Today marks the beginning of National Poison Prevention week and the CHPA Educational Foundation asked me to write a post about the critical role parents play in household safety, particularly safe medicine storage.
We all know how quickly babies become toddlers become climbers and so forth— their curious nature motivating them to open cabinets, scale kitchen counters and get into places you never even imagined until you witness it with your own eyes.
I remember one time I turned my head and the next moment Harlow was on top of the coffee table. It seemed like just a day ago she could barely roll over. And of course, there was the time I took baby Mazzy to Grandpa’s Baby Deathtrap. Sometimes, we keep our own home super safe only to realize our kids are even more apt to get into trouble when they visit family or friends.
To illustrate just how “mobile” little kiddos can be, I put together a series of photos showing children getting into unexpected places. These photos are being used with permission and in no way are meant to shame these parents or suggest that these kids are in danger. We have ALL been in a situation like this at one time or another, which is why it is so important to safely store things like medicine up, away and out of sight.
16 Times Parents Needed to up their Baby Proofing Game:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
Approximately 60,000 kids go to the ER every year due to accidental medicine ingestion (this equals 4 school bus loads of kids every day). According to SafeKids, “half of the 2 million calls to poison control centers in 2011 were for exposures and ingestions among kids 5 and under.”
Besides baby proofing, another way parents can help is by teaching their children what medicine is and that only you or a caregiver should give it to them. Never tell them that medicine, including vitamins, are candy, even if they don’t like to take it.
In the spirit of National Poison Prevention week (and just because it is a REALLY good idea), set aside some time this week to double check that your medicines are stored safely— up, away and out of sight of your kids. As I mentioned above, this isn’t just an important issue for when you are home, but when you are staying with friends or family, especially Grandparents. You also need to be mindful of medicines kept in your suitcase or purse.
For more information and tips, check out the CHPA’s educational site: Up & Away
I also suggest making the Poison Control Centers’ phone number easily accessible in your home and storing it in your cell phone: (800-222-1222)
Thank you to the CHPA’s Educational Foundation, KnowYourOTCs, for making me aware of this very important issue and encouraging me to share it with my readers.
Giveaway: $100 Amex Gift card
Today, I’m giving away an $100 Amex gift card to one lucky winner selected randomly from the comments below.
To enter:
1) You must be a Mommy Shorts subscriber. If you are not already a subscriber, you can subscribe here.
2) Tell me a story about a time you knew you had to rethink your baby proofing strategies.
For the full rules, click here.
For the full rules for Part 2, the Instagram sweeps, click here.
winner update:
And the winner of the $100 Amex gift card is… Amber S! Congrats! Please email abby@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.
We’ve really lucked out with both of our boys as far as safety goes. My youngest has been known to move and climb a kitchen chair though! Caught him with a whole package of cookies dumped on the table with a bite taken out of each one!
My story is more about baby proofing for my son’s father. When our son was about 2-1/2 he had gotten an ear infection and then right afterwards pink eye. I had to go to work and so I told my husband at the time to give our son his eye drops that were sitting on the kitchen island around noon. So at noon my phone rings and it is my husband all panicky saying he thinks he put the wrong drops in our son’s eyes. Instead of using the eye drop medicine I had left on the kitchen island he went upstairs and grabbed the ear drops that I had in our medicine cabinet and put those in his eyes. He said he knew something was up because our son started crying instantly and rubbing his eyes while saying it burned. After yelling something about “I knew you weren’t listening….etc….” I called poison control and they said it should be fine and just put a cool rag on his eyes. However the story isn’t over quite yet, while I was on the phone with poison control my husband calls back and says, “man those ear drops really do burn your eyes.” I asked him how he would know and he said he wanted to find out what our son was talking about so he put the drops in his own eyes too. I told the gentleman from poison control all this and he started to laugh. All I could do was cry and beg him not to have our son taken away from us.
I realized I needed to lock the dishwasher controls when my son decided that the dishwasher buttons were important to his missions as part of the PJ Masks.
