctly. If you plan on putting these kind of latches on your drawers & cabinets, I recommend getting the Kidco Latches instead. They are so much easier to push when you need to open your drawers.

Some might think that I’m going overboard with baby proofing but I know that properly baby proofing our home can insure that our child does not  get injuries that can be prevented by taking the proper precautions.

So if you have any more ideas, do share! Let’s enjoy playtime with our babies without compromising their safety.

by Joy in Product Reviews, Safety