Transcript: Baby Proofing Your Home
Parent Savers
“Baby Proofing Your Home”
Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.
[Theme Music]
Robert Lockheimer: Today is come, where child is in to everything. They are playing with the cling supplies, pulling everything out of the pantries. Your life feels like your constantly saying no don’t touch that, as you try to follow a hurricane of destruction. That’s what life can be like when you got a baby on the move. I’m Robert Lockheimer founder of Baby Safe Homes, here to talk about ways to keep your kids and house safe and baby proofing your home. This is parent savers episode 17.
[Theme Music/Intro]
K.C Wilt: Welcome to parent savers, broadcasting from Birth Education Centre of San Diego. I am your host, K.C. Wilt and you can now take the parent savers with you wherever you go. Our apps are now available in the Amazon android market and iTunes apps store. So they have great features like the ability to start your favorite episodes as well as instant access to all most recent episodes and social networking sites. Another way, to get great parenting information is also to subscribe to our parent savers newsletter featuring exclusive behind the scenes content from our show, special give aways, discounts and more. So for more information, visit our website https://www.parentsavers.com. I am a new parent, my son Carson is 20 months old and I am joined by three new parents here in the studio.
Sunny Gault: Hi everyone, I am Sunny Gault I am 34 years old and I am the host and producer of our sister show Preggie Pals, which is all about pregnancy. I have 2 children, both are little boys. One is actually, one just turned 2 years old yesterday, so I am officially in terrible two’s. But it started at 18 months so I feel like I am, you know, already a pro. And then, I have a little boy who is 3 months old.
Danelle Dutoit: And I am Danelle Dutoit. And I am 32 years old. And I have 2 little boys. One, 2 and half and one 6 years old.
Michelle Franklin: I am Michelle Franklin, I am 36 and I have one girl who is 9 and half months old and we need baby proofing, yeah. [Laughs]
[Theme Music]
[Featured Segments: From Our Listeners]
KC Wilt: Kimberly Palmer was recently featured on Parent Savers episode 9 to discuss how to save money as a new parent. We are at a contest, so we want to congratulate Elena Mac and Sarah Jacobson for winning her baby platter. Congratulations to all who entered, for the latest give a way’s, check out the contest page on our website.
Caller: Hi Parent Savers this is Kate in San Diego, California and I just want to say, I am really enjoying the new episodes especially like the ones on, when to call the doctor when she has entered infection and the sunscreen. I mean, these are things that we think about everyday even if it is not the first timer having kids and it’s just really nice to have that help out there. So keep up the good work. We’ll be listening.
[Theme Music]
KC Wilt: Dear Parent Savers, we have Robert Lockheimer, founder of baby safe homes here to talk with us about child proofing our homes. So let’s start from the beginning, why do you think it’s important to baby proof our homes.
Robert Lockheimer: Well, obviously as parents we all want our homes to be safe for children and most accidents occur in the home. So, making your home a safe environment for your children to grow up and playing is a very important thing to do as a parent. So, above 15 years ago, when I had my first child and started seeing him crawling and walking around, it became very apparent to me that there are a lot of safety issues in our home and want to take care of them. So, it came apparent to me that there weren’t a lot of great products available in all the retail stores. It was very hard to find things that worked correctly and to be installed correctly. Just started to doing lot of research and ended up getting certified as in advanced child proofing safety consultant.
KC Wilt: There is a certification for that.
Robert Lockheimer: There is a certification for that and here I am today 15 years later having baby proofed thousands and thousands of homes.
Michelle Franklin: So, what age should we start baby proofing?
Robert Lockheimer: The thought of baby proofing really should begin as soon as or even before you bring your baby home. Really start look around your home looking for little things that your baby is gonna start putting into their mouth. When they are infants, it’s not quite as important because they are not reaching and grasping for things. They don’t have the motor skills for that, quite yet. But as soon as they start grasping for things, even on the changing tables or whether laying down or you’re playing with them you wanna start looking around for small objects that they can pick up and put in their mouth and they can possible choke on. So it really starts right, when you bring them home.
