We live in the mountains, and my 2-year-old daughter is headstrong and a runner. She has now gotten big enough that she can open a lot of our doors - they have those long horizontal handles rather than round nobs. She will be all nice and calm, and then she sees her chance (usually when there is a little confusion in the household)
and she's off in a flash. Does anyone know of some sort of door alarms I could put in? Any advice on latches or high up locks we can install? I am already putting a new doorknob on the door out to our garage with the lock on the outside so we will have to use a key to get in there from the house. Any other suggestions would be most appreciated!
My dads house they put the strands of christmas bells on the door handles (they have the round door knobs) so when the door openned thats what they heard. They still use it so if the teen agers they have in the house tried to sneak out. Dads a light sleeper.
The lock on the door to the garage bothers me. I'd want to be able to get out in case of an emergency.
I have hung chimes on my doors so I'll hear if they open unexpectedly. That is easy to bypass if someone wanted to do so.
In your case there are battery powered 'alarms' that can be attached to the door and the door frame, at the top works well, and they will make a noise when the door is opened. I used to have one with a central alarm box and remote sensors on the doors and windows and I left it making the chime sound whenever one was opened. Something like that was handy as the kids grew up as well, I knew when they got in without having to stay up waiting.
I have a friend who has an autistic son with the same problem. She started installing the chain style locks up near the top of the door, where he couldn't reach them. Those aren't that complicated to install.
If you are looking for door alarms, then you could probably find the door alarms that a lot of small businesses use. Those are the kind that beep or chime when someone enters or exits a door. I think you can find them at Home Depot or Lowes, but since most of them need to be plugged in to a socket, she may start unplugging them.
You could hang a bell over the top of the door where it will jingle when she opens it. If you have sliding glass doors you can lock them by putting a wood piece in the track (till she figures that out), The old fashion sliding locks on a chain (cant think of the words hopefully you know what I mean)seemed to work pretty good for us.
Good Luck :)
S.
They make flip latches for the top of the door. Very easy to install and you just flip it closed to lock it.
I also have an alarm system in my house. I use it more for the chime factor than anything. When a door opens the alarm says "front door open" or chimes.
They also make door locks for the long handle knobs too. Check out www.onestepahead.com
My brother had the very same problem with his son. He used the door locks that flip down from the top of the door. The are extremely easy to flip up and down, but the child can't reach them even if they get a chair. The only problem you may want to think about is what happens when your child figures out how to get out of the window?
Good luck!!!
My kids are both escape artists also. We went to Lowe's and bought some latch locks. They swing over the door, over a bar with a rounded end, and a pin slips in it also. You don't have to use the pin. The ball at the end allows the door to open, but barley wide enough for a hand to go through. If you put the pin in, the door won't open at all. We put them at the top corner of the doors, the garage, the frontand the pantry, I can barely reach them. We also bought these pins for the sliding glass door, I think it is calld a sliding glass door lock. You will have to drill ahole in the frame, but it works great. The pin slides the bracket, there is a notch. You have to have the notch lined up just right to pull the pin out. We put it at the top. It might even work on windows. These locks work great for us.
We had the problem of our son opening the door when the doorbell rang. He always thought it was his friend from down the street. Once, I came out from taking a shower to find my son at the door talking to our mail carrier at the door. Luckily, we know our mail carrier well, as do our kids which is why our son thought nothing of opening the door. My husband found a stainless steel slide lock that he installed out of reach of our kids. It looks much nicer than a chain lock, and it keeps the door securely shut. You mount the receiving hole to the frame part of the door, and the slide bar to the door itself. Unlike a chain lock, it doesn't allow you to open the door at all unless it is unlatched. My husband found this one at Home Depot. I feel very secure taking a shower now knowing that my son cannot open the door. He hasn't even thought of using a chair yet, thank goodness. We also taught our kids that from now on only grown ups can open the door. You may also want to start some sort of consequence for when she does open the door. 2 yr. olds love to play games, and if you are feeding into it, she will keep doing it. For her safety, she needs to know she can't open or go out the door without mommy or daddy. Good luck!
Get a chain lock and put it above your head level.