I just read your post about the death trap grandparent house and saw the comment a reader left about play pens. We had a pack and play that I used for my oldest son and needed to find a way to take a shower each day once he got mobile. This was a great idea until he learned that the toys I put in there with him could be stacked to make a ladder and then he could climb out and come and crawl into the shower with me….fully clothed. I just started putting him in the shower with me after that and giving him tub toys to play with. It seemed much safer than him running around the house. He also fell out of our old house twice because the front screen door didn’t always close itself when it was supposed to. And our youngest figured out locks quicker than you’d imagine, so he was constantly escaping and running through the neighborhood the moment you turned your back to do some sort of housework. Kids are crafty!
My youngest never mastered climbing out, he learned to tip the pack and play. That’s when I decided he was done with it and was now free to wander the living room at will. (I put up barriers blocking the living room off, but he learned how to climb over them pretty quick, so now I just have baby gates blocking off the kitchen)
My first 2 children never tried to get into anything. We did the standard cabinet locks and had no issues. Then #3 came along with a mischievous spirit and 2 willing accomplices. I have found him in the washing machine, on top of cabinets and he figured out all of the cabinet locks. His older siblings thought he was hilarious and couldn’t wait to send him on another adventure.
I worked nights when my kids were young. One morning, I was woken up by the doorbell. It was later than I usually slept and I panicked because the boys hadn’t woken me up yet (they were 2 and 3) – I ran into the kitchen toward the front of the house and proceeded to slide across the floor. They had emptied the contents of the fridge all over the floor…and had moved on to play “knock-knock”. My kids were naked and taking turns going outside and ringing the doorbell to be let in. The other would yell “who’s there?” and they apparently had a blast! It scared me!! From then on, my husband would wake me up before he left for work, and I’d move to the living room for a few precious hours of more sleep before they woke up. It was an eye-opener! I made sure that I was in their path when they woke up and put a lock on the fridge…these stories make me realize how much I don’t miss the toddler years! lol
I bought a medicine safe after my daughter at 2 1/2 found the tylenol bottle on the counter and drank it before I got up in the morning. She thankfully spilled some on the floor so the level she drank wasn’t toxic – but I bought a medicine safe as soon as we got home from the hospital. (yes, the lid had been on properly, it was “child proof” and she couldn’t yet open a door knob, so I thought the counter was safe – won’t make that mistake again!) Poison control as AMAZING, calming and quick with instructions. Called ahead to the hospital for us and followed up later in the day! Couldn’t safe enough good things about them!!
The time I realized this was when my daughter visited my mother in law’s house with me. I realized encouraging baby proofing at extended family members homes is also really important.
My daughter, who was about 3 at the time, managed to find a penny and a Bobby pin and simultaneously stick them into an electrical socket. By some miracle, she blew the socket and Nana’s laptop (that was plugged into the other spot on the outlet) but didn’t electrocute herself. The spark, puff of black smoke and the noise absolutely terrified her though.
That day I learned to do a better assessment at homes we visit and to encourage extended family to also use plug covers/guards and to also do a sweep for tiny items before I let my little one roam and play.
Just now! :-S I have a baby girl that’s starting to crawl, stand and soon walk. I have not given that much thouthg about it until now! God… 🙁
My daughter will go into stealth mode and terrorize the bathroom. She waits until I’m busy cleaning up something else of hers and climbs up the sink and lets the water run until it overflows all over the bathroom.
I recently realized that perhaps we need to increase our baby-proofing strategies when we had some family come over and my 3 year old taught them how to open the baby gates, get around door-knob locks, and how to open baby-proofed cabinets. :/
Oh thoes pictures are priceless! As a babysitter I have seen a few of these things. My favorite is still the 1.5 year old figuring out that mummy’s chocolate was above the fridge. He pushed the chair over and climbed up and score!
Recently, our dishwasher has “mysteriously” been starting on its own… Thankfully, there’s a little switch to turn it off when it’s not in use, and my son doesn’t know about it.
