Go read the Disclaimer again. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Seriously.
We knew we wanted to sleep with or near Teddy. We also knew that what that means tends to change over time.
Initially, I used a moses basket. I'd had a C-section and apparently unlike everyone else who had a C-section, couldn't nurse lying down with Teddy. He kept kicking the incision and it hurt. In fact, I was unable to make nursing lying down work until Teddy was several months old (worked in the hospital the first two days; go figure). After that, he slept in the bed with me, which we eventually put on the floor when he started to crawl at about six months.
When Teddy was a few months old, until he was about eleven months old, he napped and sometimes slept the first part of the night in a Amby Baby Hammock. We really liked this, in particular because it comes apart so you can travel with it. We had no problems with wear, or with it getting stinky from baby ooze, although apparently some other people have. We got the jumper for it as well, which was interesting for less than a month (Teddy stopped being interested when he started walking).
We briefly used a soft bed rail, but it was difficult for me to get around it while recovering from the C-section and we did not need it when the mattress was on the floor. It returned to the bed back in Brookline, when one bed was on a frame and one was on the floor and Teddy occasionally slept in the higher bed with one of us.
If you have one of the counter-depth refrigerators, a wall oven, bookcases, an etagere, a tall dresser, or anything else that could possibly be pulled over by a climbing, pulling toddler (or an earthquake), attach it securely to the wall. A couple of screws and small angle bracket is enough for most items; appliances require more. Kids actually die from this kind of thing happening; it isn't just a matter of protecting your stuff. Bookcases with empty lower shelves (or light things on lower shelves and heavy books above) are particularly hazardous.
Kids love to play with toilets, toilet paper, etc. We put the toilet paper up high on an etagere. Toilet locks which adhere to the tank don't stay put, because tanks condense moisture and wiggling helps loosen the suction., because tanks condense moisture and wiggling helps loosen the suction.
We had another kind which locked the lid down to something on the rim, and it broke when it was folded over and the lid was dropped down. Small, chokable bits of plastic broke off, so I tossed the whole thing. I'm unable to find it online right now; Roland bought it at a store.
If we decide we need another toilet lock, my next try would probably be the Lid Lok, which gets very mixed reviews, but has some nice attributes (no adhesive, single handed operation, can take it with you when travelling) if it works.
We don't feel a need for toilet locks right now, because Teddy isn't a fisher. He mostly just wants to put TP or tissue in and flush the toilet, which is basically reasonable behavior (if repetitive). We have a Flip-n-Flush and are supporting toilet learning right now and would like the toilet lid accessible for that project.
I'd used a variety of cabinet locks at other people's homes and I hated them all. We got Tot Locks, which are a pain in the tail to install, but are easy to use and undefeatable, assuming you keep the kid away from magnets.
Roland got a couple more typical cabinet locks (that clamp over a pair of knobs) for the island in the kitchen and the vanity in one of the bathrooms. Teddy has not yet defeated those.We really wanted Teddy not to open some doors, hence door knob covers. The doors to the basement, the office, the front door and one of the bedrooms have these. I refused to have one on the door to the mudroom, because it would slow me down a lot getting out in an emergency (or, realistically, day to day) and there's a second door before getting to the outdoors, so Teddy isn't likely to escape.
At the apartment, we had gates to so we wouldn't have to do anything damaging to the cabinetry to keep Teddy out of them, and so we could store stuff in the hallway. I loved these gates. You cannot use them on stairs since they are pressure gates.
At the house, we put gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. Because the layout of the landing at the top, and the railing at the bottom limited our choices, we were never very happy with either gate. The top gate was a KiddyGuard, and it frequently trapped me. Roland tended to step over it, which I felt was incredibly dangerous. I worried about getting stuck upstairs in a fire with the kid in my arms, unable to open it. We don't use it any more.
The gate at the bottom is different, and mostly inoffensive, but had to be installed several stairs up because the wall ends before the floor. It is similar to this one, but has a slightly different latch; that may be because the customer image reflects a modification they made..
We bought a kiddie corral, including the extension for our June 2006 trip to Brookline. I wanted to make sure we could keep the kid out of trouble while childproofing. We ultimately used it to fence off the stereo, big TV and a few other oddds and ends. He can now climb it, so it serves more of a reminder of where he isn't supposed to go.
We tried a lot of corner and edge bumpers before finding anything that worked at all. Expect to throw a lot of product away while searching for something reasonable. Duct tape and a lot of bubblewrap work better than most.
We held Teddy at the table. He'd nurse in my lap while Roland ate (sometimes while I ate) or Roland would entertain him while I ate. Once or twice at other people's houses, someone would try to put him in a high chair and he would scream like someone was murdering him which would invariably shock the heck out of whoever thought that was a good idea. He's the kind of baby that startles people when he cries, because they had been lulled into a false sense that he never did that. We knew better. Even my mother gave up trying to keep me in a high chair, and in some ways, he's very much me over again.
When he was about a year old, he started wanting a chair of his own. This looked kind of dangerous to me, so I looked for a chair that would support his feet and keep him from falling. I ultimately chose the Stokke Kinderzeat, aka Tripp Trapp. Teddy likes it, and could climb up into it on his own within a few months of meeting it. We do use the belt, because he'll lean way out and fall sometimes without it (not far to the ground, which is a padded oriental carpet, so no real hazard, but it pisses him off).
Teddy really likes to watch us cook. Chairs are the traditional platform for baby and toddler observation, with all the obvious risks. Sometimes we would wear him in a carrier, or hold him with one arm on a hip, but that's exhausting. We bought him a Learning Tower, which lets him safely stand at the counter or island and watch or participate in all the chopping, whisking and food preparation action (we give him butter knifes for cutting mushrooms and similar).
Elimination Communication Gear
Travel Gear, including strollers, air travel gear, bicycle stuff, safety harness
Home: the Physical Locus of the Family
Copyright 2007 by Rebecca Allen.
Created February 22, 2007 Updated February 22, 2007