Child Proofing AGAIN | Child Safety for 13 Month Old Toddler
It feels like there is nothing that we can do to keep our 13 month old baby out of mischief! He is just one curious little boy that is usually on the go from 6:30 to 7:30 A.M. until he crashes around 4:00 P.M. He will nap for about an hour and then do it again until around 9:30 to 10:00 P.M. I feel like we are living in total hyper drive right now and there is really not much that we can do about it because our toddler only understands but so much at this age.
Don't get me wrong! It is truly beautiful to watch him exploring new things in his world. I am amazed by how we can literally see the "light bulb going off" when he discovers his own capabilities; his adorably innocent and transparent expressions are how I can see what he is thinking and understanding before he takes off like the Roadrunner to do the next thing. Our 13 month old is not only cute and curious, he is frighteningly smart and stubborn about what he does understand. This makes him an unstoppable opponent these days, therefore we had to childproof our home AGAIN.
It was just one room that needed the "toddler make over" because the rest of the house is off limits and we did childproof months ago when he was learning to crawl. We have given him the entire living room which is really like having two room because it openly connects to my 10 x 10 office (we just do not use the sliding doors). In addition to that opening, he can pretty much see what is going on outside of the living room because it has no doorway (just one wall where the entertainment stand sits) and opens into the kitchen and hallway.
Initial Child Proofing Done Before He Turned One Years Old
We removed just about everything from the living room (no coffee table, end tables and accessories). All that is left in the room is low sitting leather couch on one wall, glider rocking chair, one lamp, entertainment stand w/ older TV, Today's Kids Play Yard, pack n play that holds his bin of toys and a basket of toys w/ my Legmaster to the side of the entertainment stand.
- We had to put the childproof caps into all of the electrical sockets when he was around 5-6 months because he started going for them as soon as he began crawling.
- We painted because he started licking the walls while using them to stand up. We had only cleaned the walls when we moved in to this home, but felt more comfortable giving the walls a fresh coat of paint "just in case". He eventually stopped licking the walls.
- We had to teach him not to eat the door stopper, though did end up switching to the flexible coil door stopper which he has stretched and smashed like crazy. He has finally stopped trying to use it as a teething ring. This coil type of door stopper is flexible, so it never went to the back of his throat like the straight, solid, metal ones.
- We bought a pack of floor pads (found in the exercise department of Walmart for $20) to avoid any more head and tooth injuries. He was extremely accident prone when learning to sit up, crawl and walk. He chipped his front tooth just after it first came in. It is a slant that still looks OK, but he sometimes pokes his tongue with it :( These gym mats helped a bunch and we ended up getting a 2nd pack when he was learning to walk. They are not as colorful as the baby / child mats, though they are durable and have enough cushion for small knees and to break impact during falls. They are larger than the baby mats, so less cleaning time. * We did have to take the trim from around the edges because he was pealing the strips up to chew them and he has bit off a few of the block edges, but stopped that obsession around 12 months. These mats are a "must have" if you have tile or wood floors.
(Best baby floor - Get them @ Walmart for $20 in the exercise department)
Toddler Childproofing Needs (13 Months)
#1 - Turned the couch around and use it to block the open wall ...
As I mentioned above, we turned his favorite couch around (the love seat) so that he'll stop climbing it. He almost flipped over the back of it one day, so this was necessary. It also worked out that the couch was wide enough to block the opening between the living room and office entry way. We also had to sew the hole he picked in the back of the couch after we turned it around.
#2 - One room opposed to using the play yard or pack n play to contain him.
As I mentioned above, he now has the whole living room opposed to just the space of a play yard or pack n play. We have the love seat blocking him in to the living room, though I can see what he is doing at the times that we are not in the actual living room with him. I just have to slide it over to open the area up and combine the two rooms (which I need to do sometimes, so that he can walk back and forth to give his hugs and check out what we are doing :)
#3 - Turned the Today's Kids Play Yard into a gate
Last week, my husband drilled the Today's Kid Play Yard to the walls because he kept breaking loose when we had it wedged between the couch (on one side) and the entertainment center (on the other side). It is no longer a hexigon, but one long panel that makes a semi circle, straight or edged panel depending upon how the baby pushes on it. Now that the play yard is drilled to the wall, he cannot leave the room on his own and we use one panel as a door or just step over it. I would like to mention that this Today's Kids Play Yard is one of the best yard sale purchases we made. It has heavy plastic panels that permit you to combine more than one set to make a larger play area. This is what we were going to do if drilling to the wall did not work, but it did :)
#4 - We needed to baby proof the entertainment center again.
We had already cleaned out the drawers of the entertainment center, but our baby started opening them and excessively shaking the doors (that close in the TV). It has finally gotten to the point that we needed to take the knobs and both doors off the entertainment center. We also had to put our baby's books in the cabinet area because he is still trying to chew on them and rip pages. This works out well because he will stand over there to let us know that he wants to read his books. We also have an older tube TV in the entertainment stand because I am less worried about HD quality than I am his safety. This TV is heavy enough that he cannot shake it down (as he does try to lift and shake the entertainment center) and he does hit on the TV when he gets hyped up, so I am glad we left it in the living room.
#5 - Blocking the electric sockets AGAIN ...
We have had white safety plugs in all of the wall sockets since he started crawling, but they are almost useless at 13 months old. He can pull the safety plugs out of the socket, so we had t position all furniture to block those safety plugs. It gives piece of mind, but we still have to watch because he tries pushing the couch out of his way to get to the plugs on the one wall :(
In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child