Already having gone through the babyproofing process with three children I thought “I’ve got this” when finding out we were expecting twin boys. I brought out the baby gates, cabinet locks, the whole shebang. Only to find that absolutely none of it works against the powers of my twinados. Baby gates were scaled. Three types of cabinet locks have been figured out- including the kind with the magnet key. I once purchased some lever style door handle locks and I swear my boys were laughing at me as I installed them. The only thing I can do now to toddler proof is keep poison control in speed dial, have peace of mind that my husband I are both in healthcare, and know that the hospital is only 10minutes away…
My son is 20 months and has figured out how to lock and unlock the door to the garage. On more than one occasion I’ve run out to the garage to start the car, take out the trash, etc. and had him lock the door on me. Luckily that only happened when my husband was home to let me in. We made a copy of the key and keep it in the garage in case it ever happens when my husband isn’t home to save the day. I have to say though our son isn’t much of a rule breaker yet. If someone leave the baby gate open to the stairs, he’ll walk over and close it for us.
When my son Alex was about 18 months old, he climbed from the toilet seat, to the tank, then onto the vanity and proceeded to throw the entire contents of the medicine cabinet into the toilet. I found him sitting in the sink trying to open a bottle or prescription pills. THANK GOD for childproof caps! It never occurred to me to child proof the medicine cabinet over the sink.
Another time, I found him standing on the kitchen island. I can only assume he flew up there because it had an overhang and only cabinet doors (no drawers that could be used as steps). To this day, I can’t figure out how he got up there.
When our second child Andrew was 5, I was cleaning his room (on the second floor) and had the window open. Andrew loved clocks and his Micky Mouse clock was hanging next to the window. He climbed onto a table under the window, removed the clock and proceeded to lean back against the screen and completely FELL OUT THE WINDOW onto the deck! Miraculously, he was OK—just some bruises. My boys are now 27 and 25 and I can’t believe we all survived their childhood!
I dont have any stories from my son but my little brother made my mom up her game on his second christmas morning.We were having breakfast when we notice that he was no where to be seen (uncommon for him he liked to ask for food from all of our plates rather than have his own plate) so we get up to look for him and we find him stand in his christmas outfit in the toilet we had to get the door locks for the bathroom the next dayThe best one I have is the day my son escaped on to the front porch. I had left my son playing on the living room floor while I ran to the bathroom. Apparently in the two minutes it took me to pee he had opened the front door and walked out onto the front porch. Thankfully a neighbor saw him immediately and was on my porch with him before I was even out of the bathroom. I still don’t leave the front door unlocked.
Another that I remember from growing up was when my little brother made my mom up her game on his second Christmas morning. We were having breakfast when we notice that he was nowhere to be seen (uncommon for him he liked to ask for food from all of our plates rather than have his own plate) so we get up to look for him and we find him stand in his christmas outfit in the toilet we had to get the door locks for the bathroom the next day
I’m a subscriber. 🙂
The time my then-3.5 year old ate THIRTY disney princess gummy vitamins. I freaked out and called poison control. Luckily they weren’t harmful, she just had to drink a lot of water and had a little tummy ache. She had never tried getting into ANYTHING before that. Everything got locked up after that!
My 2 yr old son pushed a laundry basket to the front door, turned it upside down and climbed up on top of it, and unlocked the door. Then announced, “I’m goin outside, mama!” He has also been known to open the freezer and eat frozen waffles. Thanks to top door latches and freezer locks, we can now avoid those things. Waiting to see what he tries next. Wouldn’t ya know it’s the 3rd child who tries these things.
When I took a shower, and my son, who was supposed to be quietly playing in his room, snuck out and very quietly ate a full dozen freshly baked chocolate chip cookies,and just as quietly snuck back into his room. If it weren’t for the full rack of cookies absent, I wouldn’t have known.
I had baby #2 less than 2 weeks ago and the two year old big sister has been climbing the side of the changing table to help change her diapers- she never even looked twice at it before the baby arrived!
When i babysit, I make sure that my purse/bag is hung in a safe spot. There have been many times that the contents have been spilled out or pulled out by toddlers. It’s so much fun to go through a babysitter’s purse!
When my son was a toddler, he was very adept at figuring out things he shouldn’t. He has always been very mechanically inclined. When he was around 1.5-2, he figured out how to drag a chair to the door and lock the babysitter’s deadbolt (during naptime while the baby sitter was taking the trash to the dumpster). She wound up having to call the fire department to force open and climb in a window of her second story apartment because my son wouldn’t unlock the door. I was a reporter for my hometown newspaper at the time. Part of my beat was the fire department. I heard all about how my son locked out the baby sitter from them.
