Tiny Wiggles: Creative Baby Proofing Ideas

My son is now 17 months and has been an active baby since day one. Now a toddler, his curiosity and independence to explore unfamiliar surroundings has made it hard for me to keep up with his little legs. I had baby proofed part of my home, but hadn't found anything that is reasonably priced that would work for the corner ends of my wooden/metal coffee table. My son loves to use the edges to balance himself and to play peek a boo. I went to all major department stores, and also checked on line for items that would work to help cushion the fall if he were to tumble. I spent $20 for 4 cushion tabs for the four corners but my son was able to eventually rip them off. As well as they never covered the whole entire corner. They would have been great, if they had fit. I continued to search but everything seems unreasonably priced or shall I say expensive for what you're getting.

That is when I thought of Home depot! Along with my mother, we arrived at home depot and walked through each isle thinking of items we can use that would work. We both have creative minds that often work a mile a minute. We stumble upon the plumbing section and found insulation foam used for pipes in winter. The piping is round with a slit in the middle and has a sticky film that is removable on all furniture, as per the representative at home depot. We asked the employee if this type of material is dangerous for toddlers, and he said no. Of course if your toddler rips the foam and swallows , it's dangerous, but we all have common sense to know that just because you have padding on your table doesn't mean you should leave your little tot unattended. It simply means you don't have to run to catch him slipping and hitting his little chin, head or cracking his lip on the corners from trying to walk.

Note that if you do go pick up some of this plumbing material, they have sponge corners you can also buy, but they do not work! Unfortunately you must make your own corners with the straight piping by cutting with a scissor. The piping is cheap and it comes in a variety of sizes which was handy for me, as my table edges and corners are very thick.

I was also looking for something to use to hold up the strings attached to my blinds, to prevent my son from strangling himself or tugging on the cord and having the blinds fall on him. The only things I could find you unfortunately had to screw into your wall. My mother and I decided to go to fabric land and see what we could find in the curtain isle. We found these metal clips called rod rings and thought of a creative way we can use them. It's too hard to explain but I took a picture for you to see what I mean. These rings were not expensive; I bought 8 clip rings for $10.00. It works well because you can still use your blinds by pulling on the string rather than having to unwind the string each time you adjust your blinds.