What do you do to childproof your room?

[disneypolybride2008]

We will be at Art of Animation in the Little Mermaid room for our first trip with our DD 2. I am wondering what needs childproofing? First time DD will sleep outside of a crib, so I hopefully can feel better about her having freedom to explore in the middle of the night if she wakes up and chooses to do so.

A long shot here, but anyone know where I can get an Ariel plush doll for her to sleep with? Size/Prices? Thank you

 

[mcuoghi]

No advice for baby proofing but we got dd a plush Ariel from the Disney store. I believe they have two sizes, the smaller one is beanie baby sized. The larger one is the one we have and it's about 16 inches. We caught it on sale for about $10 back in June.

 

[monorailsilver]

I never baby proofed the rooms. My kids were so tired that they didn't wake until we woke them in the am. Even the trip we just took a few weeks ago.

I am also a light sleeper so I hear everything at night.

 

[Mrs.Malone]

We don't do much childproofing in the room, but the first thing I always do is take a good look under the beds and in all the drawers to be certain nothing dangerous is in there. I can't tell you how many times I've found things like pills and needles in these areas. Not so often at Disney, but it's good to look because a 2-year-old will find them!

 

[figment41]

The only thing that we did that was easy to bring with us was to definitely bring outlet covers.

As far as plush ariels they carry many sizes at the disney store, walmart, and toys r us ( kmart has a large 2 foot plush that is like a pillow)

You can also have bed rails delivered to your room

Have a great first trip

 

[MSSANDRA]

We never did a lot in the Hotel either but always made very sure that any medication was out of possible reach and that we checked the floor for any foreign objects too. We however, never let them out of our sight in the hotel.

You may want to rethink having your little one have his first time out of a crib in a hotel at WDW. I remember well putting our oldest in a bed for the first time after we took him out of the crib......very long night!!!! I would try to keep the sleep situation as close to home as possible! You could transition before you go, or rent a crib there. You do not want a baby exploring a hotel room on his own!

 

[pinoke]

Check everywhere ! The floors, the drawers, behind the doors....
Barricade the balcony door. Put something like the end table in front of it.
Outlet covers.

 

[aidansmom]

We never did a lot in the Hotel either but always made very sure that any medication was out of possible reach and that we checked the floor for any foreign objects too. We however, never let them out of our sight in the hotel.

You may want to rethink having your little one have his first time out of a crib in a hotel at WDW. I remember well putting our oldest in a bed for the first time after we took him out of the crib......very long night!!!! I would try to keep the sleep situation as close to home as possible! You could transition before you go, or rent a crib there. You do not want a baby exploring a hotel room on his own!

I agree with this - I would absolutely keep the baby in a crib/ pack n play. When we travelled with our 2 1/2 yo, who was sleeping in a bed at home by that time, he had no trouble at all sleeping in the pack n play in WDW. He was so tired by the end of the day that he would just konk out and it gave us piece of mind that he didn't have the ability to wander (and freed up the bunks for his older siblings).

In terms of childproofing, we just always make sure to keep the room door bolted (or with the security latch thingy closed) so the kids can't get out into the hallway during the night - though I'm sure we would hear them if they tried to. We have never been too big on childproofing the room otherwise as it's such a small space and one of us is always in there with them to see what they are up to.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

see that is what i was thinking, keep in a crib to contain them so they can't get up during the night and explore.. whereas if in a crib they'd simply go back to sleep hopefully since they know there is nothing for them to do other than that. Now i'm unsure again of what to do. I was thinking of transitioning her out of her crib at home but it is the crib that changes to a full size bed, so the only part that changes is a bed rail on the front.. it is not the same as a bed would be and so having her on her blow-up toddler bed would still be very different.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

I set up our play yard at home to see how well she fits in it. I think she will do fine in it size wise. I could order a mattress pad for it, that would be more comfortable, however it would make it easier for her to climb out. She tried to climb out and she could do it if she wanted to so i guess then it doesn't matter if it is easier or not, so i'll send the mattress pad to our resort. I found a suitcase already that I bought to take our play yard on another trip.

 

[SEA333]

We will be at Art of Animation in the Little Mermaid room for our first trip with our DD 2. I am wondering what needs childproofing? First time DD will sleep outside of a crib, so I hopefully can feel better about her having freedom to explore in the middle of the night if she wakes up and chooses to do so.

