apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

rachel--we also have a one year old, but as she has been walking since 9 months, we've already tackled the "baby proofing" stage. my best advice is to just relax! close the bathroom door, put the trashcan up on the changing table after you change his diaper, and let your little one explore the garden! don't put baby in a bubble :)

Rachel--try the Kidco brand toilet lock. It attaches to the back of the toilet, using the screws that hold the toilet lid on. I would recommend adding some washers to strengthen the screws' hold on the lock--this has worked well for us so that it doesn't slip on the porcelain. It's available at amazon.com and other venues. Our kiddo has been walking since 11 months and we learned early on that making a habit of keeping the doors closed really is the best and easiest method of babyproofing. Of course you can--and should--add as many locks and doodads as is practical, but you still don't want them wandering around the bathroom alone. They could fall and hurt themselves, or tumble into the tub. There are numerous sites online that will tell you about poisonous plants. Remove the bad'uns and let him eat dirt! ;-)

I agree with the first poster. There is very, very little babyproofing that is necessary. Put locks on the cabinets that hold chemicals, close the bathroom doors, and learn to say "no." Most important, give your kid some space and let them explore! The "I'm going to open this drawer because I know mommy doesn't want me to" phase will be over quickly if you're consistent.

I also feel that babyproofing on the most part is unnecessary. We have a 22mth old and have not one babyproofing gadget in our home. We close the bathroom doors, keep the chemicals up high and let her explore all the cupboards. They need to understand the things that you don't want them to touch by reinforcing "no". You need to remember that not everyone's house you will be in will be babyproofed so they need to learn these boundaries.

We have a lot of books and we found we had to cover the lower shelves with clear plastic sheets to keep our guy from constantly pulling them off the shelves and occasionally shredding them. He eventually grew out of that stage. We removed our coffee table and its sharp corners from our living room. We put baby locks on desk drawers that contained pens and staplers and seemed to act as a magnet for his little hands. And we bought an expandable gate to occasionally wall off the entrance to the kitchen when we got tired of the pots and pans constantly flying out of the lower cabinets. Other than that, we filled our electrical outlet with the tight plastic plugs because he had a penchant for trying to stick things in there no matter how often we said NO.

There aren't as many dangers looming as the "safety" aisle at Babies R Us might have you believe. My daughter is 17-months, very curious, and loves to put things in her mouth: and we have not bought a single baby proofing device. We kept doors closed Until she learned how to open them) and removed anything from cabinets and drawers that could actually hurt her (or that she might break). Other than that, we let her explore her world. This means that I expend a lot of energy cleaning up after her or asking her to put things back; but each phase passes quickly. The bathroom drawer will only be interesting for so long, before your child will have a new skill set he wants to try. And that, to me, is what being a baby is all about: figuring out the world.

The "I'm going to open this drawer because I know mommy doesn't want me to" phase will be over quickly if you're consistent.

I disagree. Every child is different, and often children revisit these phases at later ages and look for different things in drawers and cabinets.

I didn't do much childproofing of drawers and cabinets, and I observed that curiosity would re-emerge with growing awareness and development in the infant > toddler > tot/preschooler. At first it was opening/closing, taking things out, etc. Later it was going after specific things or hiding things inside drawers. Now it's looking for specific foods or tools.

Thanks to everyone who posted so far-we really appreciate the tips! Those of you who advised us to resist the fear-mongering of Babies R Us helped to reinforce our instincts, but it's also nice to hear about some practical solutions we can try.
As for the person who mentioned covering book shelves in plastic, allow me to pass along a ridiculously easy tip a friend gave us: if you cram the books into the shelves super-tight, such that it's hard even for you to pry them out, your little one probably won't get to them, either--a much more attractive solution than covering up your book collection!

I think it does vary from child to child somewhat. Our son is very investigative and, although I just moved or relocated many things, others had to be babyproofed for the sake of my sanity. The kitchen trash can was very difficult--no space under the sink, we had it outside in the garage for a while but it was just too much trouble, and he could open them all. Finally we discovered a SimpleHuman trash can is pedal-operated but also locks.

http://www.simplehuman.com/products/trash-cans/kitchen/slim-plastic-step.html

It was such a revelation for us that I registered just to tell you this.

However, I agree about the bathroom--don't mess around there, just keep the door shut. Too many risks and hazards even if babyproofed.

I forgot to say that we found the trash can at Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

We have survived heaps of kids going through the creepy crawly stage: se7en tips:

The bathroom we have a high hook to keep shut, apart from the yuck factor I don't want my toddler drowning in the loo.

Trash can is up for a couple of weeks. They tend to become completely obsessed with one thing at a time and I just remove that obsession and provide another one that I don't mind.

We keep all our chemicals (bleach and washing powder ) on top of a bookshelf in my husbands study - kid free without an adult.

I have a kitchen cupboard that I encourage them to scrabble in and always put them there when they wander off to greener pastures.

As for books, squeeze the books into the bookcase at their level, then they are too tight for them to pull out.

Teach them to go backwards down small steps. Take an afternoon and sit at the bottom of the steps - every time they want to come down the step, turn them round and show them how to do it on their tummies.

Anything slightly medical goes on very high shelf in the cupboard in a childproof box. Always shut and sealed and always high.

That's it!