Hi Ladies, I am popping in from the 1st yr message board. My boy/girl twins are 10 weeks old/4 weeks adjusted. I was discussing babyproofing and toddlerproofing with DH and he seems to think that the only thing necessary are gates for the stairs and cabinet locks. I tried to explain to him that the strings on our blinds have to be put up and that the kitchen appliances and toilets should be locked and he thinks this is ridiculous. I am also concerned about our cat food bowl and cat water fountain...our cats nibble throughout the day and I am afraid that the crunchy food is a choking hazard. Also worried about the cats water fountain...i told DH that babies can drown in as little as 1 inch of water and he laughed at me and said to bring him proof that a baby has drowned in a bowl of water. Also want to keep them away from the litter box. Do you ladies keep your cat stuff sequestered? Any ideas at how to acutally keep these things separate from the babies once they are mobile?? the only gate i have seen that has a cat door has an opening that a baby could fit through... DH is also very messy and he thinks nothing of tossing tiny objects like coins and such everywhere...there is alot of junk in this house and alot of it could fit in a tiny mouth...i just don't know where to begin. I feel so overwhelmed as a new mom and already thinking about how to make the house safe..i think i am still very hormonal. how do I convince DH that babyproofing is necessary and any other advice regarding baby/child proofing would be helpful....thank you!!
here's my opinion on baby proofing - you do as much as you need to to keep sane! theoretically, if you were willing to watch both of your children like a hawk 24/7 you wouldn't need to do much baby proofing at all because you'd be right there to stop them doing whatever they shouldn't. of course, we all know that even at our most diligent accidents still happen. then there's the other end of the spectrum where you wrap your child in bubble wrap & buy every baby proofing gadget on the market. i'm sort of middle of the road myself - we have a baby gate at the top of the stairs, all of our cats things are kept in the basement where the girls aren't allowed to go, and i have locks on the cabinets and outlet plugs in all the outlets. i don't however currently have an oven or toilet lock (we do keep the bathroom door shut at all times though - there's a sign on it indicating that the bathroom isn't baby proofed for when we have visitors). it allows the girls a certain amount of freedom & i don't necessarily have to be after them all the time. it works well here. the other thing to keep in mind is that baby proofing is not a job you'll need to do all at once. it sort of happens gradually as your children become more & more mobile. at first, when they start rolling/crawling you'll find you need to keep the floors clean & have a safe, contained area for them. as they get stronger and start pulling up & cruising you may find you need to put bumpers on things & keep coffee table surfaces, etc clean. and so it goes. take a deep breath! it's not as overwhelming as it seems right now. as for your DH, i would just do what you know needs to be done and let him catch up.
We don't have blinds in our main areas but they definitely would have been up (the strings). That is very dangerous! The dog food/water was tucked in our bedroom which was off limits. We did the cabinet locks & gates, but nothing else. Just watched out. Good luck! Just wait until they get into something of his. Then he may see things your way! :hug: It's hard when your partner doesn't agree. You do have some time though until this will be an issue.
If something can happen, it probably will. It's so much better to be more cautious than necessary than to have an accident because you didn't protect somethign. True, at the age of your kids currently, they aren't going to be hanging on your stove, but they can still get in to the cat's food and water. Very soon, they'll be looking to open every drawer they can get their hands on. Coins and other small objects are a serious nono. If it can fit in their mouths, you bet it'll be in there once they get their hands on it. Blind strings if they are kept out of reach should be fine, but the higher they can reach, they higher those strings have to be. They can and will choke on those. I have had a couple of near accidents with those. I have found a couple of window blind cord end pieces in their mouths and have had to move the cords to another place. At some point, I may have to keep the blinds up too cause they can easily pull those down and blinds are heavy. They can hurt and do some damage if they fall. Also, make sure any and all rubber ends for your door stoppers are removed, or if you have the ones that attach to the door hinges, make sure they are moved to the highest hinge. Mine love to try to chew on those things. We've had to move all of ours to the highest hinge. We watch ours all the time, but it's not easy to do when they are in two different places. It sounds like your husband just doesn't want to change some bad habits of his .
See if you can focus on keeping one area a kind of safety "island". Pick where ever you think you'll spend the most time, and focus all of your energy on making that a super babyproofed place. There's no law that your kids need the run of the house. Once you've got that area set up, you'll feel much better and can slowly make your way through the rest of the house. I'm not sure if you have them where you live, but around here there are baby proofing consultants. Maybe a visit with one of them would help your DH see why it's important.