Flash forward a few months. My son and I were moving to a bigger place. After I had him strapped in his car seat, I realized I forgot to lock the old house’s door. The car wasn’t running and the weather was mild, so I left my son buckled in and ran back to lock up. In the 30 seconds it took to do this, my son had figured out how to unlatch his new car seat harness, climbed to the front seat and locked the car. I came back to find him pretending to drive may car, my keys clutched gleefully in his hand. I had to call 911 for someone to pop the locks on the car.
First on the scene? The fire department crew that helped my son’s babysitter get back in her apartment. And yes, they immediately made the connection. In the time I remained a reporter, I heard about these two incidents on an almost daily basis. It seems the stories were spread among ALL emergency services personnel in the whole county. Thanks, son. (Sarcasm)
Daddy left the house to go get a pizza. My 18 month old son ran after him because he wanted to go to. He got to the closed door to the garage, grabbed the handle, pulled the lever down, and opened the door! We didn’t even know he was tall enough to reach the handle. And, of course it all happened in a split second. Luckily I was close enough to grab him before he headed outside! Now, we keep the door locked at all times and will probably have to buy some sort of contraption once he figures out how to operate the lock.
Ack! Should be *my car* not “may car.”
My nine month old son pushed his piano to the window seat and proceeded to use it as a step stool to stand and look out the window. Watched from a safe distance to see if he really could do it but could catch him if he went backwards. When he saw me he gave me such a proud grin!! He is only 11 months now, I am in for it!
Just when I thought out of site, out of mind and kept my dress shoes upstairs… My three year old tossed all my shoes out of the closet (in the second floor) and decided to wear the one with 4″ heels with her Elsa dress all the way to downstairs.
My story is actually about me, around age two. My mom had a tube of Deep Heat rub (think IcyHot) which she kept in a cabinet above the washer and dryer. I had apparently seen it and mistaken it for toothpaste. When she wasn’t looking, I climbed on top of the washer and got it down so I could brush my teeth with it. She found me screaming, wearing only a diaper, with drool running down my chest and belly, spreading the “toothpaste” down the front of me and leaving my skin bright red. Poison control told her that since I was brushing my teeth, I probably had not swallowed a significant amount and that I would be fine. And I was.
I was at a friends house and my daughter got into a box of pins on accident. Didn’t think she could open them but she did
We lock up everything. We have alarms on all the windows and doors. We even use a safe for
Medicines… We thought we were Aces until nap time one day I went to check on the three year old. Something in his hand was shiny and I almost didn’t check it. But I did thankfully! He was holding a button battery!!! I asked him to show me where he got
It and he pointed to the window. Turns out, our security alarm uses button batteries!!! I was missing three and starting to panic. Fortunately, I found all three of them, but it hammered home all of our work could have been undone in an instant when our toddler got bored and went after random things on the Windows!!! I swear these guys are a suicide squad some days with how adept they are at defeating our circles of safety!!! ????????
My daughter has never really bothered things so we weren’t worried about baby proofing to much. We have another on the way and my sister was here with her almost 2 year old who went straight for the magnets on our fridge. Now we know we need to keep those up higher!
I had some sweetly coated Tylenol that my 3 year old thought was candy. She apparently opened the baby proof bottle like it was nothing and came in to me with red hands telling me the candy was “yuck.” I no longer trust baby proof bottles. But I’m happy my kids eating a lot of sweet things lately has taken away any taste for medicine!
My baby has just started climbing and it’s her favorite thing to do. She loves climbing into the dishwasher. I used to leave it open so the dishes would finish drying, but now I have to keep it closed. My older daughter has a lot of kid sized chairs that are the perfect size for the baby to climb onto, so I’ve taken them out of the house. The climbing stage is rough.
While visiting my mom for an extended vacation I made sure to bring baby locks and secured the cabinets under the sink in the kitchen and bathrooms. And then…I caught my 11 month old in the pantry with the bottle of Palmolive tipped back in her mouth! Who stores extra Palmolive on the floor in a room dedicated to food stoRage????? Called poison control…and did another sweep of the house of horrors
My sons favorite hiding place was in the dryer. Luckily he outgrew the spot before anything terrible happened
I sent my mom this link. She’s probably enjoying the comments. She still feels bad.
