The House of Choking Hazards

At least five times a day I am pulling something out of my son's mouth.

And no, it's not my nipple.

It's gum wrappers, carpet fuzz, and any other number of things that are considered choking hazards.

In fact, it's so bad that if you are missing any carpet fuzz, let me know. I bet my son has it in his mouth.

I'm not quite used to this because my daughter only put food in her mouth. She never touched an outlet,  never tried to get into the kitchen cabinets, and never put anything in her mouth that wasn't supposed to be there.

I'm trying to believe the amount of non-food items my son puts in his mouth is not directly related to his intelligence. I mean, his fine motor skills are pretty damn good for him to pick up the plastic tag thing that came off my shirt and stick it in his mouth.

But dang people. He finds it all and shoves it in there. The only way I know is a) he won't nurse with paper in there and b) he drools all over the place -- I suppose small plastic pieces you're about to choke on will do that.

Anyway, this is serious. I need to babyproof. And I know there are so many views on this.

"They live in your house, they have to adjust." Um, okay. I'll remember that.

"They rule the house. Clear everything and anything that could possibly be a potential hazard and live like monks." Yeah. Not going to happen either.

I do want to keep him safe, however, but I'm not really sure the best way to go about it. Gates on the stairway, plugs in the outlets, hooks on the kitchen drawers...

What else?

Comments

[Bill]

It sounds like we're sharing a son (and daughter). Same thing - my daughter never put a non-food item in her mouth, my son will ONLY put non-food in his mouth.

I find a small piece of duct tape across his mouth keeps most things out. Although dog hair gets in there no matter what.

[Heather]

I didn't realize there were babies that exist that didn't put every tiny thing in their mouth.

Maybe it's a gender thing because my two boys did it all the time.

Other than the usual proofing you listed, I just had to be more vigilant about keeping stuff out of reach. It's amazing the bending over backwards we do as a mom. And Mr. Maher thinks we don't deserve a medal. Pfft.

[Manic Mommy]

You're right, there's only so much 'minimalist' you can go for and only so often you can vacuum (hear that Huz?). I go with 'this too shall pass' and I'll find it in the diaper.

I've learned that boys are just plain different than girls. They are way more physical and find more creative ways to put themselves in danger.

[Awesome Mom]

Vacuum as much as you can. I had a carpet eater too (he seems to have picked it back up after a year long hiatus grrr). I had to stop going to one of my friend's house because she never cleaned her floor very well and I spent the entire time taking things out of my son's mouth.

[Lady M]

Q has mostly outgrown this, but going outside was a nightmare when he was smaller. Oooh, a stick - yum! And a leaf, augh!

At least inside the house, I had a chance of clearing most things away and leaving some nice large chewy things in his path.

[SilkOne]

My daughter was a paper-eater. She also liked the plastic thingys stores use to attach price tags to clothing.

Between the ages of 6 and 18 months, I think she consumed a ream of paper and I have no idea how many plastic thingys. Her love of paper and plastic ended at about 2 years old, so there is hope.

[amy]

That's about all I did, and then watch the baby like a hawk. Both of my kids did the EVERYTHING MUST ENTER MOUTH thing. Then one day I suddenly noticed that they handed everything to me instead of trying to eat it, and that drove me just as utterly insane.

[Noelle]

Huh. So my cats really ARE helping me practice for children.

Paper and carpet fuzz can't be THAT harmful, can it?

[Cara]

At 2, my son gets into absolutely everything. All cabinets have locks on them, all doorknobs have those anti-door-opening thingys on them, we've cleared pretty much everything off the first two shelves of every bookshelf in the house and we've had to rearrange our entertainment center so he couldn't reach the DVD player. I can't tell you how many DVDs he's ruined because he took them out of the player. It's just a miracle he hasn't broken the dvd player itself. If Drew is already mobile, make sure you keep bathroom doors closed lest you find him splashing around in the toilet like my son did. We've got a gate up across the entrance to my office and we used to have one blocking off the living room, but we finally decided to let him in there.

[Wisconsin Mommy]

I found wrapping Little J with a layer of bubble wrap covered with a layer of swiffer cloths served several purposes:
a) baby-proofed the house - which in his case meant make everything soft enough to run into (head first of course)
b) kept his hands from reaching his mouth thereby keeping him from putting anything into it
c) picked up any crumbs or dust on the floor and solved that whole sweeping/vacuuming thing you were talking about...
Don't mention it...Glad to help!