KC Wilt: Oh so I mean, I can imagine myself in 9 months pregnant on the grouch and I figured out, so may be when he just, cos when they come I mean, Oh Gosh! Once you have 2 or 3 then you are chasing everybody around. But with to me maybe your first one, you know, give yourself a break and maybe in the first month they come home you and your husband after you’ve, you know healed from berthing everything else, kinda figured out.
[00:05:08]
Robert Lockheimer: Absolutely right, like I said why would you bring in your baby homes or really not mobile at all and they are not having motor skills to do any grasping or grabbing or touching. We really encourage people to really start looking at baby proofing your home between 6-9 months.
KC Wilt: It’s like serious baby proofing.
Robert Lockheimer: Serious baby proofing because that’s when most children start to crawl so as soon as they start to crawl they already have the motor skills to grasp things, pick things up and put things in their mouth. And now they’re mobile on top of it. So that’s when we typically recommend you, we really start serious thinking about doing this serious baby proofing things like the gates and latches and strapping fridge to the wall, things like that.
KC Wilt: How long it does it last? I mean,when do you get your home back?
Robert Lockheimer: That’s a great question and that’s different for every child because, some, yeah, you never get your home back and I am sorry. [Laughs]. The baby proofing stages do go away. I felt comfortable removing gates and things like that nature from my stairs at about 2 and half -3 years old and it wasn’t so much that they weren’t able to go up and down in stairs on their own it was, do you really want them to go up and down in the stairs on their own and realistically most kids start figuring the baby proofing products out at about 24 months. The gates tend to last a little bit longer. Most children will learn to climb over gates before they learn to open them.
Danelle Dutoit: What would think would be the most important aspects of baby proofing? Should we do the gates and the drawer locks or what are the key ones we should be doing right away?
Robert Lockheimer: The things right away to really start thinking about you can do it, almost right away, we are talking about bringing baby home is start really thinking about putting all of your chemicals and medicines things like that up and out of reach of your babies and toddlers. Because, even if you do put caramel latches and do gates and you do barriers and locks, there’s gonna be a day when your little ones going to figure those out, and that’s the day you don’t and not want to be around and they get in to some kind of chemicals or they get in to some medications. That’s really one of the most dangerous aspects because of the curiosity level and most children’s medicines now-a-days are flavored. So they don’t see it as a medicine so, if they are able to get in to it and they can get in to it and taste good, so they can drink a lot of it or take them in just lot of it and actually, obviously very dangerous, fatal.
KC Wilt: Well I was just saying, not all of these gadgets if you will are few well are created equally because I’ve noticed especially with the latches for the drawers, most horrible. And some, my son, you know, who is 2 years old can figure out and some he can’t. I find it very difficult and we are in a difficult phase now because it’s like well, you know we still have the stuff that we need to protect him from that latch no longer works, cos he knows how to press down on that, but there is another latch that he still doesn’t, you know. So what is your advice for that we have to go through, you know, the whole gamut of, you know, we need this we don’t need that or you know which are advice for parent who don’t want to break their bank and do this?
Robert Lockheimer: Well, as you said your ode is about 2 years old. So that little one is getting in to the point where they’re going to start figuring things out and opening things up and getting in to things and there aren’t lot of latches at that age on the market that once they start figuring it out that they work for very much longer. You are right though that there are much better quality latches and there are really poor quality latches; and the challenge for most parents quite frankly is that there are very few good quality latches available to the retail public and a typical home that I baby proof will need or require more than one style of latch to actually do the job properly. It’s really all depended on how the cabinetries are made in the home. So one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of parents make is that they take one latch and they think it works well and they think it’s cool and they try to use it throughout their entire home, and what you end doing is in same kind with thing with the gates as you end up taking round pegging and try to stick them in square holes and hope it gonna works, and a lot of times it’s not gonna work. So I actually carry five different latches with me when I go on to someone’s home. And the cabinetries and how that cabinet is build or the how that drawer is built really dictates latch that I have to use. So often times I put one latch in the cabinet and our mom says oh I really like those, it’s really great; but you didn’t put in the drawer I say, this latch won’t work in the drawer and drawer latch won’t work in the cabinet . I mean, they will work, but will not work properly so they are not as effective as the problem.