When I was 4, woke up with a fever. I Refused the 1980’s way of checking a temp. A fever felt better than a cold Vaseline covered thermometer up the butt! I got the big girl oral one my brother and sister used. Yay! She said “don’t bite it”. Chomp. Nice swallow of mercury and glass. Ipecac and X-rays. Wee!!!
When our son was two, he figured out how to get onto our counters and open the cabinets with the latch on it and came to us with an empty container of his reflux medication. He had taken all ten that were in there and if that wasn’t bad enough, he managed to get a peppermint disk and almost choked to death on it. We had to hide the peppermints in the top of our closet and his meds needed to go there as well.
Luckily my girls are rule followers (for the most part) I can’t think of anything
My son stacked his toys on top of the kitchen chair to get to the upper cabinets where we keep his “gum” aka vitamins.
My story is from when I was a child, about 4 years old. My family spent the day before Easter dying dozens of beautiful Easter eggs. I was the first to wake up on Easter morning, and on the way to my parents room noticed that the food coloring had been left on the counter. I decided to “decorate” the kitchen, including the upholstered dining chairs, wooden dining table and hutch. I woke up my mom and was beaming with pride as I led her to the kitchen that I had decorated for the special occasion. I wasn’t in any danger, but I’m positive my mom would’ve given anything to go back in time and put the food coloring somewhere more secure.
I always wondered why some refrigerators had a lock button with the water/ice dispenser on the door…well, my son taught me why. Our refrigerator didn’t have one so he loved pushing the ice and water buttons to fill the floor with icy puddles!
My younger daughter has a broken danger button … Since she was born she’s been putting everything! in her mouth. Thank God for poison control,they are kind, non judgmental and patient. We have called so often, they know my daughters name. And if you ever get a chance to speak with “Ralph ” in Florida … He’s great! He’s practically a family member at this point
Thank goodness my daughter is afraid of breaking rules (usually). So I can’t think of a particular incident. Hope this lasts!
I thought we had a pretty strong child-proofing game until my 3-year-old daughter came into the den with eight socket covers in her hands. She had gone into the living room and pulled all the plug covers from the electrical sockets. It takes me 10 minutes to get one of those darn things out. And she had to slide behind couches and end tables to even get to the plugs.
Our oldest has never liked to get dirty, so we never had issues keeping plants in the living room. My youngest, however, doesn’t mind and we quickly woke up to that fact when we discovered he had removed the saucer from under a pot and was drinking the water that had drained through… and I had just fertilized the plants with Miracle Grow. After some quick research and phone calls we discovered it is non-toxic, but the plants nevertheless found new homes.
Last night my 19-month old learned how to open the wine fridge. I discovered it when he helpfully delivered a bottle of wine with a big smile to me on the couch. Oops.
I’ve been a nanny for 2 years now and worked with 3 different families. My most recent family has a very mischievous 3 year old girl who I’ve had to call poison control on twice since I began in August! Thankfully each time she has been fine and there were no ER visits involved, just a VERY panicked nanny and parents! The most recent endeavor was really an eye opener for us all. Her and her older sister (5) had locked themselves in ththe bathroom and gotten into liquid ibuprofen – despite the child lock and that it was put away in the medicine cabinet. The youngest had drank the entire bottle by the time I found them. It was absolutely terrifying! I had a quick talk with them and then when their parents got home they talked much more in depth with them about it. I will definitely be having this conversation with my own children down the road. It was so so so so so scary!
Our little one has just started crawling so we are starting to babyproof right now. I find it helps to get down on her level to see the way she does, that way you can really discover what she would be attracted to. There are so many baby proofing items out there so it’s hard to know which to buy and which work the best!
How about yesterday when my almost 1.5 yr old learned to climb on the kitchen table into the candy dish…When did he learn to scale furniture like that?
When my daughter opened my mother in law’s bathroom cabinet and promptly grabbed the toilet cleaner and said “Juice!” We baby proofed her house for her soon after that! And all the “juice” is now kept in the cabinets above the washer and dryer.
