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Each child is so different... My parents never had to baby-proof with me, because I didn't get into any thing. My 11 month old son is into everything, so we've had to do quite a bit. We didn't do anything before we brought him home (we have smoke detectors, etc) and have slowly adapted the house as we've needed to-which began after he began to crawl. I would definitely recommend baby gates as soon as he's able to move at the foot and top of the stairs, and to latch any cabinet/drawers with dangerous chemicals, everything else, judge as your baby shows his/her personality.

I agree with "eowes" - each kid is so different. My daughter and nephew are only 8 weeks apart, and couldn't be more different if they tried. We only have a couple of cabinets with latches on them (those with chemicals) and a few plug covers in the most obvious spots. She has never tried to climb a thing, and isn't interested in the outlets or cords, etc. We have gates, but she doesn't try to go up or down the stairs without a parent nearby, while my nephew climbs everything, loves exploring every cabinet and taking things apart. I don't worry too much about the cabinets, as I don't have anything that fancy or expensive in the lower cabinets, and our fridge is a bottom freezer style, so they can't reach it to open it yet! Also, my daughter hasn't mastered the art of opening doors yet, while my nephew has figured out how to remove the baby-proofing and open them. Some kids are easily discouraged by a simple "no," while others have to me removed from something time and again.

I think it's up to you whether you want to wait and see how active/curious your child is about things in your house, or baby proof everything and then cut back on what you don't need.

Yup, each child is unique, but don't forget that interests evolve. One week your child will be into pulling cords and cables; the next it will be drawers; the next month it will be climbing all over the place. I have five nephews and nieces and my own tot, and each discovered the toilet at different stages and wanted to play with the water in it or flush it nonstop at different stages.

If you put things out of reach, don't forget homo sapiens sapiens is a master tool user and problem solver. Your child will eventually figure out how to scoot a chair to the stove or counter and climb to reach a low-hanging fruit.

Yep, agree with genxmom, interests do evolve and kids sometimes do the one off dangerous thing that could turn to disaster. Our son "never climbed" until one day he wandered into the spare room and found the spare drawers (empty), pulled the bottom drawer out and climbed onto it. Weight of child tipped the drawers on top of him. Luckily a bed was there to stop the drawers falling on top of him entirely. Other one off incidents like this have occured and it makes you realise its more comforting to prepare for anything. Research common risks and do what you can to be safe.

When my child began crawling, we began babyproofing and everyone thought i was being overly cautious with many of the things i did. all of our heavy furniture is strapped to the walls with earthquake straps (we live on the gulf coast, so an actual earthquake shouldn't occur). our larger framed art is screwed to the walls with the glass removed for a few years. all cabinets and drawers have latches. we have replaced all toxic cleaners with all natural. some of these things seem a little drastic to many, however my adventurous and inquisitive little one has tested all of this proofing many times over and so far, so good.

I have also heard that 'parentproofing' is a good idea... those first few weeks, the baby won't be getting into everything, but you may not be sleeping as much as you would normally either. So try to decrease the number of things you can easily trip over, etc.