We are a couple who built "our dream" house. We did not childproof it... that is what their parents are for... to say the word "NO" and mean it.( If children were raised like our generation was, we wouldn't have to take 3 Xanax before a grandchild visits wondering how we can keep their little liberal parented butts out of trouble). We would have generations who are responsible, accountable, with self respect. And, yes, we adore them and pray they will turn out better.

I can just copy -paste what Sustainable Dwellings said. We just taught our kids what is NO NO ,what is dangerous ...we did not keep them in bubble ,we did not put any gate on the stairs....And that was not long time ago ,my kids are teenagers so we are still relatively young parents but we don't belong to group that over protect their kids.

I did some childproofing in my house, mostly on things like the cabinet where cleaners were kept. Mind you, I did that for my first, and by the time my last rolled around, all of it was long gone and he survived just fine. ;)

We childproof for things we cannot afford to say oops on, and say no for other things. This is our 3rd child, and we've learned children do learn no if you are consistent, but for deadly things...no room for errors there so they are out of reach

My two favorite things we have done that are not permanent but have worked great for our curious one year old:
- the magnetic locking systems on cabinet doors that hook with super strong adhesive. One magnet that stays on the fridge unhooks each door.

- My husband zip-tied 2x4's that he painted and sanded the same color as our stairway railings to the railing, then drilled the safety gates that swing open into them. We have gates that open and shut, but they aren't permanently bolted into the walls.

Saying no is super important. I get it. But sometimes you're home alone with a curious one year old and you really have to pee. My kid can climb the stairs before I can flush. I teach him "no" but I like having child proofing in place as a back up plan.

Tackle boxes have fish hooks embedded in plastic worms that look like gummy worms. A fingerfull of dishwasher powder is deadly. Learn about poisonous plants in your landscaping. Attractive pills are a problem--we have chewy, sweet medicines and vitamins now that have to be kept out of reach. Hard candies and pieces of meat (hot dogs are notorious) can easily be aspirated and block airways. Electrical sockets are inviting to curious minds. Preadolescent boys start fires for fun and may not think to bring fire extinguishers to the party. There is no substitute for constant surveillance. I raised four awesome children to adulthood, but had some terrifying near misses along the way. And ours knew the meaning of respect. We just failed to anticipate their curiosity on many occasions, and sometimes still do.

Stable doors are great, the top opens separately. We had one for our ADHD son.

I'd agree with saying, "No!" but often kids will still be kids. Even visitors kids will do exactly what they are not supposed to do. I found out the hard way. I installed a latch bolt to my laundry room to avoid disasters. I ALWAYS put my kitchen sprays and washing up liquid in an above cupboard. I also installed a one way privacy handle ( you used a thin object, like a pen, to release from the other side if need be.) for the toilet. My son had a bad habit of dunking the remote control for the tv in the loo. No matter how many times I said, No! Naughty! He still did it. Hence the privacy lock. I could unlatch it but he couldn't. We had a little accident with a cricket bat and a window which went to floor level. My son cried for hours and was inconsolable as he only barely tapped the glass and it broke to bits. Again, lesson learned, on went some clear book covering which adheres beautifully. I only put a padlock on my garden shed when the neighbour's kid and my other son decided to paint my whole backyard a lovely shade of pink. I had failed to notice the handle was reachable to a child standing on a chair. You live and learn, that is for sure! Kids are too precious and I think just saying, No is never enough, no matter how we like to think they have listened.

When I was 12 years old I was in the hospital and down the hall was a room with two badly burned little girls from two separate incidents. We all have something in our past that haunts us and causes us to be over protective. Children should learn the word not but sometimes accidents are just that, accidents. Teaching them no is a tool for raising kids but always have a backup plan.

Not having children = child proofing my home :)

Do the life or death stuff - electrical, secure poisons (and knives if you have a climber) and gas knobs, pools and stairs - and teach/watch the rest. Kids need to be able to interact with external environments, too.

I'll never forget talking on the phone with my best friend ... she shouted for her 3 year old son, "Brian, what are you doing?" because he was suddenly quiet. He replied, "I'm shaving Mommy"! Don't forget about keeping shavers and grooming products out of reach as well.

I agree with protecting kids from things that could kill them. This seems pretty basic to me. Guns need to be stored locked in a way that only adults can access (best of all separate from ammo). Chemicals and poisons stored high away. Medicines as well. (Grandparents purses/baggage are an ofter overlooked source of meds consumed by kids). Exterior doors need locks above the level a child can reach. (Or a security system they cannot disarm.) About once a winter there is the tale of the toddler or young child found almost frozen in their back yard, where they wandered out and no one knew. House plants need to be screened for toxicity. The family pets may need to be sequestered from intermittent small human visitors. Car keys need to be secured to avoid kiddie driving (you know it happens). And the basic stuff your pediatrician will tell you, like turn your water heater down to below 120.