Basically I can’t let my kids around my sister: my 1 year old (at the time) got into her purse, which she left on the floor, and ate some of her vitamins. The older one burned her arm on a griddle that was in the middle of the table when my sister took her out to eat. The little one fell out of bed while napping at my sister’s house. Sister used a clorox wipe instead of a baby wipe when changing a diaper. It’s amazing her own daughter made it to her teens!
We used to have a room where all the unused junk went. We had a full-size bed with four mattresses piled on top of it, with tons of stuff sitting on top. Including the Walker that my son no longer needed, as he was fully mobile. We also had one of those “childproof” handle covers on the doorknob so he couldn’t get into the room. So when the day came that he was unusually quiet and not in his typical spots, it took me a minute to think of checking there. When I did, my little monkey had figured out the unopenable door, scaled the bed and mattresses, had somehow set up his walker (it was folded shut) and was sitting in it. No, not just sitting. He was driving it. With his fully mobile legs. Towards the end of the impossibly high bed. Needless to say, Mommy got around to that Spring cleaning a lot faster.
[…] Share your story and enter the competition. […]
I can’t enter because I live outside of the U.S…. but I probably shouldn’t have looked at this WITH my almost-3-yo! LOL! He got ideas about #15…. something about the kid being “so angry” and “Putting all the cookies in his gob”.
[…] Share your story and enter the competition. […]
I had to rethink my baby-proofing strategy for some medicines when my toddler dragged his little stool into the bathroom, climbed up, opened the top drawer and then opened a “baby proof” bottle of advil. Luckily, I was right there so he didn’t eat any. But we moved all the medicines to the top shelf of the medicine cabinet. Even I have to use a stool to reach them.
We have pulley blinds on every window in our apartment. Thankfully, another mom warned us against the cords being left dangling as a choking hazard. We spent time tying them each up high, tucking them behind the blinds and taping the remains to the windows. My 18 month old climbed on the coffee table, on top the window sill and pulled the entire blind off the window. Ripped the whole thing down. But girl, those cords were NOT a choking hazard. ????
Thanks for the great reminder that we need to keep an eye on those kiddos (especially the boys!).
Paula, Editor, PJ Media Parenting
Last week my 18 month old was playing in our room. He found a bottle of ibuprofen in my bedside table. He threw it around, enjoying the rattle. I figured it wasn’t a big deal because it has a child-proof cap on it. One good throw and the top came right off and pills scattered everywhere. That’s the last time I let my son play with a bottle of pills. And the last time I keep medicine in my bedside table!
My story is actually about my sister. We used to go camping a lot growing up. One trip when my sister was barely 2, she climbed out of her pack and play, unzipped the tent, and went strolling along in the early morning. Thankfully a kind person found her and brought her back. After that (and now with my own kids when we camp), the tent got locked from the inside and my mom slept with the key!
My now 5 year old was a toilet diver. At home, at work with me, at her grandparents…she sought out the toilet and dived right in.
Just recently my almost two years old son figured out all the fun things in our bathroom drawer. I had always picked out safe things he could play with but suddenly he has sprouted and his arms reach further than ever before. He found some allergy meds and baby aspirin that made great maracas. Because I was right there and watching I didnt want to make a big deal out of it, that always means there is even more of a reason he thinks he needs something he doesn’t! What was scary though is as he was shaking his booty and new found maracas, one of the “child proof” lids came off and pills flew everywhere. That’s when I knew I needed to make sure to get all medicines up and out of reach and sight.
This wasn’t me as a parent – my toddler is surprisingly non-exploratory so far – but me as a kid. I went up to my mom and declared, “I took my medicine!” My mom ran upstairs to find half the bottle of Children’s Tylenol gone. No idea how much got in me and how much went on the floor, but I was okay.
The time my daughter pushed one of our kitchen chair up to our counter and got into the medicine cabinet after watching mommy do it. She said she needed medicine too.
My 18 month old realllly likes brushing his teeth..we brush them while he is in the bathtub so i leave his toothbrush and toothpaste in a basket next to the tub… With all of his toys and washcloths. Mom fail! The kiddo snuck in and tried to eat his toothpaste! Luckily I caught him as he was starting to suck out the toothpaste as if it were a fruit pouch! Eek! Def not a fruit pouch! Oops!
my son so far has gotten into the baby powder and poured it all over himself and another time he lathered himself with lotion and vaseline.
