Let’s chat about Childproofing – something that’s always important, but far more necessary for the adventurous toddler!

I’ve mentioned several times now about how my little man has become more and more “adventurous” in the last few months. My boy has been climbing everything from stairs to furniture since he was about 9 months old — before he could even walk!  He’s trouble. Cute trouble, but he’s trouble.

Recently, I’ve noticed that he’s going for the bigger challenges. It’s scaring me silly! The other day I had all of my daycare kids downstairs, and ran upstairs to grab them a quick snack. I was literally gone for 1 minute — I came back downstairs to find this:

Ack!  Do you guys know how tall those cars are?!  The roof comes up to about the height of the top of a chair back (the pic does not do it justice at all.)  That’s dangerous.  And what’s worse?  Little Man was about to STAND UP on it!  Kid!  I don’t want to be hauling you into Emergency!

Yesterday, though, yesterday was by far the most interesting and dangerous idea my son has had yet.  I was in the kitchen washing dishes, when my daughter called me from the living room to come quick.  I ran in to find my son sitting cross legged on TOP of the book shelf.  I nearly had a heart attack — how scary!  I ran and got him, firmly told him “No climbing.” and tried to distract him with something else.  He wasn’t having it though, he tried to climb right back up.  That book case is now sitting out in the back yard ready to be disposed of on garbage day.  It’s about 10 years old, wobbly and ready to go anyway.

Although I’ve been through the Childproofing process before, I thought I’d do a little bit of looking around to see if I’m missing anything.  My first kiddo was never as adventurous, and so I didn’t have to worry about what she’d get into as much!  In my searches, I found this handy Childproofing Checklist, which includes what to do with your furniture:

• Remove clutter and move protruding furniture that your child could trip on
• Attach corner and edge guards to furniture that will become a hazard as child walks, climbs, and grows taller.
• Secure furniture that can topple (bookcases, chests of drawers) to the walls.
• Keep televisions on low, sturdy furniture, and push the set back as far as possible. Or mount your flat screen TV on the wall.
• Secure tall, unstable lamps behind furniture.

Do your toddlers climb or do anything dangerous like that?  How have you been teaching them to stay safe?  Give me your best childproofing tips!