Full Babyproofing Mode

We are in full babyproofing mode now! Caleb started crawling a few weeks ago and is into everything. I am not going to lie, I was not prepared for this. When Carson began to crawl, he wanted to get into everything as well, but in a different sense. He mainly wanted to chase after the dog or go full speed down the hallway. Carson would also find his way to the table or fireplace and try and pull himself up and stand. He rarely wanted to put everything into his mouth or try and play with outlets or cords. Caleb, on the other hand, does.

Caleb hasn’t started to pick up much speed yet, but he crawls straight for anything he shouldn’t be getting into. He also tries to find the few things on the floor that are choking hazards and put them into his mouth. At the moment, one of his favorite things is to try and crawl onto the bottom of the coffee table, so we have had to move everything that was down there somewhere else out of reach. Luckily there were not too many choking hazards down there. However, we had a sock bin that we added all of our single socks in and a couple of large books that he would grab and try to tip over or pull off onto himself.

The other day he noticed the outlets for the first time and tried to go after them. This worries me more than anything, but luckily, we caught him in time. We were able to get the babyproof plug into the outlets before anything happened. He does grab ahold of any cords that may be lying around as well. Luckily, he does not have any teeth yet and so cannot do too much damage or hurt himself. We have to be careful that nothing is plugged in and that he is not playing with cords in general.

One of Caleb’s favorite things to go after is the small hot wheel vehicles that his big brother Carson plays with. These toys have small parts to them, so I do not mind him playing with them as long as I am keeping a close watch. Carson, on the other hand, is not enjoying the fact that his brother can now crawl over and try and grab his toys. We have already started dealing with sibling fights and are trying to teach Carson more about sharing. When Caleb wants to play with cars, I try and steer him towards a few of the larger cars. But he is always much more interested in the ones that Carson is playing with, which tend to be the smaller ones.

Every kid is different, so we did not have to do much babyproofing with Carson because he didn’t really get into things such as cupboards or outlets. We did have to put up baby gates to keep him in certain areas or still make sure that small objects were picked up. For Caleb, we have covered all the outlets now, and we will be putting up the baby gates soon. We are putting larger or very small objects out of reach, and we have a pack-and-play up as a safe place to put him when we need to get something done. We also just purchased a baby cage (aka a playpen) for Caleb that we can take while camping or when we are outside. The playpen is big enough that he can kind of crawl around in and has a covered bottom. That is helpful for when we take it outside, so I do not have to worry about him putting random, small objects in his mouth. I am really excited about giving this a try because I took him outside in our garden the other day, and he literally tried to put every single rock, grass, or piece of dirt in his mouth. I had to watch him like a hawk, which is fine when I am just going outside to let him explore. However, sometimes I need to work in my yard or garden, and this playpen will hopefully make a world of difference.

We also need to put Caleb’s crib mattress further down because he is trying to pull himself up on everything. Lowering it will keep him from potentially falling out of the crib if he were to pull himself up to the standing position. He also tries this in the bathtub, so giving him a bath is challenging right now. We do have a non-slick pad in there so that he has less chance of slipping around and falling.

We are constantly babyproofing and learning with our kids about what we can do to ensure that they are safe within our own home. It is challenging, and we cannot prevent all trips and falls, but we can protect them in other ways.

Childproofing Checklist by Age

Learn important safety measures you can take to childproof your home, based on the age and development of your child. You can download this checklist as a printable PDF here.