Baby proofing the home - How much is too much?

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1sttimemom

Registered User
My LO is approaching 9 months and is attempting to crawl, stand and loves us to hold her arms and let her walk. So, we are rushing to baby proof the home.

My MIL wants to babyproof EVERYTHING.. edges, corners. She wants to remove the coffee table. My husband is leaning towards this way of keeping the home safe too.

I agree corners are dangerous, but I also think our LO needs to figure out dangers for herself as well by "navigating" the home. Bumps and bruises are inevitable. While removing the coffee table will give her one bigger empty area to play in, she will want to explore other places that are not so empty.

Am I too brave or ... what is the right balance here?
 
I think your approach works great, letting little one figure out things him/her self, as long as the baby is always supervised closely. We have done the same, the biggest dangers removed, but otherwise either myself or our nanny always, always watches the baby. We also have a pack n play type playpen in our living room as a quick safe spot to put baby if we have to step out of the room/ answer the door/ or otherwise take our eyes off the baby.
 
We padded sharp corners that could cause serious damage. We padded more things in his room where he spent more time. We didn't do much in the living room as there is always someone watching him there. We also teach him NO to certain things, like heaters, bookshelves.
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padding things is great but no need to over do it as the padding is not fool proof (ours keeps falling off as the double sided tape wears out)...we dud remove our coffee table as it was one made with steel and glass with sharp edges...otherwise not much really - we ever only leave our 9mth alone in the play pen
 
I'd agree, don't go crazy just sort out the stuff that could kill them (looped blind cords, sockets, drugs or hazardous cleaning material out of reach or in locked cupboards), make sure any valuable stuff they could break is safe otherwise you'll be yelling at them for no reason when they go near it. Also make sure they have a safe area that you can leave them if you have to, playpen/cot or in our case we put gates in a section of corridor so he could crawl around but if we shut the doors it was safe.

This is a very short stage in the scheme of things, then they'll walk and fall over some more, then they'll climb on stuff and fall off it and sometimes they'll just walk into things! You can't remove all potential hazards and most kids would find a way to injure themselves in an empty room anyway, it's just part of growing up.
 
Thanks mamas! Agreed that anything that could be fatally dangerous should be removed. As jvn mentions, it's just a part of growing up, all the falling and bumping and bruising. They can't learn to walk without falling... :)

Ok. I'm going to stand firm on not removing the very very normal coffee table. My MIL just thinks that everything will hurt, so she wants the room empty. *sigh*

Thanks all!
 
We have not had a coffee table since our 2007 and it wasn't b/c we thought it posed a danger, but because it took up too much room and the kids always play in front our couch. It just became an annoyance in the end. I agree with the above posters though - no need to make your apartment/house look like a padded playroom. Falling down helps though know their limits and boundaries. It also helps them work harder to get what they want!
 
We have a large coffee table, but it's in wood, and with rounded corners. Our children loves to play around and on it, and it helps my 8 months old little girl to stand and to walk around...
With my son, we've put some stuff everywhere, to hide the plugs, to close the drawers, to avoid any pinching... and my son just knew how to take it away after 3 days ! So we just explained him, showed him, taught him how to do. It takes a little bit longer, but it works, and at the end he never played with the plugs, never pinched a finger in a door.

I'm just vigilant when he goes out, or plays around the kitchen, but apart from that, we managed to keep a "normal" house :)
 
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