This person asked for childproofing tips, not judgmental posts questioning the necessity of childproofing and demeaning reproofs on parenting skills.

I have plenty of friends who did no childproofing, because their kids never got into anything, and really didn't get why my husband and I have our house on lockdown. Then they hang out with my two boys and I see looks of amazed comprehension come over their faces. All children are different.

To Sustainable Dwellings and Sondramartina, you two got lucky. You got lucky that your kids weren't curious and you got very lucky that there were no horrible accidents for you to regret for the rest of your lives. Good for you. You would have the same look of amazed comprehension come over your face if you came to my house. My children are curious, headstrong and spirited. I am a stay-at-home mom who is very consistent with rules, 'no's' and discipline. I am no pushover. I am also not a helicopter mom, and I have no problem with my kids getting bumps, scrapes, bruises, etc. And yet, here are my childproofing tips:

- Monkey locks - for doors. They install with no tools, pop on and off doors easily and keep doors open about two inches. Kids can't open them because you put them high up, so they are great for bathroom doors. They also promote airflow, because they're not relying on the door already being closed, like those door handle covers that not even adults can open.

- Child gates - It's a no-brainer to have them at the top and bottom of stairs. I have the bedroom areas gated so I can control where my kiddos play. If you can, I would recommend gating the kitchen. I was able to gate our kitchen at our apartment in SF for my first son and that was great. For my second son, in our house on the Peninsula, it is not possible to gate the kitchen. And it's a total pain! My second son is obsessed with the dishwasher and no amount of NO's or, apparently, stitches, will dampen his obsession.

- Magnetic cabinet locks - In lieu of gates, you'd have to use magnetic locks. Are they a pain? YES. And I look forward to the day when I can rip them all out and burn them. We installed them on all lower cabinets and drawers. Then, one day, I found my two children playing with the spatulas. My older son had climbed up on the kitchen counter and gotten the spatulas out of the canister to play with. The canister right next to my knife block. So, now the knife block is in the locked pantry and we've added a lock on the upper cabinet where we keep medications. Didn't see that one coming.

- Flip locks & door chains - I installed a flip lock on my coat closet to keep my kids from repeatedly taking out, plugging in and turning on the vacuum cleaner. I have a chain on my front door to keep good boys in and bad guys out.

- Window locks - An absolute necessity if you live in a house or apartment building with two or more stories. Do not take a chance on this.

- Squishy corner guards - Use them on the fireplace, on coffee, end and console table corners. Rambunctious kids can get hurt in the blink of an eye and these at least give them a chance not to get hurt as badly.

- Bungee cords - For table/chairs. As soon as my kids could climb, they would constantly be climbing up on the chairs, then up on to the kitchen table. I don't do it often, but if they're driving me insane, I'll bungee the chairs around the table so they can't pull them out to climb on.

- Think HARD and try to imagine any scenario - Get on your hands and knees and cruise around your house. You'll notice all the things you don't see at adult height that are blatantly obvious to kids. Open every cabinet and take out and move to higher ground things like dishwasher powder, dishwasher capsules, Comet, etc. Find it all and move it all. Do not take any chances here.

Another pro of childproofing is that you don't *have* to spend *more* of your time running around, chasing your children and constantly saying NO. You'll be doing that enough, even with your house on lockdown. The more you say NO, the more they'll say it to you. And that gets very old, very fast. It's important to let your kids fail and get hurt and learn from their mistakes, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do everything in your power to keep them safe. It's just common sense.

What we did when the kids were younger was covering the outlets (some kids like to stick anything in those holes), gates at the top of the stairs, and for the sharp corners, we put some cushions. I know that some of these don't look nice, but I prefer to lower the risks of injury. Kids tend to run through the house..walking seems to be too boring:) When the kids are little, they can easily hit their head by edge of the counter or table corners (I've seen it happen with some of the kids and many times they needed stitches and/or emergency room). Pills need to stay up, where they cannot reach. Same goes for alcohol. If toxic cleaners are in the house, then those should be up as well.

The only thing childproofing ever did was make me angry because I couldn't get what I needed easily, and I'm the parent. All the child proofing went away. It's like child protective caps on medicine. Adults are the only ones who can't work around it.

As a grandparent who has the grand kids occasionally, I love the tot lock system. When they are here it is lock. When they are gone you can leave it unlocked. Well worth the time to put them in.

there are businesses that provide childproofing services. There are so many things to consider at various ages of babies/toddlers/preschoolers. Who would have thought of a toilet seat lock? But yes, a toddler can look down into a toilet and fall in head first and drown.

