Friendly Reminder re: childproofing

[dc2london]

We have a sideboard in our kitchen that, on the top, houses our microwave, toaster and crock pot.  The sideboard is anchored to the wall with one of the Ikea strap things. 
Yesterday I was tidying up the living room and heard a godawful clang and crash from the kitchen.
Rhys had been trying to climb the sideboard to get a banana that was on top of the microwave.  It must have tipped ever so slightly, because the appliances all came crashing down to the floor.  By some miracle, he was unharmed, and nothing was broken.  But if the furniture itself hadn't been anchored, he could have been very seriously hurt.
Just wanted to remind everyone to double check that your furniture is anchored to the wall, especially in LO's bedrooms.

[singingsea]

OMG! I'm glad he's ok! That would have scared the shit out of me. I've told H once we move to a toddler bed that everything needs to be anchored. Everything downstairs already is.

Also another reminder for everyone is: stairs. Last weekend K started to fall all the way at the stop and I barely caught his hand in time.

[pinkie]

That's so scary - I'm glad he is ok!

[hangryhedgehog]

They sell Quakehold brand straps at Home Depot that are fairly easy to install.

[sagen]

I am glad he is OK, thanks for the reminder. Good job on baby proofing, that would have been bad

[kleigh926]

We don't have anything anchored yet. We don't have much that would need to be anchored, but I have thought about this especially for when we move DD to a toddler bed. My problem is putting more holes in the walls. We are hopefully moving sometime this year and I hate to put more holes in the walls for my brother to then have to fix when he buys our house. Do the straps leave noticeable holes? What if the furniture isn't positioned near studs?

[wolfpack]

When my DH was 2.5 or 3 he climes a dresser and it fell on him and broke his leg. My MIL still gets upset over it to bl this day (she was in the same room with him too). Needless to say everything is bolted down.
kleigh926 we have moved 4 times since my DS was born and have patched holes with a little puddy and pain. It didn't require painting whole room just touching up spots

[dc2london]

Our anchors are mainly just a heavy duty strap with a heavy duty screw. I assume it's all anchored to studs (I would have to ask my H) but I don't know for sure.

[kleigh926]

I talked to DH and we're going to get straps so we can anchor DD's dresser. Hers is not very sturdy and I knew it definitely needed to be done before we moved her to a toddler bed, but we should just do it now.

[seadragon2013]

Mar 5, 2015 14:36:27 GMT -5 kleigh926 said:

I talked to DH and we're going to get straps so we can anchor DD's dresser. Hers is not very sturdy and I knew it definitely needed to be done before we moved her to a toddler bed, but we should just do it now.

Glad to hear it! We started anchoring all of our dressers after one of our 8 lb cats tipped one by jumping into the open top drawer. It really doesn't take much weight/force to tip furniture, it just needs to be applied in the right location. We use brackets and whenever we move, we spackle over the holes in the wall and put on a little touch up paint - no big deal in the larger scheme of things.

[kleigh926]

Mar 5, 2015 16:47:40 GMT -5 @sterling said:

Mar 5, 2015 14:36:27 GMT -5 kleigh926 said:

I talked to DH and we're going to get straps so we can anchor DD's dresser. Hers is not very sturdy and I knew it definitely needed to be done before we moved her to a toddler bed, but we should just do it now.

So glad to hear! Please do it tonight. This stuff freaks me the hell out.

Well we couldn't really get out tonight thanks to the snow storm we got today But we are definitely doing it very soon.

[mishka29]

Glad your little guy was okay!