Setting up a childproof room?

[kennancat]

Hi all - DH and are childfree, but want to keep one of our rooms childproofed so our friends' kids will have a fun/safe place to play. The rest of our house has travertine floors and several pieces of art glass, so it's not possible to childproof the whole place. This room is carpeted, has one window, a regular door, and a closet. It's right off of the family room/kitchen where we end up hanging out, but you can't see into the room from the family room. One part of the ceiling is slightly sloped because it's under the stairs. Right now we have a halogen floor lamp in there, which I want to pull out and add a ceiling fan with light kit. We also have a small 19"ish TV and VCR (for Disney videos, of course) on a stand. Should I try to use plastic zip ties to contain the power cords and cables a bit more? We have blinds in the window, but DH has already shortened the cords to where I can barely reach them. The closet has two doors that open into the room - I figure I can use rope or a large rubber band around the handles to keep those closed. We have all our luggage in that closet along with the aerobed, since I'm also thinking that this room can double as an extra guest room if needed. I was going to buy some outlet covers for it too. I figure most of our friends can bring their own baby gate and toys if they want to, and I'm fine with letting them look the room over and remove stuff that concerns them. Can you think of anything else that I can do to make the room safer?

 

[AKL_Megs]

Have you checked out all of the stuff that Parents Magazine makes for this purpose? They sell it at Target. It's pretty popular stuff.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

If the doors are short enough (regular door height)--they do sell locks for them. I put one on my dds' closet b/c they like to....have fashion shows.

Cover the plug outlets...if you have something plugged into them, you can get a plug cover for that as well.

But other than that---I can't think much of anything.

The suggestion most often given is to crawl around the room on your hands and knees....and see what you can find at that level.

 

[freckles and boo]

I would check to see if your tv is top heavy on the stand and if the stand can be easily tipped. Little ones just learning to pull themselves up and "cruisers" who walk along furniture could upset the balance and pull the tv down if it the stand is lighter than the tv.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

Sounds like you have things pretty well covered.

My one concern would be the stand supporting the TV. Is it sturdy? Not something that could tip over? And there is the danger of pulling the TV off and crushing a child. So. . . the lower to the ground the better. In our play area, we actually kept a TV/VCR combo on the bottom shelf of a nightstand so that it was only about 3 inches off the ground. Perfect for toddlers.

You are so thoughtful to think of your friends and their kids!

If you have anyone in your circle of friends/family who could give you a few toys to keep in a basket that would be nice, too.

 

[unbroken chain]

What a great friend you are! Also make sure there is nothing small they can choke on - some kids put EVERYTHING into their mouths.

Of course some kids get into everything - take every book off the shelf, etc. - but you can keep an eye on that, you just want them to be safe.

 

[kennancat]

The suggestion most often given is to crawl around the room on your hands and knees....and see what you can find at that level.

Good idea - I will have to give that one a shot.

I am concerned a bit about the tv - it's just on your standard tv cart from Target. I will play around with it a bit (while on my hands and knees) to see if it's easy to tip over. I'll probably have the parents take a look at it too.

We're trying not to put too much money into the room, since it's not like it'll get used all that often to be honest. Mostly, I want our friends to be able to be comfortable in the house with their kids. I'm afraid that without the room they'll be too nervous to visit for the next seven years!

 

[fan_of_small_world]

It is very sweet of you to do this for your friends! They are very lucky and will really appreciate having a safe place for their children to play! I always got so nervous visiting friends without kids, since there was so much that DS and DD could "get into" that was not meant for little hands.

For the TV and stand, what we've always done is anchor the TV to the cabinet and then anchor the cabinet to the wall. It doesn't cost much but is effective. Here's how: on the back of the cabinet, screw in 2 heavy duty eye-hooks - one at the top (in the middle) and one centered under the TV. Then screw a third heavy duty eye-hook into a stud in the wall near the top eye-hook. Use heavy-duty wire ties to connect the TV (you should be able to find someplace to loop the wire-tie through) to the cabinet and then connect the cabinet to the wall with another wire-tie.

This can also be used to anchor dressers and other heavy furniture to the wall. Just use one eye-hook in the back of the top of the dresser and one in a stud in the wall. Tragically, we know of a family who lost a daughter (aged 3) because she opened the drawers of an empty dresser and tried to "climb" them. It fell on top of her. I think that most parenting books now mention anchoring all furniture to the wall because of this has happened more than once, often with horrible outcomes.