Baby Proofing My House

I have a 3 year old that I am stil childproofing for. We have locks on our top cabinets fridge, freezer everywhere. As your son grows just try to stay a few steps ahead. I would definately move the cat food/water to a counter or somewhere as my 11 month old is always playing in the dog water at grandmas house and it is more of a safety thing than a mess. You also dont want him eating cat food and risk choking. What we do (and tell all our guest ) if youthink your purse or whatever it is is high enough off the ground go 2 more feet. At 6 months its probably not a problem yet. Also if you have a fireplace make sure he cant open the doors, and if there is an edge or corners they do make rubber pads to protect the edges as he will probably start pulling up soon too.
It sounds like you have done all the safety stuff you need for now, and with every stage you will find more. They sell baby locks for everything now, including toilet paper, toilets, ovens you name it its out there. I get most of mine at target and its made by the brand Parents and is a red package.
Good luck

Hi M.,

I like the "Tot Locks" brand of magnetic locks for cabinet drawers and doors. You can get them at most hardware and baby supply stores. The "lock" screws into the inside of the cabinet/drawer, and there is NO way to open it even a crack without the strong magnet. The latch-type locks can all be opened a bit resulting in pinched fingers, broken latches, and eventually, smart toddlers figure out how to open the latches. But the magnetic locks are fool proof!

K. L

We have 4 cats and we put a little gate in the doorway to the kitchen to keep our daughter out. It works fine if you have a doorway that a gate will fit in.

Good Luck!

Sounds good.We still to this day dont have a coffee or end tables with lamps because my first daughter would pull them down by the cord.
..watch door nobs too....but think twice about the gate at the stair?
If you teach him how to crawl up and down you will nip that problem in the bud. We taught my son at 7 months to climb up and down our large stair case in our house. He would crawl up and come down on his belly feet first. We would be there with him but it did help to have him confortable with the stairs he wanted to climb anyway. We thought of it as good exercise too....

onestepahead.com has great childproofing stuff.

Just start to put things up that can tip easy and cover outlets as well as get some Zip Ties to hold together the cords for the TV, Computer, and other cords that are bundled together cause kids have little hands and arms and can get to them. You will find yourself after a bit looking at everyones floor for the things your child will pick up and put right in his mouth. My kids are 6 and 8 and I still look for things and sometimes I dotn even have my kids with me and I still find myself doing it by habit mostly. When he does start to move around make it a habit now to shut all doors. If you have any sliding doors you can get a curtain rods to hold the doors shut. I freaked out once when my sone hurried into our closet and shut himself in and I looked everywhere and I thought he got outside or something but no he went and passed out with his bottle in the closet.

Hi M., some advice I would give on house proofing is if you have blinds in your windows, make sure the string is not hanging down where your son can pull on it or get his neck trapped in it. I have heard of babies actually getting their necks caught in those strings when they have access to them, say if their crib is next to the window. You can either tie them up or cut the strings. Also, if there are glass picture frames or any sharp edges around the home, I would be sure to out them up higher, out of his reach. An easy way to see what is potentially dangerous is to get down to their level, on your knees, so you can see what they see and it may be easier for you to determine what can potentially be harmful to him. About the cats, I would change their feeding area, maybe to a closet, or put the food out for feeding only, and then have the litter box in a closet or somewhere out if sight, but where the cats would still be able to smell it. I hope those suggestions help you. Good luck!

Don't forget the toilet, oven, and stove knobs. The fridge will be too hard for them to open until they're about 2. We didn't put locks on our toilets, but we put a childproof door knob cover on our bathroom doors and kept them shut all the time. We did the same to our hall closet and pantry. We put a lock thing at the top of our front door once our toddler could reach the deadbolt. Make sure it's complicated enough that if they pull up a chair to reach it, they still can't undo the lock (some lift and slide, not just slide). We also put bumper things on top of our bedroom doors to keep them from closing all the way (to keep fingers from being crushed). We also got rid of our wood coffee table with corners and replaced it with a leather ottoman. Many moms I know just put a bumper thing around the coffee table edges... and on the fireplace hearth (if yours raises up off the floor). One Step Ahead catalog (and online) has some quality child-proofing products but they are a bit pricey. However, we've been through a few of the cheap products that are sold at Home Depot and Babies R Us and found it was worth paying extra for the quality products in that catalog (especially the cabinet latches). It would be worth finding the same quality products somewhere else online for less since they don't sell them at any of the hardware stores or baby stores that I've seen.

Well, it sounds like you're pretty on top of things. I also agree w/the other suggestions about the stove, toilet, etc. I also suggest leaving a couple of 'safe' drawers in the kitchen w/things that aren't a danger like tupperware or tea towels. It's fun for the little ones & can keep them occupied while you're in there. You might want to hold off on the gate for the 2 steps into the living room. Two steps isn't a big hazard for crawlers plus they enjoy going up & down them & it teaches them how to crawl on the stairs. My sister has 2 steps down into her living room & her kids as well as mine have had a blast on them. We found w/our boys (7 yrs & 2.5 yrs)that baby-proofing went in stages....w/each new gross motor skill they could reach higher & get into more stuff so we baby-proofed more. And our second son was way more adventurous than our first so we baby-proofed things for him that weren't even thought of the first time around. If possible, invite over some friends w/a child a bit older who will give you a clue as to what you're in for as your child gets older. Hope this helps & good luck!