My daughter slipped on some water next to the dog bowl. She fell backwards with her head landing in the dog bowl (but face up). She had a huge knot on the back of her head. All I could think after it happened is that if I hadn't been right there and if she'd fallen face first and had been knocked unconscious, she would have drowned. Now, having said that, we haven't done anything to baby proof around the dog bowls because they are never in the kitchen where we keep them without an adult. It is possible to drown in a very small amount of water. We have only truly baby-proofed two rooms that the girls play in unattended. The cabinet under the kitchen and bathroom sinks are locked even though they don't have access to those rooms without us. We have gates at the stairs and plugs in the outlets.
the other ladies said it all... we have been very slow at baby proofing... and as they find more of the cabinets, I keep asking for more to be locked up! there is one that we can't figure out how to lock, and its just a pain that they like to get in there... not dangerous... but for my sanity I need to move things. as for the water bowls... I tried my hardest to redirect them... to no avail, I had a shelf nearby that I'd put the water bowl on when the kids were out and about... (we've since had to put down the dog... and its a huge relief to not have to deal with water on the wood floor... with slips and falls like the pp said). I think when they start getting into his stuff he'll come around, until then just babyproof what you need to... good luck.
For many parents, it's a matter of what they feel comfortable letting their kids get into. I have a lock on the toilet upstairs, but not downstairs. I bathe them upstairs by myself and one always gets out before the other. I also let them in the bathroom at times while I'm getting ready. They hardly ever go in the bathroom downstairs. The other things I have are: Cabinet locks in the kitchen Oven lock-bought this after they tried to climb in mil's oven Fridge lock Electrical outlet covers Lever door locks-because I don't want them in certain roooms like my bedroom or laundry room. I've shared this story before about my niece who does not babyproof many things in her home. While she was taking a shower, her two year old son went into the fridge a day before his birthday party, took out his cake and smeared it all over his body....and the walls. He also ate raw pork sausage. But the worst thing by far was this Since there was no locks on the drawers in the kitchen he found a sharpy. This happened while everyone else was sleeping. He found it once before so my niece moved the drawer and put it on the counter. Well, he found a chair, pulled it over and found the sharpy. So again, it all depends on what you feel comfortable with. For me I prefer to be better safe than sorry. If you DH is against babyproofing certain things, have him watch them for a day and see if he changes his mind. :ibiggrin:
I agree, it does happen gradually as they become more and more mobile. The things you mentioned are definitely things worth keeping away from the babies. We have a gate to block the stairs, locks for the cabinets, our cat food and litter is downstairs. We keep the door to the downstairs locked during the day and the cats will just stand by the door when they want to go down and meow when they want to come up. We keep the blind strings short and out of the kids reach. We also have outlet covers too.
we started out slowly but found out quickly that we needed to do a lot more--at every new phase of life. we have two very active, very physically adept boys who do not express themselves well w/words yet. if we didn't have a babyproofed house they'd both be unsafe and i'm sure we'd have had lots of accidents. our kitchen is gated off, though they can be in there w/us. we have cabinets and doors locked in there (mostly), but there are so many things they can grab and hurt each other w/....... we all all bedrooms, bathrooms, etc, gated. we also have the area under our tv gated because 1) they can reach it and turn it on and it's brand new and cost more than a human heart, lol, and 2) there's a big ol' giant woofer underneath it that dh doesn't want the boys to touch. in their bedroom we have the bottom drawyers of things removed and all window coverings have those clete things to hang them on...... we have all the other usual stuff. we've spent hundreds of dollars BUT we feel we're keeping our boys safe..... and it took a long time to convince dh of all this stuff, but he's seen first hand how it helps them. if you do nothing else-- get toilet seat locks. more children drown in toilets than in swimming pools. gl!
once your twins go mobile and he sees what they are capable of, he'll be right with you babyproofing. otherwise, do it yourself! none of it is rocket science. and make it easy for DH to go along with your plans. Set out "bowls" where he can throw his keys, change, odd screws, etc.
We found that we did what was needed at each phase, but they always seemed to get into things we didn't think were possible. But, I can tell you one of the scariest things that ever happened with us was that one of my twins climbed out of her crib (maybe just under 2 yrs. old) and climbed on top of her 4 drawer dresser. She then proceeded to put the blind cord around her neck and she jumped off the dresser. God was looking out for us b/c for some reason I woke up out of the blue and went in there. She was crying and had a red rope burn around her neck. The blind sting came off when she jumped, but I will NEVER forget how scared I was and how scared she was. That morning I went out and bought tie ups for the blinds in their room. The twins actually pulled this same dresser over on themselves. We had to bracket it to the wall. You just never think these things will happen and I thank God that nothing serious came from these 2 incidents, but they do happen and can lead to very scary things. You do have some time, but I would say start doing it little by little now so that when they are mobile you won't have to do it all in a panic like I did.