KC Wilt: So, basically parent proofing the house too [Laughs].
Robert Lockheimer: It takes most parents about a week to get used to the latches and then they almost become second nature.
Michelle Franklin: And then they have guest in their house, they go I can’t open the silverware.
KC Wilt: That happens all the time, no the guest trying to leave my house, so like, you know I can’t open this door there is a thing on the door and I said it is parent proofed too, you know.
Robert Lockheimer: And one of the things I remember when you’re doing cabinet latching is a lot of the parents that I work with that they say well I want to leave the cabinet open in kitchen so that they have a place to play. It’s just tupperware, nothing dangerous, or I want them to play with the pots and the pans. I work with most of the pediatricians throughout San Diego. I am one of the only companies, or i am the only company that's referred by both Scripps and Rady Children's Hospitals and when I talk to pediatricians and we sit down and we discuss issues that are going on. Most will tell you that they don’t recommend to leave the cabinet open in the kitchen for your children to play with because what you’re teaching them is that the kitchen is a place to play. So your encouraging them to come in to an environment that’s not safe for them to be in and then people say well pots and pans are, they are not dangerous; so why can’t they play with them. Well they are not until they are on stove top. And then they think it’s their toy and it’s full of boiling water or you’re frying an egg or you’re making beacon and they grab the handle and they pour something hot on top of them and now they are burnt. So it’s not so much with the object that they are really playing with, it’s at times dangerous. It’s how they see the object and then they make it to their toy and play with it.
[00:11:00]
Sunny Gault: Can I ask a question about baby proofing toilets and what’s your opinion about? [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: Good question. Yes, toilets are primarily wanna be baby proofed for drowning hazard and some people put chemicals in the toilets every time they flush and they sanitize the toilet. So that’s the other danger there. Toilet that we strongly recommend putting a toilet lock on is one in the baby’s bathroom and where the baby bathes. So that every time the baby’s coming in and out of bath tub or even a toddler, the toilet locks works up to about for 18 months to 2years that they are not just lifting the lid getting their hand and toilet and stuff like that. The other bathrooms often times we don’t put toilet locks on but we have other options to keep them out of those rooms. We have locks that can go on to doors that are permanent. So when you want the door to be locked, you slide it on the side on the door and it actually keeps the door from opening up and then when you don’t want to use it any more you just slide it back off the door and you can hang on the door knob and that way the baby can’t get in and out. The nice thing about that specific style of lock is that once you have older children so, like you’re when your 2 year old starts potty training, you can put the lock at a level where your 3 year old can reach and get in unlock it and lock it, get in and out of the door. But maybe your 9 month old or your 18 month old can’t reach and get in and out of the door. So that’s the way around toilet locks. The philosophy of Baby proofing is really either you baby proof the room or you keep the child out of the room and a lot of families, do the latter because, it gets expensive to try to baby proof your entire house. Frankly, there are room’s that you can’t baby proof. You cannot baby proof a home office. There’s no way to do it. There is too much stuff in a home office that you can’t get rid off and so have it be a home office. Too many codes, paper clips, staples things like that. Home gyms cannot be baby proofed; there are too many dangerous things in there. So we can eliminate those rooms. And then a lot of homes that I do you know car mob valley area and San Diego area some of the growing areas where there is family room, kitchen types of areas. We do lot of barriers for families so that you’re not necessarily putting a gate at the bottom of your staircase. What we are doing is we are putting gates to gate the baby into areas like the family room area or kitchen family area. Then we baby proof that area, just like she said, as best we can and then the rest of the house, formal living room, formal dining room and where the staircase is, they are not allowed out there unless mom or dad are actually with them. So we actually try to go on and minimize the baby proofing by making baby safer areas and zones rather trying to turn your entire house upside down because it’s almost impossible to do that.
