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Hot or Not? TP Saver

2009-03-tpsaver.jpg

We saw this a couple of months ago and thought, "Ha, we need that for the cat!" But it seemed a little overboard for kids. Until, that is, our 8.5 month old unraveled most of a roll while sitting on our lap when we were running a bath for him. We rolled it back up and used it and it wasn't a big deal, but we can imagine this becoming greatly entertaining for him once he's mobile. So, do you have this problem at home and is the TP Saver a reasonable solution? Vote below the jump.

 
 

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Hot or Not?, toilet paper, babyproofing, TP Saver

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Comments (14)

No, we just taught our son at a young age that unrolling the toilet paper is not okay and make sure that we're paying attention when we're in the bathroom to remind him if he gets that look in his eyes. He's a pretty good kid so we usually don't have a problem.

posted by racheloncegentry on March 12th 2009 at 12:53pm
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I saw this on Apartment Therapy a long time ago and I keep thinking about buying it. My 14-month-old has unwound a couple rolls, she knows now she's not supposed to touch it but she fingers it daily to see if I'm looking. The thing is, how annoying is this device to use? I'm thinking it would have been good to have all along so she never discovered the rollability...still contemplating buying it.

posted by p_capucine on March 12th 2009 at 1:06pm
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I like this - my daughter unrolled TP every chance she got for months. We pretty much never let her in the bathroom unless she was taking a bath!

posted by loraena on March 12th 2009 at 1:21pm
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I'm lucky that I have a casement window crank right above my TP dispenser which happens to serve as an substitute TP holder. But with #2 unraveling at every opportunity, I would have otherwise been tempted.

posted by leepert on March 12th 2009 at 2:01pm
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i know that it can get challenging when you have multiple kids in the house to account for (and to leave the door open), but we just made it a point to leave the bathroom door closed when our little one was going through her explore every room phase.

posted by aneelee on March 12th 2009 at 2:26pm
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Children are different. If your child isn't into pushing boundaries now, maybe he will be at some other point to come.

Personally, I don't care if the item is hot or not. Some families need and use it; some don't. I love that it was mom-invented and the profits go to a mompreneur (I should say, "mamanentrepreneuse").

posted by stickyricemama on March 12th 2009 at 2:42pm
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We just turn the paper towel roll around (so that the coming edge is against the wall).

posted by peachypear on March 12th 2009 at 2:46pm
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While we tend to keep the roll in an out-of-reach place, even a TP saver won't do much for the kid who picks at the paper or takes a bite out of it. (Nice!)

posted by lowem on March 12th 2009 at 3:12pm
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I bought it and found it too hard for the grownups to use every time. You have to unhook it and rehook it. My son did think it made a great toy however :-P I've never been able to convince him to not touch the TP, but we have a shelf above the toilet and keep it there. Now that' he's almost 4 he's asking me to put the TP on the holder, but he still makes a mess sometimes.

posted by Ariel on March 12th 2009 at 3:49pm
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Not. If your child can't be taught to stay out of the bathroom (or you keep the door shut) there are other ways. One way is to kinda flatten the whole roll so that the tube has a crease on both sides. This will slow down the unrolling process and make it much harder. Public bathrooms use a lever or something similar on the bar to stop a person from wasting the whole roll. Of course, they also lock the bar to keep people from stealing them...

posted by inkstainedwriter on March 12th 2009 at 4:22pm
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Not.

We keep the bathroom door shut any time we aren't in there, so no one's getting in and stringing out the paper. And although my son had a bad habit of doing it when he was first potty training, we kept the roll out of his reach for a few days until he got over it.

It seems like they do stuff like this forever, but it's really such a short period of time.

posted by BambiJo on March 12th 2009 at 7:30pm
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Under instead of over so if they try to spin the roll it just spins instead of unrolls. Cheap solution. I also like the "smooshing" the roll idea.

posted by tgray99 on March 12th 2009 at 7:34pm
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This can be so annoying to clean up, but I have a hard time saying no to something that delights her so! When I get sick of the mess, I just put the roll on the top of the toliet. Watching her enjoy something as mundane as toliet paper is inspirational!

posted by mnj on March 12th 2009 at 7:45pm
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While this may be useful if you are in the bathroom with your kids, the bottom line is that infants and toddlers should not have free access to bathrooms AT ALL. So many children have drowned in tubs and toilets . . . When I was a toddler, I climbed up on the counter, turned on the hot water and burned my feet so badly that I was in bandages and couldn't walk for weeks. And, yes, there were adults nearby. Things can happen in a heartbeat and bathrooms should be gated and doors kept shut.

posted by gourdsaregorgeous on March 13th 2009 at 5:41pm
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