[Jill]

I spent the first few years putting everything we owned up five feet. Now, five years later, I'm pulling it all down and trying to find places for things so my kids can become more independent and get their stuff themselves. As for paper and carpet fuzz- who cares? Focus on the small plastic choking hazards and check in his mouth all the time. I'd use the phrase "no mouth" about 600 times a day, but my first son still chewed on the world.

[Mrs. Chicken]

You need to have a choke tube.

http://kaplanco.com/store/trans/productDetailForm.asp?CatID=18%7CSU1015%7C0&CollID=14168&Max=16&ID=9&Page=1

Anything that doesn't pass muster should be put away, or if it is Q's, in her room.

[Jennifer]

Seriously, how the hell are we supposed to childproof with a toddler in the house?!?! I would have to follow his every step and throw away the majority of his toys for their potential choking hazards.

I LOVED Wisconsin Mommy's idea. Brilliant!

[Kristenq]

Choke tube? Crikey. Who knew?

Off to purchase one of those bad johnnies.

And seriously Wisconsin Mommy... Great idea. My daughter already thinks her socks are swiffers anyway.

heh.

[Eryn]

Here's my (long winded) system for child-proofing.
I highly recommend making a semi-contained area that is as safe as possible, if it will work in your house. Its a good compromise, and as an added benefit,you don't feel like you have given over every inch of your home to outlet plugs and kid stuff.
We separated the front of the house from the back. So the formal living room, (which is a playroom,) her bedroom and the dining room belong to kids, and the kitchen, office living room and our bedroom are "ours". (We use gates to keep the dog out of the kids area.)

I make sure the front half is as safe as I can possibly make it, I keep all of K's small edible toys up on the highest shelves in the playroom or closet (this includes crayons and art supplies of any kind),and she has to have permission to use them. Usually I ask her to use them at the kitchen table so the pieces dont get lost, to be eaten later. I also limit the number of toys we have, to 3 crates that fit under the train table and what is on her shelves, which makes it easy to keep track of what is where. I clean the boxes out every month or so, get rid of any McDonalds crap or birthday-party-gift-bag-crap that has made its way home. As an added benefit, K knows what goes in each box now, so shes pretty good about keeping her things organized. I also use the roomba every few days to keep the floor from collecting bits o'crap.
The rest of the house is "safe" but not as obsessively so, I have locks on the under sink cabinet and all cleaning supplies are up high, but I do put a few unbreakable knick knacks at kid level, to get them used to looking but-not-touching a few things.
And the toys stay in the kid's 1/2 unless its something that is currently being used, which helps my sanity immensely.

[Tiffany]

I have to say when it comes to girls vs boys. Boys are so much harder! I had my 2 boys first and I was at first, trying to teach them not to get into this and that, dont put this and that in your mouth!!! Finally I had to baby proof the house. A few cabinet had to get locked (not all of them) the outlets. I had to vacuum like 6 times a day! It was horrible! And they still would try to put things in there mouth that I swear they were bring into the house:) But with my 3 child, the girl, it has been so much easier. I tell her no, she has a dramatic fit and then no more. The boys would have said o.k. and tried it 50 more times!!!

[amy]

Regarding the choke tube; a freakin' empty toilet paper tube serves the same purpose...(you get one FREE after every roll!! and WHY do you need three choke tubes? cause you're letting your child play with them, that's why!!). Besides, if you can't figure out if something can fit (or not fit) in your child's mouth and cause (or not cause) a choking hazard...? I'll leave that open-ended.

[Damselfly]

Haha! Fly is the same way. His specialty is shoes, though, which is way grosser than carpet fuzz. We did the outlet covers and the household cleaner cabinet door latches -- oh, and the fireplace gate -- but not much else. I guess we're in the middle of the two extremes on baby proofing.

[PeetsMom]

I'm afraid there's not a thing you can do except what you're doing! Keep pulling things out of his mouth!

My 12 year old daughter ALWAYS had stuff in her mouth as a baby, toddler and to this day STILL chews on her fingernails, swim goggles, string from her sweatshirt...

So you do what any mom does, minimize the potential best you can and deal with it when the bugger gets a hold of something!

Good luck!

[shelly]

I am running out of high places and cabinets to put things so my four year old doesn't get into them. They don't go in her mouth usually, but an entire tube of steroid anti-itch ointment ended up on her tummy. She has eczema and apparently was really itchy!

[WigginsSONYA26]

If you are willing to buy real estate, you will have to get the home loans. Moreover, my mother all the time uses a financial loan, which occurs to be the most reliable.