Sunny Gault: Yeah, we just moved in to a new house and we have what’s called an” Open Floor Plan”, you mentioned the kitchen that goes in to the family room which is fabulous, I love it for entertaining; but in my last house, I could just, you know, put a little baby gate up so it can go in to the kitchen and now, you know; there is no baby gate big enough, you know.
Robert Lockheimer: Well there, actually is just to know that they make baby gates. I mean, I can put baby gate up as large as you needed to go. They have them better out there and they are designed to do that. They get very expensive and they are not extremely attractive but for those homes that do have very large openings, I have done 15 foot case. And they have doorways and so that you can get through them and that they are removable. So that when you don’t need them or when you entertain, you can take them out.
Sunny Gault: Ahh, they are removable! You could do a fit? Cos I thought it if it’s that big, you know, there’s no way to support it properly so therefore would have to; you know, go in to the walls.
Robert Lockheimer: It does go in to the walls, it mounts to the walls but the mounting system that way it mounts to the wall you can unclip the gate from the mounting system and the whole gate other than the little mount that stays in the wall. Remains, yeah. So that actually brings about other quick things that I wouldn’t mind touching on our the baby gates, because a lot of people out there, I was actual talking with a customers before we came in about baby gates to see such, you have to screw everything in to the wall and I said biggest misconception that moms and dads have is that lets put pressure gates because that we are not gonna ruin our walls. I have seen more homes ruined their walls with pressure gates than a properly mounted gate.
[00:15:06]
KC Wilt: Properly mounted gate but it puts some holes in the walls.
Robert Lockheimer: The holes that you’re talking about if done properly I personally put a hole in a wall as big as tip of a pen. So it’s no more than hanging a small picture.
KC Wilt: How does that support the gate, if it’s that small?
Robert Lockheimer: If it’s screwed and if it uses proper hardware and you are screwing it in stud in a wall, it will support the gate and an adult. I mean I can stand on the gates in my home.
KC Wilt: What about the one that has you know wall one sided and banister on the other, do you put in to the banister?
Robert Lockheimer: We actually have clamping system that clamp to your banister pose so that we don’t have to put in any holes on your banister so clamping system goes on to the banister pose and we mount the moulding to the clamping system and then we mount all the gate hardware to that moldings, so when you take it out there is actually no intrusion at all into the banister pose.
KC Wilt: To back track the record, how do we baby proof for an infant?
Robert Lockheimer: Well, again infants are tough I mean, once the baby starts crawling you really want to get down on their level and look at life the way they see it. You want to look at that they see under the couches, under the beds, under the tables they like to go out for little things that gets that fall down there. Paper clips or you know any small items you wanna kinda see the home from you baby’s level, and remove things that are small enough for them to get into their mouth and swallow and choke on it, is the biggest hazard at that age. They are typically don’t have the motor skills to really open up the cabinets or get in to the things at that age. Once their motor skills are more developed then you have to start baby proofing even further.
Sunny Gault: I actually have question, because we have a large dog who drinks a lot of water and so I certify this fear cos I have heard of it before, you know, that you have any water in the dog dish a baby can drown but then I don’t really know how to give my dog the water. He can’t get in to the toilet cos they have these latches on.
Robert Lockheimer: Well, that is one of the biggest challenges for a little family that we work with and really the only thing that we can recommend on we go on homes is to put the bowl it’s not just the water bowl, it’s the food bowl too. Cos lot of dog don’t finish their food and the food becomes the choking hazard. So is to put the bowl the water bowls and the food bowls in an area that the child doesn’t have access to. And that again is why we sometime set up areas of the home to baby proof, rather than the giving a baby an entire home to roam in.
KC Wilt: Well thanks; when we come back we talk about ways to child proof our crawlers as they turn in to walkers. Plus we get some tips on making your yard kid friendly too. We will be back shortly.
[Theme Music]
KC Wilt: We are back with Robert Lockheimer talking about baby proofing our homes. So Robert, you just talked about infants and crawlers. What should we look for when it comes to toddlers and I have actually another question we’ve been talking about proofing when is it become teachable, when do you just say ‘no’, don’t touch the pots and the pans? I’m gonna not child proof this cabinet but you’re not allowed to touch it. So what about that and what do you think?