A long shot here, but anyone know where I can get an Ariel plush doll for her to sleep with? Size/Prices? Thank you

I never babyproofed our house with any of my three kids, so I don't even think I would *think* to do it in a hotel. Don't you think that if you are in the same room with your DD, you might wake up if she wakes up? I guess since I never allowed my kids to get into drawers/cabinents/blinds/etc at home, they didn't do it away from home either, so we never had issues with that. Maybe my kids just weren't very adventurous!

So, my advice would be to start setting limits about what you allow your DD to get into at home, and the neccessity of having to childproof away from home will be pretty much moot. If you are really worried about it, I would MAYBE bring a couple outlet covers, just to be safe.

(Disclaimer: not childproofing is NOT to be confused with *not* paying attention to what a child is doing....childproofing also includes setting limits of what is acceptable behavior, which by 2 years old, is completely within the parameters of something a child is able to start learning)

Good luck!

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I never took outlet covers or anything but one thing we found we had to do in hotels was unplug the room phone. Our kids were both button-pushers and fascinated with the phone. To keep them from calling the front desk or 911 we just unplugged it altogether.

 

[Meshell2002]

For a two year old.....I think the main thing would be lock the exterior doors...balcony and hallway. At that age that's all we did, and depending on your potty stage we brought the smaller potty seat and a step stool for teeth brushing. On the trip when DD was crawling we used duck tape as outlet covers....and to tape closed any drawers or cabinets they wouldn't leave alone...depending on ur child .....ymmv

 

[Deb & Bill]

For a two year old.....I think the main thing would be lock the exterior doors...balcony and hallway. At that age that's all we did, and depending on your potty stage we brought the smaller potty seat and a step stool for teeth brushing. On the trip when DD was crawling we used duck tape as outlet covers....and to tape closed any drawers or cabinets they wouldn't leave alone...depending on ur child .....ymmv

You don't want to put tape on the furniture because it can damage it or leave residue.

 

[dsneygirl]

I never baby proofed the rooms. My kids were so tired that they didn't wake until we woke them in the am. Even the trip we just took a few weeks ago.

I am also a light sleeper so I hear everything at night.

Ha, ha. Me too. I never babyproofed anything. Never had an issue. But we were basically up, get ready go, back for nap, get ready go back. Asleep on the way back at night.

 

[Lisa71]

We did the lock covers and I brought a no slip rubber mat for the tub when they were little. Our son likes to be mechanical so the outlets were an issue..but we wished we had monitored the balcony door a bit more as we lost a few items to his curiosity. Last time we stayed ground level so problem solved and he is older now.

 

[Meshell2002]

You don't want to put tape on the furniture because it can damage it or leave residue.

I've never had a problem.....but I only used about an inch worth on a kitchen cabinet in a condo.

 

[zuzu310]

I had a similar bed vs. pack n play dilemma this year. My son will be almost 2.5 when we leave in a week. He is 36" so he is technically too big for a pack n play now. I think if he really wanted to he could get out of one anyways. So, about a month ago, I transitioned him to a twin bed here at home. He took to it very easily and he doesn't wander at night. We are going to use the hotel bed rails and I am going to use doorknob covers on the doors. I am a pretty light sleeper and he is a pretty heavy night sleeper so I am hoping with all of the excitement he will be out fairly easily at night. I can relate to your anxiety though because I tend to be a worry wart.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

glad to hear he took to the twin bed easily. That is exactly what i was thinking of doing, but then again I would rather keep her in her crib as long as i can. She did fit fine in her play yard at home so i am planning on bringing ours and buying a play yard mattress pad and having it sent to the resort. She should be out easily too, i'd hope. She always walks everywhere so i dont know if couping her up in a stroller through out the day will make her less worn out or not. I am picturing us going through the magic kingdom without a stroller, keeping it for the larger parks though.. we'll see when we get there.

 

[GoldieLocks5]

one of the most important things you can do is do a quick sweep of the room and all drawers/floor, etc - to make sure there are no pills or anything else dangerous left from previous guests.

A friend of a friend found a loaded gun in the side table of her bed at Disney - when they were cleaning up for CHECK OUT!! Thankfully their kids never went in there the whole trip- but the idea of that happening makes me sick.

Mousekeeping doesn't always find things - other friends have found pills on the carpet, etc... so with a small child crawling around- make sure evertything is safe.