Yet another childproofing question

So we're right in the middle of the crib to bed transition. It's been a week and some things are getting better while some are getting worse. They have recently discovered the dresser, which is the only item of furniture other than their beds left in their room. The last few days they have opened the drawers and thrown clothes all over the room. Is there any way to childproof dresser drawers? I've seriously considered duct tape. Or do I just let them go and hope they'll stop when the novelty wears off.

 

How about using bungee cords and connecting them towards the back so you can still take them off easily.

Or depending on your dressers, you can try installing these.

 

I know some people have moved them into the closet - ours wont fit I think in most cases the novelty will wear off - but I would certainly have them help put it all back - maybe eventually it will sink in. Otherwise some sort of baby proofing the drawers. Off the top of my head I dont see why the regular cabinet locks wouldnt work - may be tricking to install depending on design of your dresser.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3502302

 

I was going to suggest moving it to the closet - we did that & put locks on the closet. Or you could leave the dresser in there for now, but take the clothes out & store them elsewhere for the next while.

 

We emptied their dresser. Nowhere ready to put stuff back in yet either... it's sitting in plastic storage units in our room.

Had to empty the closet too...

 

I have dressers with handles so I just ran a dow rod down thru the handles and taped the top drawer shut. Works for us so far.

 

Yes, I agree, I think if you can find a way to keep the drawers shut then that is the way to go. However, our dresser has no handles so I couldn't think of a way and it didn't fit in the closet so I moved the whole dresser out to another room. Not the ideal solution but stops me worrying about them unpacking it every night. Goodness knows I don't have the time to put all the clothes back every day!! LOL

 

Bought a small plastic drawer unit and put it in the closet. I emptied their dresser into it.

 

I used a few superyard pieces to kind of loop in front of it. It initially stopped it, and then by the time they figured out how to manuever it around (I had part of it between the dresser and the wall), the novelty of flinging clothes had *somewhat* stopped and it was not an everyday occurance. Also, the distraction of moving the gate pieces distracted from the emptying of the dresser. They also liked to remove the mattresses from their beds, that was fun

 

I currently just have adhesive locking straps on each dresser drawer in the nursery, but that's not a long term solution as Brandon can easily pull them off now when he wants to. But it at least it slows him down and 90% of the time he doesn't mess with them. Once we move them to toddler beds though I plan to install these cabinet/drawer locks. I have installed them in several kitchen drawers and cabinets as well as drawers in our bathroom. And they work like a champ. The plastic is not super flexible like some of the cheaper ones I've seen at Target. It's a pretty firm plastic and our boys have never figured them out or got a pinched finger from them. This thread reminds me that now is the time to go ahead and put straps on the dresser to anchor it to the wall, and not when all hell is breaking loose when they move to toddler beds. I keep forgetting to do that..

 

I've got a couple things here to try. Experienced moms, keep the ideas coming! It's a big clunky old dresser so it definitely won't fit in the closet and there really isn't space to put it in any other room. I'm afraid the cabinet locks won't work on it because it's so old, but bungee cords or something through the handles just may work! I'm so lost about this whole toddler bed thing . The other day they figured out how to take the metal pin out of the door hinge and the door won't open all the way until they put it back in! I'm beginning to think I should just bungee cord them to their beds!

 

Sounds like a perfectly viable option to me!

 

These were the only thing that has worked for us.

 

My kids did this for a few weeks after the toddler bed transition. We couldn't find anyway to baby proof the drawers and the dresser doesn't fit in the closet. I temporarily stopped folding their clothes in the lower 2 drawers. In our case the novelty wore off and they stopped emptying the drawers. Now they sometimes rummage around if they are looking for something, but that's it.

 

My husband put latches on the dresser drawers and this has worked great for us.

 

I have this type of latch on our fridge, and it works great. you apply it with double stick tape and can fairly easily get that off later with "goo gone" or the like.

the bungee cords kinda scare me, that they'd figure them out and then would either just pull them and let go and make noises or worse, it would fling off and hurt them...

our changing table become just a way to climb up and look out the window - UGH! but I do think that if they are loving flinging the clothes, then at least take the clothes out and even the drawers out for now. hopefully it's just for a time... though we still have ours out of the room and it's probably going on 2 months!

good luck!

 

if only the problem with dressers were just the drawers - my two climb on TOP of the dresser and think its funny to stand on top and jump up and down - both of them together....i've resorted to literally sitting outside their room and going in and removing one or both of them each time they climb up

 

I never removed anything from their room. But, it did take a 2-3 hour stint of them spending the afternoon replacing one piece of clothing after another for them to stop doing it. I guess the "fun" wasn't worth it when the entire afternoon was spent putting clothes away. I think the more they are allowed to be with their stuff, the more the novelty will wear off.

 

LOL. I tried to get them to put the clothes back and they just said 'no' and ran around the room. Luckily this is a big, heavy, old dresser and too tall for them to scale. Unfortunately, that means door latches don't work. I think I'm gonna try the safety 1st latches. They were out last time I went to the store though. This is so complicated!

 

Yeah, they tried that, but you have to keep at them. They are not the boss, and they do have to listen. It takes a long time, but be patient and they will learn that it is easier to listen then to not. If you let them run around and say no, while you clean up, you are letting them have control. Mine were not much older than yours when we did it. It literally took 4 hours for them to clean up, and they went from nap to cleaning up to dinner to bed, because they used up all of their playtime during the day not cleaning up the room. It was a great natural consequence that they quickly learned not to repeat.

 

put them back into cribs and get crib tents?

we didn't transition till their 3rd birthday and it went fairly smoothly...

 

They literally have NOTHING to can get into at nap/bedtime. The closet doors (sliding) now have a latch that prevents them from opening, so that's where all their toys go.

Now their dresser still has everything in it. We put these on every drawer, plus the 1 door on the changing table. The changing table had 1 shelf in it that used to have a canvas bin on top and bottom, but we moved those to the top of the closet and took the shelf out. The magnetic locks works WONDERS. We just toss the magnetic key onto their metal lamp base so it doesn't fall off anywhere.

ETA: It looks like our kiddos are very close in age. We transitioned to toddler beds at 22 months exactly. We have no issues other than occasionally they fall asleep on the floor and we eventually pick them up and put them in their beds.