Robert Lockheimer: That works well at different ages with different children. And I think that actually that had has more to do with how well the parents stay behind teaching their kids now. Because lot of times I mean your kids are constantly pushing even at an age of 2 of how much they can get away with, so it becomes a lot of recent my experience that I have 4 boys, and it’s a constant pushing your limits. So, it depends on how strict you can be with the barriers that you set up and I think and then whatever punishment or ramifications are for not doing it. I think that baby proofing allows, what I found is that baby proofing allows parents to have things that really are no’s to become no’s and that the things that aren’t, that don’t need to be no’s on a daily basis or an hourly basis cannot be no’s because everything becomes a no and no means absolutely nothing. We can baby proof things we can’t do for an affordable price with not a lot of intrusion in to the home and doing lot of damage then things like the oven or the stove knobs or the fire place when you’re say No and you can make it mean No; Mean more than everything being in No and then it just becomes worth it talking to them.
KC Wilt: It’s true, we actually live with my parents my, not my in laws but my husband’s in law. So, is lot of space and lot of room, that’s why we live there. They have gone half the year and they have all these spaces and the phone is at my son’s level, and from the very beginning my son would go over and grab the phone. My dad would yell at my son and I would get frustrated, because it is not my son’s fault for grabbing the phone, it is at his level. He is thinking it is at his level so he’s gonna play with it. Exactly what you said I say no no no no no no what is it mean when you really, I really wanna know. So I can’t blame him for getting in to the things and that’s where I have to step back cos a parent been like no; it’s my fault for keeping it out, it’s my fault for having at in his level that he can play with.
[00:20:09]
Robert Lockheimer: While I know there’s lot of parent groups that do, you know, like to re directing children behaviors so your kinda like re-directing, kinda works the same with that too where they are gonna after something you can try to re direct them and put their interest in to something else, but if continually becomes something of interest and it’s something that is hazard or something that you don’t want them to get in to; as an adult the easiest thing for you is to just remove that item and then it doesn’t become an issue any more. Because you have to ask yourself how much of a battle do you want them to become when they are child every single time you’re in that area with them.
KC Wilt: And you are No to be No, when you say it?
Robert Lockheimer: You do, and it is hard enough for to mean No anyway.
Danelle Dutoit: What are the different types of devices used to baby proof?
Robert Lockheimer: The most common things that we do when we go on people’s homes are baby gates, cabinet latches, strapping furniture to the walls.
KC Wilt: Strapping furniture to the walls, how does that work?
Robert Lockheimer: Well, actually falls is the number one cause of injury in the homes. Falls includes a child falling from something or something falling on to a child. So I don’t even know how long it’s been now but 9 months ago or so, a little 3 and half year old died in Cardiff because she pulled the television on top of her.
Sunny Gault: I heard about that.
Robert Lockheimer: She was crushed, so it’s a fall hazards. So attaching TV’s you know; large heavy television sets, dressers, furniture, book shelves, armoire that are heavy.
KC Wilt: But not like the couch?
Robert Lockheimer: That they climb on it and be pulled over. Not a couch. So falls is the number one danger in the home. They are the number one cos of the injury and obviously because of the weight of something is, it can kill.
KC Wilt: Plus the stuff in it.
Robert Lockheimer: Right and the stuff in it. So, those are the most common things; things that people don’t think about the way do a lot of, once I point them out and they realize what it is the little door stops that the people have it in their homes so I tips on them, biggest choking hazards in your house.
Sunny Gault: My son from the get go, he was itty bitty. He was pulling those off from everywhere.
Robert Lockheimer: Ya, you pull those off and you put them in to their mouth and they will choke on them. You swap those out.
Sunny Gault: What do you swap them out for?
Robert Lockheimer: A child safety door stopper is a solid white door stop you can actual pick ‘em up at from home depot. And you just swap them out, so that there is no pieces or parts that can come off. A lot of electrical safeties what we do for; to try to prevent electrocution hazards.