Well mines not as heart stopping as all of these. The first time my step daughter came into my house, she was five then, I spent the whole time running in front of her panicking about how dangerous my “normal” apartment was.
This is a great cause not only patents should be aware of house hold risks but any aunt/uncle, grandma/pa, and even any one that has friends with little ones!
We were visiting grammie… I thought I was smart bringing my one year old into the bathroom with me while I showered as the 12 yr old cousin would be oblivious since she didn’t have a cord attached…anyways, exited the shower to see my daughter had opened the guest bath drawers. And since this is an unused bath in a fairly new house I assumed that like the drawers, the cabinet would have nothing but toilet paper and old magazines. Nope, my daughter found the cold medicine, glass Yankee candle jars and matches! Luckily she didn’t navigate the child proof cap or break anything, but we purchased a removable baby lock for the remainder of our stay.
Our daughter asked for a refill of water, I left the room, came back and she was on top of the coffee table trying to reach the top of the mantel. Which is all stone. My heart sank and I walked over slowly and talking softly as if I was a negotiator with the NYPD.
I had to rethink my baby proofing when my daughter went in the kitchen and easily opened a cabinet that I thought was safety locked and got herself a plate.
I have 5 kids. i thought I had everything baby proofed. Until the last two (twin boys) became mobile. How in the world do you keep them from pulling vents out of the wall, breaking numerous lamps (the only light we have in most rooms), taking shelves out of our jelly cupboards, opening pocket doors that the other 3 never could and more?!? I think I’ll just head to the looney bin now!
When I realized that my honey/ beeswax candles were stuffed down the bathroom sink. Seriously, if she was getting into that and thought it was food (there were some definite teeth marks), then I knew that very little was safe around her. 😉
When I walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen and saw the cabinet doors open,
My 1 year old son sitting on the floor in his fluffy onesie, taking ONE bite from each donut in the donut box.
Everyday I have to rethink my childproofing strategies. You have to be ahead of the game, and these kids grow and learn fast!
I currently have a 2.5 year old and a 6 month old. My eldest loves stickers, and one apparently was on stuck on the floor mats, and camouflouged.. but somehow, my youngest got it off and it got stuck in her mouth and was coughing, trying to get it off! I wasn’t home when this happened, but after hearing about it, it made me really re-think child-proofing our house so that it’s safer for our now crawling baby who sticks everything in her mouth!
our dare devil toddler pulled out the bottom drawer and used it to reach the stove, a straight balancing act on the edge of the drawer – it was amazing, but scary. Had to lock the drawers and put safety locks on the stove knobs 🙁
Just today I was making mac & cheese for my daughter and she came into the kitchen and was asking if different areas of the pot were hot. After I told her the handle wasn’t hot, she goes and grabs it! Fortunately she didn’t pull on the lot and it was fairly cool anyway. I forgetc how tall she is getting. Guess I need to start cooking on the back burners!
when my two year old came downstairs saying he was burned. He is little finger was bleeding. After getting him his beloved Micky band aids we went to see what ‘burned’ him…. He brought a stool in my master bath walk in shower to look on my shiver shelf. My razor was there and he touched it…. Causing a “burn”. I was so upset with myself…I thought it was high enough out of his reach. It’s now as high as I can reach in a suction cup soap holder. He will sometimes point to it and say Mommy I don’t want to get “burned” again… I tell him he’s right and that’s dangerous and not for him to play with, but my heart is heavy, knowing something more serious could have happened. ????
I used to use a weekly pill organizer for my blood pressure pills, but quickly had to stop when my 2 year old found it on my headboard and happily ate some. I immediately sick my dinner down her throat forcing her to vomit then called poison control then headed to the er where we had to hang out for 8 hours while she was hooked up to heart monitors to be sure the medicine cleared her system. It was No Fun.
I knew i needed to rearrange what i put in my kitchen cabinets when i turned around from cleaning the family room and saw all the cabinet doors open (those he can reach). Thankfully he did not open the one with kitchen knives on it. He also started using the step tool on the pantry so had to place the fragile items(e.g bottles) higher up
My son was right next to me in the kitchen just the other day. I bent down to grab a garbage bag from under the sink, looked up, and he was sitting in his high chair, in the living room. 10 seconds. I don’t know how they do it.
