I sense that E is gearing up to getting mobile soon (hurrah!) and it's made us realise we need to sort the house ASAP.

I am really not keen to be drilling holes in things unless absolutely necessary and H had seen some magnetic cupboard locks which looked to do the trick. Anyone got any experience of them? Anything else we need to think about?

TIA x

Get on your hands and knees and have a good look for hazards from their POV. You can use pressure gates for stairs though I don't know what they're like if they need to be used frequently. I've got cupboard locks that are stick on ones which have thwarted O so far and keep doors shut if you don't want them in a particular room. I definitely recommend having a travel cot/playpen so you can put E somewhere safe as and when you need to.

We have stair gates, that's it! We have a playpen too, but I've only shut him n it a couple of times when I went to hang out washing. Hopefully number 2 will be as trustworthy as the first one!

We had pressure gates at top and bottom of stairs - no drilling needed and locks on dangerous cupboards/glass tv unit. We put rounded corners on our coffee table for a while too but that was it.

To be honest we've not done that much! We've moved breakable/dangerous things to higher shelves and put a pressure stairgate at the top of the stairs. So far she's survived!!

A stair gate, that's it.

And we got that more for my lazyness than anything else. Got tiring keep fetching J off the stairs.

We didn't bother with cupboard locks etc, as we wanted him to learn that those places were out of bounds, rather than just block his attempts with a lock.

Some people think I am harsh, but I am of the opinion that if they touch/mess with something they shouldn't, and hurt themselves, they will learn, and hopefully not do it again. It has worked for my boys.

I'd definitely recommend a playpen - I honestly don't know what we'd have done without it.

I wasn't really keen on sticking things to my cupboards or drilling holes so we've been using these in the kitchen www.kiddicare.com/.../productdisplayA_7182_10751_-1_56684_163258_10001_14758 and they've done the trick. We don't have anything on the drawers but I moved everything around and filled the lower draws with all of F's plastic cups and plates, bibs, etc and then I just keep an eye on him to make eyes he can't reach the top drawers. 

I also recommend the little plastic things you put in plug sockets to keep little fingers out of.

If you have a wine rack in the kitchen, I'd suggest moving the bottles lol. We had to replace ours with empty squash bottles for F to pull out and play with!

We have the Lindam auto close pressure stair gates and they're really good.

Do you have a fireplace? We soon found out that F liked to pull off the coals. We haven't covered it or anything because the novelty has worn off for him but its something to bear in mind.

Stair gates and that is it! I have taken the same approach to baby proofing as Abnormal Kitty.

I'm with abnormal kitty and Robin sparkles.  No..3 is now 13 months and the only thing we have ever done is 1 stair gate at the top of the stairs for number 2, no's 1 and 3 haven't even had that.  I do have to get him from the stairs and say no quite a lot but the other two managed pk so I'm sure we'll get there with no..3 too.

WE never did any babyproofing except a gate at the top of the stairs.

We live in a flat so no stairs, otherwise I'd get a stairgate. All the bottles that contain dangerous stuff have those childproof caps, so I'm just going to leave everything be. Like Abnormal Kitty says, they need to learn.

The only thing I will do is cable tie the mass of wires that we seem to have behind the TV so that they are tidier, less enticing and harder to get in her mouth! I figure single wires are easy to pick off, but once they are all tied together it wouldn't be so simple.

We've taken the view that we've baby proofed the things that could kill them: a fall on the stairs (gates top and botto

), drinking under sink chemicals (cupboard lock), sticking things in electrical sockets (plastic covers). We've not bothered with fridge locks, other cupboard locks etc.

We also just installed stair gates and a gate to shut her in the living room if I wanted to contain her (or mainly her friends when they came round to stop them destroying my kitchen). I figured that she needed to learn that certain things are not hers to touch, so I only moved certain sentimental objects I didn't want to risk being broken, but as for anything else, I would simply tell her not to touch it if she went near. You can tell which children's parents have overly child proofed their homes - they're an absolute nightmare to have around as they'd be picking things up and going into cupboards etc. I wanted mine to have the same approach in others homes as in ours; if it's yours it's fine to have - if it belongs to someone else then leave it alone. Cupboards are also not for emptying! Will have to see if I need to change my approach for no.2 though, as I get the feeling she may move at an earlier age, so won't have the understanding C did.

My cousins little boy spilt some kind of cleaning fluid down his front and had chemical burns from it.

My 4.5 year old son (who I had thought was old enough to know better) recently ran into a table corner and had to have stitches on his eyebrow - thank god he didn't lose an eye.

