Childproofing Electrical Devices
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Childproofing Electrical Devices
March 2011
Our 6 month old is about to be mobile. How do we
childproof electrical outlets? The plugs I remember from
my childhood don't seem to be around anymore. Any
suggestions for childproofing our small apartment? Thanks.
Anna
Simple plastic plugs are available from the drug stores.
They work well. We had one outlet w/ a lot of things
plugged in that my daughter was attracted to. We used a
higher tech (fully covered) safety device. One
recommendation is that you can often find these outlet
covers very cheap at garage sales. Packages that people
didn't use completely. Ikea has some cheap ones as well.
- Safety First
Those little plastic plugs that plug into the outlets to
block them off are still around. I've seen them at Target
and Home Depot, and you can definitely buy them online from
Amazon, Safety1st, OneStepAhead, etc.
Good article about electrical childproofing options:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/11322-need-childproofing-electrical-outlets/
Of course, my kids never showed any interest in the outlets,
so you might want to wait and see how things go.
Mom to 3
They still make those plugs. Try Target, Walmart, Home
Depot etc.
-
There are new-fangled outlet covers. They're so good, I
can barely get them off. I think we're done with ours
(maybe 6 or 7 of 'em), so if you want them, let me know.
We're in N. Berkeley/Albany.
berkeleyjo at yahoo.com
There are all kinds of items on the market to babyproof your
home. There are even all kinds of different types of
contraptions to use that will cover your outlets. The most
common, easy-to-use ones are the caps that you just push on.
You can find them at Target, Walmart, Babies R Us, and even
Amazon.com. Once you're in the section where you're looking
at the outlet covers, you'll notice all kinds of different
babyproofing items. Some of it you actually need, some of it
you don't. If you have any tables with sharp corners, you
can buy padding to cushion the corners. If there are rooms
you'd rather your baby not go exploring in, you can buy
door-knob covers or gates. We never hired a professional to
do the job and we often played it by ear: we'd babyproof
once we saw there was a hazard/problem. The best thing you
can do to keep your baby safe, aside from covering outlets
and sharp corners, is keep an eye on them at this age. If
you don't want to be in a constant power-struggle over
cabinets, get babyproof locks and maybe have one cabinet
full of old tupperware for your baby to get into.
Anon
Google ''Outlet Covers''. They sell them everywhere, includng
Babies R Us.
anon
Dec 2009
Dear Wise BPNers,
My cunning 2.5 year old is becoming ever more cunning... he
can now reach into supposedly childproofed doors and extract
the items he wants... also remove two different types of
electric socket coverings.
We are dealing with the above two situations to the best of
our abilities but have struck a real snag when it comes
to the plethora of electric wires that seem to have
accumulated e.g. behind the stereo and the computer. Curious
and energetic child can disconnect all manner of wires and
nearly every day we have to re-boot the computers and re-
start the television. As I am pregnant and shortly expecting
our second child (hence, will have even less time for active
- constant? - supervision) we will need to babyproof the
above two areas better. The archives don't have any
suggestions.. do any of you?
Wired in Oakland
We got (used) plastic toddler fencing, and put it around
said areas. Just fenced off half the room. They market
them as play yards or play pens to put the child inside,
but we put the equipment in the pen and the child outside
the pen. I wish we had the energy to teach our child to
not touch what we didn't want him to, but alas we did not.
Check out the expensive toddler catalogs to see what's
possible, then buy it used. It's a short phase and people
hate to store it. Don't know what to suggest for the
electrical outlet covers.
- hope this helps
Feb 2003
With a busy 10-month-old, I've child-proofed all of the
electrical outlets in my house -- both those in use and idle.
The plastic ''boxes'' that cover the entire outlet so that babies
can't pull out cords that are plugged in seem to work fine.
But, what to do about those outlets that are accommodating an
AC adaptor? The adaptors outsize the childproof covers. But,
there are so many appliances that use them (e.g., baby
monitors, radios, etc.). Any suggestions from parents that have
graduated from this busy baby stage? Taping the adaptors to the
wall is a possibility, but definitely suboptimal.
Thanks in advance, Stephanie
In the new Childproofer catalogue, they are selling a cover
designed to fit over adaptors. It is the same idea as the
plastic box thing, just bigger.
KB
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