We’ve been lucky for the most part with our son. Now that’s he’s 4 he has snuck outback a few times to play on his swings etc. But thankfully it’s a fenced in yard and both gates are always locked.
We were lucky with my daughter as a younger toddler, but now that she’s 2.5. I’m having to find higher and higher places to hide things. Getting into the freezer and refrigerator are her new favorite things. Once I found her on the couch with a string cheese that she has destroyed while it was still in the plastic…haha (she didn’t eat the plastic, just chewed on the cheese while it was still wrapped, looked awful)
I have twin 3 year old boys- I have too many stories to tell but just last week while their daddy was using the bathroom the boys went into my makeup drawer (which they never show any interest in anymore) got my full sized RED lipstick sample from my Birch box and had it ALL over each other! Thank goodness their daddy took video!
My kids have never been too bad about ingesting things they should not.
A while back though, my son was having multiple poops a day and getting a bit of a rash so I started using butt cream. I stored it with the lotion, wipes and diapers. I think it was because it was something new that my (at the time) 18 month old decided to taste test it. He barely licked it but we still freaked out a bit and called poison control. In our rush we did not realize that we had called poison control for a different state! It was embarrassing but she was very nice about it.
My daughter went through a hitting phase about a year ago, so I put together a reward chart for her to extinguish the behavior. Her reward for 7 days of no hitting was a fish. I thought I had thought this through, I even put Mr. Bubbles on a higher shelf so that she couldn’t get to the tank. However, one day, I had her help me clean his tank on the countertop. Despite the fact that I was standing in front of her the entire time (you know, to prevent a fall), she managed to get a hold of her baby monitor and dunk it into Mr. Bubbles’ tank. We had to get a new monitor after that.
I knew I needed to up my baby-proofing game when I found my daughter COVERED in bronzer and lipstick… luckily everything was washable!
This is truly awful, but our kid loved shaking pill bottles and for a while we didn’t see the harm because the cap is babyproof, right? Until the day we were playing on the sofa and I got distracted for a second and he dumped almost an entire bottle of vitamins onto my chest. Now they’re all out of his reach.
I went with the not baby proofing anything except medications and cleaning products. I also didn’t whose my child to a staircase until far too late. .results-her thinking anything with a childproof lid wok kill her and at 3.5, she can’t walk down stairs on her own. I totally failed!
We had to quickly install a gate at the top of our stairs as soon as my son became mobile- he was at it like a shot. I never new how attractive a flight of stairs would look to a baby.
I am an email subscriber.
We had to re-think baby-proofing strategies when our little darling easily removed a certain style of “child-proof” electric plug covers in the blink of an eye. We kept trying different style covers until we found some that baffled her.
We thought we were good, Kaylee had already hurt herself on drawers so we put all the drawer safety latches up on everything (plus some extra modifications). Well wouldn’t you know it, she figured out that you can pull them out just that tiny bit still, but she was happily playing with the drawer while sitting down, and pulling her hands out to push it back closed. Fast forward – she pulled out the spice drawer – formerly a bread box drawer – that tiny bit she coudl only it was higher up, she stuck her fingers in, and leaned on it…. screaming baby with pinched fingers. Sigh. Only thing better is getting those magnetic drawer latches. Money, time and annoyance ahead!
Baby proofing back in the olden days was very frustrating for the parents. Magnetic latches that refused to open, drawer latches that were impossible for adults to open. I was a single mom so I was so baby proofed, I prevented *myself* from accessing vital headache medicine.
Nonetheless, poison control was posted on the phone and I remember calling at least twice. Did they drink benadryl because it was tasty? Did my now ex mix up milliliters and teaspoons? I can’t remember.
When my daughter was 3 she scaled the bathroom counter, got into the cabinet and smeared an entire jar of hair grease into her hair (on easter). She was a complete mess for weeks, and nothing we tried would wash the stuff out. We even tried dish soap thinking it would have to work considering it cleans oil off birds in an oil spill. lol