As I logged into my Facebook this morning, cup of coffee in hand, I saw a post from Scary Mommy at the top of my feed. She is one of my favorite bloggers and had a guest blogger today, a mom named Laurie Rahn, who wrote about her terrifying experience of furniture falling on her daughter.
I’ve always been a super worry wart when it comes to child safety. Even though my Mom reminded me that I grew up with stairs all over the house and it was completely normal to have an egg on your forehead after falling down them. To me, it sounds like the old “we didn’t have car seats when you were little” speech and there are safer options now (like baby gates) so I would prefer to keep my kids out of harm’s way as much as possible.
When Jackson started getting mobile one of the first things I did was *try* to put up a baby gate which just left a giant hole in the wall. I asked one of my Mom friends who could put up gates on funky stairs like ours and she recommended Tom, the childproofer. He was able to come out a few days later and saved the day. He put up two really nice, quality gates (that have since moved to our new home and look brand new), while locking every cabinet and pointing out other things in our home that needed to be childproofed.
We anchored dressers to the wall, put an automatic door-closer on the basement door and gave every cabinet door a lock. It was so wonderful to have piece of mind that Jackson had *less* of a chance of getting hurt now that he was into everything. One of the first calls I made when we moved into our new home was to Safe Solutions.
Tom came out and put up our gates, locked our cabinets and anchored all of the big furniture pieces that needed it. Laurie’s post over at Scary Mommy reminded me of the importance of child safety and I wanted to share the article with all of you as a reminder. You can pick up furniture wall anchors at Target or Wal Mart in the child safety section and it’s easy to screw right into a stud. If you live in Rhode Island or Southeastern Mass and aren’t handy like us, give Safe Solutions a call- they are worth every single penny!
I’ve included some pictures of what we have done in our house for childproofing and a description under each picture. Please read Laurie’s story if you have any little ones in your life, it could prevent a tragedy.
The tall dresser in Jackson's room, which could be easily "climbed" when drawers are opened.
Now the dresser is anchored into a stud, making it impossible to tip over and fall on a curious toddler.
Our master bath has a huge tub, which is a drowing hazard, so we installed a sliding lock that can be open & closed from both sides & is completely out of reach for little ones.
All cabinets in the house have a lock, although we usually leave cabinets with just pots & pans "unlocked."
We have gates at both the bottom & top of the stairs. They're also easily removable & we'll only have 2 small holes in the wall to patch when the kids are old enough to not need them.
There is one bookcase in our house that I’ve been meaning to anchor FOREVER. And now it is at the top of my to-do list for tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder 🙂
No problem 🙂 Her story made me double check everything in our house too!
Wow! This is VERY helpful. I thought I had things pretty secure, but the possibility of the dresser falling over makes me cringe. I’m going to check out that company you suggested. My nearly 15 month old is starting to get pretty adventurous. Great post!
I cannot stress enough how useful and important anti-tip devices are for dressers or tall furniture. Young children love to open the drawers to dressers and climb up on them causing the dresser to tip over. If at all possible attach child safety latches also to prevent them from opening them. Great Post!