Baby Proof: Tips For Baby Proofing your House

October 12, 2012

How Do You Baby Proof Your House?

Here’s All The Baby Proofing Tips We’ve Used For Far:

Do you have a mobile baby or toddler, and need some tips on how to baby proof your flat or house? Here are all the baby proofing tips we’ve picked up so far.
Baby proof - tips for baby proofing your house

Help, Our Baby Is On The Move!

Having spent much of the last week retrieving an increasingly mobile baby from lurching towards the fireplace, TV unit and the underneath of our chairs, Alex and I recently closed ranks and launched operation baby-proof the flat.

We had to step it up a pace this week when she learned to baby crawl forwards and then learned to crawl forwards in double-quick time, all in the space of a day and a half.

Our previously safe house has become her brand new assault course, where she spies an unsuitable target in the distance and then just will not stop until she gets her hands on it (or until a parent scoops her up and halts her mission).

How Do You Baby Proof A Flat?

We live in the top floor of an old building that’s been converted into flats, like a lot of London properties. The potential for baby danger wasn’t really showing up on our radar when we bought it two and a half years ago, back when having babies was still a vague concept that you know, *other people* did.

So while it’s lovely, it’s  not the most child-friendly of places; here’s what would be keeping me awake at night, if I didn’t fall into a sleep coma the minute my head hit the pillow every evening:

Here Are The Baby Proofing Danger Zones

  • Our old-school coal fire: this gets a lot of use in winter so a fireguard is essential (but all the ones I’ve seen are so ugly, like a cross between a chicken coop and a dangerous dog cage. I know we need to bite the bullet and get one but surely someone must have designed a slightly stylish one? We’re already living with the Jumperoo…)
  • While we have no internal steps or stairs, there are open bannisters on our external landing, eek. There’s a front door – and a parent – in the way but how do we make it safe for just in case, if there’s ever an off-our-guard moment?
  • At the moment we’re letting her roam around within reason – while I keep a really, really close eye on her – and we have beautiful but rickety floorboards. What if she catches herself on a loose nail or uneven edge we haven’t taped up?

Steps We’ve Taken To Toddler-Proof Our House

  • Firstly, we moved anything that’s potentially dangerous or could be pulled off a shelf out of the way. This included moving lots of things to the top shelves of our bookcase, out of crawling baby reach.
  • We bought a baby-proofing kit with plug socket covers, drawer and cupboard door clips and so on. You can get these from most baby shops online.
  • We covered the reachable plug sockets with plastic covers, or moved furniture in the way.
  • When it comes to cupboards and drawers, in our kitchen for example, we used child-proof safety locks (you can also get magnetic cabinet locks and magnetic child locks)
  • We’ve moved everything from the floor – this included the plant from our living room has been banished to the chilly midst of the outside hall,
  • There is now a stair gate barricading the kitchen door, and the door to the hall (where the outside door is).

I’ve written before about parenting worry, and I think from everyone’s response to that blog post says that it will never go away. But this is a worry; is there anything really obvious we’ve forgotten? I guess we’ll find it all out as we go along…although if you have any tips then that would be great.

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5 Comments

  • PhotoPuddle

    October 14, 2012 at 7:37 am

    We’re going to have to start baby proofing our house soon as out son is nearly six months. We already have a nearly four year old daughter so you would have thought our house was already pretty safe but actually there’s still lots to do. For example there are so many of my daighter’s little tiny toys lying around. You know the stuff that four year olds have, Lego pieces, barbie accessories and free stuff from Cbeebies magazine. And of course the stair gates are all going back on.

  • Jane

    October 16, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    oh the joy of baby proofing, we have a huge ugly fire gate – still better than alternative! xxxx

    1. gillian

      October 18, 2012 at 8:54 pm

      Ours just arrived! Just in time as she’s picking up speed and becoming really curious 🙂 x

  • Eliza, eight months |

    October 23, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    […] we’ve done a mammoth amount of child-proofing this month, as well as lower the cot after she figured out that she could stand up in it. […]

  • How to child-proof your home |

    November 28, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    […] my previous post, this means we’ve also become masters of moving furniture and making everything safe – so […]

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