Child home safety and baby proofing, fitted without a drill
Once your baby starts to crawl and pull up, the house needs a second look: the cupboard under the sink, the oven door, the stairs, the corner of the coffee table. This range covers those, with magnetic cupboard locks, an oven lock, safety straps, door handle locks, door stoppers, corner protectors, window restrictors and a pressure-fit baby gate.
Nearly everything fixes with 3M™ adhesive, so there's no drilling and nothing to fill when you take it down, which suits a rented home. The gate is held by pressure instead, and it's made for doorways and the bottom of the stairs; for the top of the stairs, RoSPA and nidirect advise a gate that screws into the wall.
If you're starting from scratch, the Baby Proofing Kit puts the locks, straps, corner protectors, door stops and an oven lock in one box, and the Home Safety Kit adds one or two baby gates. The magnetic locks switch off when you don't need them, which grandparents tend to like, and spare keys come in pairs.
Questions, answered.
Where should I start?
With the places your baby can reach first: the kitchen cupboards, the oven, and the doorway or the bottom of the stairs. Then the bathroom, which is where the water, the medicines and the cleaning products are, and any window above the ground floor. Getting down to your child's height is the quickest way to spot what they'll find.
Can I baby proof a rented home without drilling?
Yes. The locks, straps, corner protectors, door stoppers, oven lock and window restrictor all stick on, and the baby gate is held in place by pressure. The 3M™ adhesive is designed to come off without lasting damage, though a piece won't usually stick as well a second time, which is why the kits include spare tape.
Which kit do I need?
The Baby Proofing Kit covers the usual hazards in one box: eight magnetic cupboard locks, an oven lock, four safety straps, eight corner protectors and two door stops. The Home Safety Kit adds one or two baby gates to the same locks, straps, corner protectors, door stops and oven lock. Neither includes a window restrictor, and a big kitchen can use most of the locks on its own, so you can add more separately.
How do I make the adhesive hold?
Fit each piece to a clean, dry, smooth surface, press it on firmly and leave it for 24 hours before you test it. Textured or painted surfaces hold less reliably, and heat and steam in kitchens and bathrooms can loosen fixings, so check them now and then. The kits and the cupboard locks come with screws too, if you'd rather fix the busiest cupboards for good.
Will the safety straps stop furniture tipping over?
No. The straps keep doors, drawers and lids shut, but they aren't wall anchors. For a chest of drawers, a bookcase or a TV that a child could pull over, use an anti-tip kit fixed to the wall.
