Baby proofing question?

Question

My 9 month old daughter is crawling pulling herself up, etc. I have baby proofed but there are certain things that will always be "no" such as the tv, the stereo, the candle on the guestroom night stand. How have other parents dealt with this? I want her to be curious and there are plenty of areas that she can explore.

Answer 1

the best suggestion I can offer not only works now but thru out her whole life.... you need to set boundries and consequences and stick to them. Each consequence should be age appropriate and be consistent. When my sons were little I used the "redirect" method for the tv. (but mostly I used the "pull out my hair" method)

Answer 2

This is part of raising a child! Just keep an eye on her. I would keep the guest room door closed or place a baby gate there. Babies learn quickly and when you say no (consistently!!) to something she will catch on. Of course kids are kids and may still put a pair of sunglass in the VCR, but that is why life is so great. As she gets older you will be able to leave her for minutes at a time, but now she takes alot of watching. You can walk her through the house and make it into a game. That way she learns and explores in a controlled way, at least for a little while.

My sister's pastor has a 1 1/2 yr old daughter. And when ever she does near the dvd player they yell "no". A few weeks ago they were all in the living room and she was pointing at things and saying what they were, well of course the dvd player was called no.

The point of all of this is to be consistent with praise, love, rewards and punishment. Ignore or punish (time out, etc) bad behaviors and consistently reward and praise for good behavior and she will turn out wonderfully. 90% of parenting is training yourself! Kids nowadays don't seem to get consistent communication from parents. Children really crave a known set of rules and standards.

Answer 3

Hello!!!! I would suggest just simmply closing the door in the guest room. the tv and such- make sure all wires are protected, ALSO i was at a Baby & Toddler Expo a couple months ago, at the expo there was a group focusing on home safety- the biggest issue was children climbing on furniture (dressers) that can tip easily. There are all kinds of inexpensive hardware you can pick up from any hardware store that will save your child's life. We used these little "L bracket" looking things, (just like the bigger ones for bookshelves, only these are much smaller) and long skrews. What you do is a couple to the back of the item, and a couple on the wall going the opp. direction, just place the long skrew right down the middle, and the item will not move!!! i think the total we spent on 1 set was MAYBE $3. and it was worth soooooooo much more than that!!!!! sorry for going on and on- if you have questions about it- email me :o)
GOOD LUCK
Jenn Conway

Answer 4

They get into everything! "No" is not in their vocabulary, unless they're saying it to you. You have to put things up, or limit their access to them. There is no easy way. Especially with a stereo - you want to make sure that the knobs are not accessible, because my baby turned on an old stereo of my husband's, turned the volume all the way up (it wasn't playing anything, so you couldn't tell) and blew the power supply. Of course, you know who my husband blamed. It's always my fault for not watching him closely enough. He's perfect. He also watches him about 5% of the time, and never when he's trying to get laundry or dinner or anything else done. If it is a no, then it needs to be inaccessible, or you can expect that it will be tampered with, at some time or another.

Answer 5

There are baby proof items you can get for the tv and stereo. Go to onestepahead.com. They have some fabulous products there that you won't find in Toys R Us or Lowes/ Home Depot.

You can try confining her to one room for now. When my son was at that stage, I put baby gates up at either end of the living room and that was his room to explore. I baby proofed the heck out of it so he was safe.

It is actually kind of nice to have a room, such as the guest room that can be closed off and "yours" to do with and not worry about your munchking getting into trouble there.

Answer 6

Either make the area safe for baby, or block doorways to keep her out at all times. You *cannot* encourage her to be curious in the living room, but not the family room (or the other way around). The only other option is to *always* be there to pick her up and move her away. But it may be 50 times a day for an entire week before she gets interested in something else...

Answer 7

Just make her aware of what she may or may not touch. Don't tell her no, find another way to say it. Like, "Please keep your hands off of the TV." And then take her away from it and direct her attention elsewhere, to something that IS allowed. Obviously this takes much repeating, so be patient with her. Babies won't always remember those things right away. But telling her over again when she touches something you don't want her to will help reinforce it and eventually she'll learn.

Answer 8

You can secure the TV to the wall. That is one of my biggest concerns because in the past few months in my area 2 toddlers have been KILLED by pulling the TV down on themselves.

Answer 9

When i was a baby, my mom emptied out a bottom kitchen cabinet and lined it with wallpaper. The cabinet was all mine for me to crawl in and play in. With my son, I put all my plastic dishes in the lower cabinet and let him play to his heart's content. I had to wash things a lot, but he was happy. This made us less likely to get into off-limits areas.

Answer 10

Playpens and baby gates. Make a room that is just hers with the baby gate...and use the play pen when you cant keep both eyes on her, and you want her near you. Otherwise you will just have to stay close.