I agree that as they get older, your husband will realize that they're really getting into everything and will start baby proofing more... 10 weeks is just very early to really worry about it, and men often need to see it to believe it (hint, once they are mobile, make sure you let him take care of them for a few hours, it will help). But yes, you'll need to have a serious talk with him at some point. I believe baby proofing is especially important for twins. I would have gone insane if I had to keep an eye on them all the time. Here they only have access to places that we can totally baby proof, so stairs, bathrooms and kitchen are blocked off, we removed things from bookshelves, attached it to the wall, covered outlets, we don't have any blinds with cords either (I know someone who lost her 2.5 year old to those a couple months ago even though the cords were attached out of range, so it's really important to just get rid of those blinds IMO). My kids never really put little things in their mouths though, so we got lucky about that, but still removed everything that could be a hazard. For the cat, my cat just jumps over the gates, so we just put food, water and litter box in a room the kids don't have access to.
My husband is one of those skeptic types. He doesn't believe it until he experiences it for himself. I went ahead and bought baby proofing stuff and did a lot myself. When I bought gates, I would just ask him to put them up. He's good at handy work. This weekend I'm asking him to secure/earthquake proof a large dresser in our room to the wall. I know he's not thrilled about it (he thinks the odds are very low anything would happen with the dresser), but he will do it Our DD takes naps in our room in a pack n play next to the dresser. I try to only bug DH about important things, not everything. That way it won't end up being a struggle. On another note...if you have time to search around (it's still early for your LO's) then you can save some money. I bought both of our play yards used (half price) at a baby consignment store. Our neighbor sold us some things they didn't use anymore. We have our living room (where we spend most of our time) pretty well baby proofed. We have gates that block off the stairs and our kitchen is gated. One of our play yard is around the tv, stereo and book shelves). I'm home with them all day and it's easier to block them out of certain areas. Our cat food and litter box are outside of the living room area.
I believe in childproofing, my spouse doesn't nearly to the extent I do. In theory, I don't think it is necessary for a singleton with very attentive parents, but I DO think it is necessary in a household with twins I guess I’m lucky. My spouse doesn’t believe in babyproofing to the extent I would like, but he humors me, at least for one ‘baby proof’ area of the house we have sectioned off which he did most of the proofing himself as I am really bad with mechanical things. I don’t expect to be able to leave the boys alone, but it’s enough of a deterent to stop them for a few minutes before they get in trouble… blinds not done up, etc., but we don’t leave them there alone for more than a few minutes. Their room isn’t proofed yet, but they can’t climb out of their cribs yet. Now, my spouse DOES believe in some precautions, just not to the extent I do. I worry as he collects coins and is into mechanics and stuff, and occasionally leaves stuff like small screws, wires, coins. out. I am NOT worried he’ll leave things easily accessible to the boys, but OMG the CATS. We’ve found coins/cat toys, etc. out in the baby-proof area YEARS after we’ve seen them last. I have been, and am still terrified he’ll get into a project and leave screws, batteries, etc. somewhere to get to later, and the cat will bring these near the babies (she’s done this on several occasions, with cat toys, platisc bits, etc.) The cats are probably the biggest hazard! (choking!) That said, things like the cat food and litter water and garbage can should be moved. Besides being a choking hazard …. We’ve experienced first hand what a MESS babies can make with cat food and water and garbage when your back is turned for a few seconds! We also found out very early that our boys were not allergic to pork, veal, beef, chicken, or horse meat (ingredients of the wet cat food they smeared all over eachother and ate). The poison control lady laughed at me when I called about the cat food. Also, If you can, stick to clay cat litter, just in case. And, besides the mess, do you know HARD it is to try to clean up a mess while trying to keep two squirming babies out, without having them spread the mess all over the house? And you will find your babies will be able to grab/reach things before you think they can! OK, so long story short… You probably should do some proofing. I know a couple who did not child-proof their house and was able to tell their child ‘no’ and watch him, but it is NOT easy, and in fact, I believe near impossible to do so for two kids at the same time. A singleton, sure. Twins…. Not really doable. That said, some things not dangerous in itself probably should be kept out of reach. Cat food, garbage, cat water. You should be warned of what a MESS twins can make in a matter of minutes with just a few toys…. If it doesn’t hurt them, it will hurt your floors and your sanity. If you are worried about choking cat food you can also buy cat food in shapes that is less likely to choke on…. Like X shaped cat food instead of round. Coins and small objects that are choking hazards should be kept away from the kids, and if at all possible, the cats (from experience)
Oh... re: baby gate... Our sequestered area has one gate tall enough with a door that is too tall for the cats to jump over. the other gate is small, fits in a doorway, doesn't have a door and it low enough for an adult to step over (CAREFULLY, my spouse hurt his foot really bad), too tall for the babies to climb over- YET, and short enough that the cats can jump over. It is a smooth gate without footholds. Try thinking cats can jump over, not door for the cat. So far that's worked for us - at least until our climber get a little more adept.