So whilst it's annoying if they break your favourite wedding present vase or whatever, remember it is harder to replace a child or their eye so please think carefully and put a few measures in place BEFORE they have an accident. (Yes, I do now have corner guards on my table and all my household chemicals are locked away).

Ok, so you lock everything away and they never learn to not touch certain things as they could cut, burn, poison them etc. What do they do when they go somewhere and they come across such things, have never seen them before, take more of an interest and end up hurting themselves as they've not been taught not to touch? My cleaning products are kept in a low, unlocked cupboard, but you can't get to them without pulling out a box, which even I struggle to do. C was told from an early age that these things can cause pain, so don't touch and she never has, but she knows what they look like so if she came across them somewhere else she would know that they could still cause pain and would leave them alone. Never letting her see the contents and putting a lock on the door would just fuel her curiosity and make her more likely to try to get to the contents. A lot of kids I know can get through child locks quite easily anyway. I certainly wouldn't suggest leaving chemicals where a child can easily access them though, but you could just as easily leave a bottle of bleach on the bathroom floor when you're cleaning, get distracted by one child falling over etc. and end up leaving it there without thinking, the other child, having never seen it before, wanders in picks it up and drinks it/pours it over themselves etc. etc.

There are sharp edges on tables everywhere you go! I spent most of one holiday with my had across the edge of a marble table that my recently walking 16 month old was constantly bumping into. Do you take corner edges everywhere with you? Accidents will happen regardless of how well protected your home is and as a parent you are responsible for TEACHING them how THEY can prevent the accident as far as possible.

A friend of mine doesn't even use plug guards as they figure that it is more dangerous to use them as putting something into the plug can make it live and if a child then tried to use something to get it out, they're more likely to be electrocuted. I do have some plug guards where the sockets are obviously open, more for friends' kids than my own, but I can sort of see the logic.

However, it does depend on how your house is set up to start with. Some houses will need more child proofing than others. i.e. we didn't have any glass tables and tablets etc. were already kept in high cupboards, we don't use the fire so it doesn't get hot, but C knows it could do and has been taught not to touch it, my fridge is too high for her to get into etc. and knives have always been kept out of reach. I don't have any blinds that they could get tangled in, but C has been taught not to go near the blinds in my parents' house as she could get tangled in them, even though the cords have been tied up high, purely because she could come across then somewhere else and be tempted to play with them.

My attitude is to EDUCATE your children about how to avoid accidents BEFORE they happen (but I do appreciate it depends on the child, as some children really just won't take telling).

Stair gates at the top and bottom of the stairs - more for my conscience than anything. I didn't want to be feeding O and have C climb up the stairs and fall. I haven't bothered with cupboard locks or anything like that, I never got round to it

All we have is a stairgate at top of stairs and another between front room and kitchen (this is mainly to stop him getting at the cat's litter tray though! ). We then have plastic covers on unused plug sockets. Othrwise I've always kept chemicals and tablets up high. I do think with everything else if you have a baby their will be bumps, bruises and breakages (of ornaments, frames etc, hopefully not the baby!) so haven't gone nuts!

We have a stairgate at the top of the stairs, the design of our stairs means there's no way to fix on at the bottom, cupboard locks in kitchen and bathroom, we had the things in the corner of the table until he pulled them off so much that they didn't stick anymore. We borrowed a playpen, but he hated it so we hides it folded up as a makeshift fireguard for a while.

I see where the 'they need to learn' camp are coming from but I'm afraid I'll never trust a 9m+ baby to understand that there are things they shouldn't touch, whilst I'm prepared to take the risk with cupboards containing DVDs for example I'm not when it comes to bleach etc. Even things in the cupboard that ate heavy (glass mixing bowls) I don't want him to be able to pull out and break.

We have a stair gate at the top of the stairs and a cupboard lock on the chemical cupboard in the kitchen and bathroom. I agree about education too and Seth knows what is in those cupboards and why he must not touch them. I used to have socket covers believing they were a good idea but made the decision not to use anymore due to the following site and realising how safe our sockets are. It's an interesting read and may change a few minds. All a personal choice though.

www.fatallyflawed.org.uk

All we had was a stair gate and another on the kitchen (this was actually already there for the dogs)

I'm with abnormal kitty and of the opinion they will learn. Even now at 3 and 4 they know they should go I to the kitchen when the cooker is on. We never use our fire, taught them (eventually) not to touch the tv/DVD etc. We have had a few full rolls of paper down the loo but that's it!