I waited until I found I needed to child proof something before I did it- this starts at the crawling stage, so they are still slow enough to catch. But I agree with others who say to childproof the dangerous stuff, then teach them limits and boundaries for the rest. Our stairs have hard mounted gates at top and bottom. (We are planning on more kids, so worth the damage for the security). Knives and breakables are up high in the kitchen. For the lower cabinets we just used rubber bands around the handles- easy to open but so far our daughter hasn't figured it out. All the stuff in the lower caninets is also safe if she gets in anyway. Our new house has childproof outlets, so they don't have to be covered, but we taught her "no touch" for those anyway. For the stove, we just remove the handles.
To me, it's worth the extra work of child proofing to not have to say no constantly, and to be able to go to the bathroom with some peace of mind.

I homeschool many children. I can absolutely attest to the fact that some children are much quieter than others, and some have lots more "energy" shall we say. Some children are bookish and calm by temperament and just want to play Legos and chess. Others would rather play some form of indoor hockey or climb Mount Everest. This does not make them bad. These kids are probably going to be tomorrow's CEOs, governors, or scientists who discover a cure for Alzheimer's.
Since child proofing a cabinet door drives me crazy I simply like to leave my lower cabinets unlocked, but stocked with things that cannot injure a child....Tupperware, kitchen linens, small pots, etc. All chemicals must go high up in a "public" room of the house which is almost always in view of some older child or adult. This way any potential climbers are noticed and dealt with. But, that said, one of the best things you can do to is try to encourage your child's creativity and channel their energy elsewhere. Buy a giant pack of washable markers and some washable poster paints (Crayola makes great ones). The colors are vibrant and satisfying, yet the stray marks wipe EASILY off any surface. I haven't found a surface or fabric yet that wouldn't come completely clean. Keep healthy distractions well WITHIN reach. On lower shelves store games that foster the imagination, some simple but appealing toys... I know from experience that if I encourage children in a positive direction to work with quality materials (and toys and books and outdoor activities with friends) I can spend less time worrying about childproofing and more time enjoying these children for the delightful people that they are.

Wow, Sustainable Dwellings, I bet your children love visiting as much as you love having them.

I realize no means no but even with the mommy "eyes in the back of your head" kids can get into things. My oldest was a climber so I used brackets to secure the standing book shelves to the wall and a couple of big screws through the back of the dresser in his closet so he wouldn't pull things over on himself. He's fourteen now with no incident but the house was prepared for his baby brother who is also a climber. Found him sleeping on one of those book shelves after clearing off the encyclopedias. A mom has to shower sometime. That and shortening and not tying mini blind cords into loops were my major kid proofing do 's beyond the obvious outlet plugs and medication/household cleaner storage. Oh and hide the salad tongs. You wouldn't believe the things they try for with those nifty little grabbers.

Have stuff they can do as well, ie when you are cooking have a cupboard they can access full of your non breakable stuff that they can pull out to keep them occupied, whether it be pan bashing, putting things into containers or 'cooking' like you. Being careful of course not to create a tripping hazard. Teach them to use the stairs responsibly, and safely, get down to their level and do a tour of the house from your belly and see what takes your fancy and then deal with it accordingly. Cleaning fluid in your under sink bathroom cabinet -no! Bath crayons that just wash off your tiles- yes! You're already asking the questions, you're going to be a great parent. Parenting isn't for everyone and I totally respect that but if your doing it, it's the hardest, but absolutely best and most magical thing you'll ever do. Lots of luck.

There is some wonderful advice here. The answer is not to child proof your house but to make it child friendly.

I started with twins and very shortly found myself the mother of four children under four years old. My preparation for the twins was rudimentary - we lived in a flat - all the breakable ornaments were packed away - (thirty years later they still are) and we put covers over the electric sockets. We had no coffee table - freeing up the centre of the living room for playing. I used a stair gate on the kitchen coupled with a cabin hook and eye high up on the bathroom door. This gave them plenty of child proofed space to run around with their baby trikes etc. I removed everything spillable, poisonous or sharp from the lower kitchen cupboards - everything in those cupboards was there for the kids to play with - plastic cups, saucepans, Tupperware, tinned food, etc. I had two very stable folding high chairs and used baby reins to make sure the babies were fastened in, this can be a very useful 'lock down' when things are getting on top of you.

We moved to a two storey house when the third baby was crawling. I had nappy changing stations, upstairs and downstairs, so no need to turn my back on two mischievous toddlers. We designed a big live-in kitchen which became the main play space. The kitchen units were against the walls and the dining tables were both oval ( I had two so Lego building, train layouts etc did not have to be disturbed at meal times )so I had no corners to worry about.

There is no one size fits all answer to child safety. Baby number three was a mini acrobat constantly walking along the back of the sofa, standing up in the high chair but never falling - visitors were horrified but we were used to it. Baby number four was a quick learner - she had three people to copy and follow around - she was an accomplished stair climber long before she could walk!. We gave up on stairgates and kept our fingers crossed. However we used one at the top of the stairs at bath time. Mums only have one set of eyes in the back of their head - not enough when you are outnumbered by the children. ALWAYS run the cold water into the bath first, my friend was chasing one newly crawling twin who was heading for the stairs - meanwhile the other suddenly learnt how to pull himself up to standing at the side of the bath and fell into scalding water.

I have a friend who's 1 year old drown a few months ago in a bathtub that was clogged and drained slow. So I'd add that one to the list, immediately taking care of slow drains. We always had one of those door knob things that are hard for kids to turn on the bathroom door and kept it shut so our babies didn't crawl in there. I also screwed in hooks to the underside of tables where each chair goes and then tied ribbon to the chair that I would hook on the hook under the table so our small kids couldn't get the chair out to crawl on and then get on the table. These people talking about kids should understand no and obey it must have forgotten what it's like to have crawling babies and toddlers, their brains haven't developed enough to even understand "No". It would be irresponsible as parents to not child proof and expect them to just obey. Every child is different, some are more curious than others.

My son was able to crack every commercial child proofing tool. He knew not to get into things but his curiosity got the best of him while I was on a call with the bank - 10 feet away from my son. He was playing with pits and pans when I heard a blood curdling scream and found he had discovered the food slicer. He's ok. I learned child proofing means getting in the ground and moving everything up. We replaced our outlets with child proof ones as the plug-ins weren't really child proof. We used gates but only for making rooms inaccessible (my kids wander). And now I'm re child proofing since they are able to pick locks and move chairs to climb to upper cabinets. Medicine is always under lock and key. It's a total pain in the A but they are sneaky little critters and children are children. Some of us learn from mistakes better than simply being told no.

I went, round with my tables, coffee tables, dining tables. No hard corners for toddlers.
moved any precious breakables out of their reach, A curious under 2 is just that curious., Rough and tumble outside. Inside for quite play. It worked mostly, nothing is ever perfect though. Keeping them well exercised outside helped keep them "tame" inside.

For our children we bought plastic gate/fence that was easy to move And stood on its own where we needed it. Good for kids and pets so they would not get into cords, appliances, etc. We also moved our furniture to cover cords and keep new walkers away from floor lamps.

Always bolt your TV's bookcases and dressers to the wall. I have worked in hospitals for many years, and it's always heartbreaking when a little one comes in after being crushed by a heavy TV, or dresser falling on top of them. It's tragic, and not so rare.

Also be very careful with buckets of water, open toilets and toddlers. I took care of a little girl many times over the years, who when she was a toddler had tumbled into a bucket of water when she was "helping" her Daddy wash the car. She was profoundly brain damaged and lived for many years. It only takes a moment of inattention.

Put vitamins up high along with medicines. Vitamins can be just as deadly as medicine especially those containing iron. Floride toothpaste too should be out of reach.

My baby brother got a hold of Daddy's razor and shaved his head! Keep those up high too.

Locks on the doors are a must. My stepfather's 3 year old sister got out of the house during naptime and fell into the lake and drowned. My grandmother never really recovered from that.

Keep grandma's purse and medicines up high and the kids out of Grandma's room when she is visiting. After my 73 year old mother left I found quite a few prescription medicines that had fallen on the carpet, or in the bed. I no longer have little ones, but if I had, and they found them they would have been eaten!

Plan for everything. All kids are different,with different levels of curiosity, but they are all kids! It's their job to test and be curious and explore. It's our job to keep them safe.



The only thing worse than a tragedy involving a child is knowing that you could have done something to prevent it. Then you never really recover from that.

If your interior doors have locks, stash a key over children's door frames. In the event that you hear the inevitable "crash and cry" and encounter a locked door, you won't need to hunt down a key.

If you have a flat screen tv, mount it on the wall. They are notoriously tippy and can cause serious head trauma. Also lock up dog or cat food. Pick up any pieces that spill on the floor immediately. My husband is a flight nurse for a medical helicopter and has seen a 6 month old die from suffocating on cat food. Very tragic! Yes child proofing is a pain and not attractive but it's only for a few years. Better safe than sorry!

When it comes to parenting, everyone has an opinion. There are also a lot of perfect parents out there!

with that said, as a parent of four, I can say that we chose to go the 'no child proofing' route. Our home is decorated with crystal and glass, and our kids just leave it all alone. With that said, we have rowdy boys, so we have a downstairs rec room where they may play hard, but they're also a little older. If you can work without child proofing for a while, it will be a challenge at first, but the long range dividends may be worth it!