Michelle Franklin: What do you recommend for a like outlet covers cos you know there is so many different kinds; like, cover the whole outlet or just the little plug inside?
Robert Lockheimer: The outlet covers are good but you want to be careful about the other covers is that a lot of plugin devices now-a-days come with the little transformer on end of it. Cell phone chargers, the baby monitors, the warmer’s all that stuff has little transformer in the end. If you have the transformer in the end that covers won’t work because the covers won’t fit over the transformers. So the next best thing is to put on a plate, you replace the actual electrical outlet plate with self-closing plate. So that the baby unplugs it they snap shot automatically, that way they can’t plug it back in. The outlets that actually have something plugged in to them are more dangerous than the outlets that are opened because you’re already giving them something to put right back in to the outlet.
KC Wilt: Yeah, then it is a metal. I have heard that babies can walk up to outlets that are open and really there is no harm in. Even they can’t get anything in it. But if they have got metal, I mean even their toy you know, unless it’s metal that’s where it causes damage.
Robert Lockheimer: That’s correct, if you have plugged in your giving them something that fits perfectly in to the outlet. So and you have to be careful about the outlet plugs that we used for decades and decades, the plugs that are solid that you stick in the outlets they are actually a suffocation hazard because lot of times parents will take those out to use the outlet and will leave it on floor, they leave it on the chair and the baby’s come and when the toddler comes and they take it, they stick it in their mouth, then they can suffocate. So we actually don’t recommend those for the areas that the child is going to be in the most; we do this self- closing outlets plates for those areas. The rest of the house like we are talking about formal living room and dining room places like that, if you want to do the plugs but you have to be with them in those areas. Those are fine for those areas. But those are primary things that we, you know, do when we go in to baby proofing the home.
Sunny Gault: Ok, so I have a 2 year old and a 3 month old. Obviously, my 3 month old is not going around poking it a holes or anything like that, yet what we do with our older children who have those older toys that they can’t play with? But, you know also we also wanna keep that away from our younger children who, it’s not appropriate for?
Robert Lockheimer: Absolutely it’s a great question most of the homes that I go in to I do recommend doing the removable door locking mechanisms because, By the time your 2 year old or younger one is old enough to start getting in to your older child through mere older child‘s able to undo the lock; this type of lock . So, it’s really keeping them out of those areas and setting up the areas for your older children that they can play in, with those toys like the Lego’s or you know the dolls or the clips and stuff that have little objects and then they have other areas where the older child can play with the younger child for age appropriate toys, so that they can play together by keeping the non- age appropriate toys either in a separate room or in that older child’s room so that you can keep them separated and not necessarily have to baby proof that older child’s room, because It’s gonna be nearly impossible to do.
Sunny Gault: It is basically containing the toys!
Robert Lockheimer: Containing, yup! You are keeping the baby.
Sunny Gault: I am started to think, we need to contain our kid, do you start with bubbles with our kid in. [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: That would make a lot easier I would say that for sure, I wish we could. Yeah.
Danelle Dutoit: Now that we have baby proofed inside our house, how do we baby proof the back yard and make sure everybody safe back there as well?
Robert Lockheimer: Ya the out-door is actually very difficult , if not impossible to baby proof you have to be with your children when your outside with because anything out there can be a potential hazard I mean a stone can be picked up and put in their mouth and shoved another piece of bark or plant that they or maybe a toxic plant for a child or even broad leaf plants if they would tear a piece of a leaf off of a plant and put in their mouth and it blocks their oesophagus and they can suffocate on that. Obviously, when you get in to the swimming pools and when you get in to it, spiders and insects and even rattles snakes are in our back yards I saw, we live in environment where those things actually exists. Outdoors we really just have to be on top of our kids and make sure that they are not getting in to those things because there is no way to prevent or get rid of all that, unless you flatten your backyard, you know a fake lawn and then you’re done, because that would be almost a safest environment. If you do have swimming pools, swimming pools need to be protected from the lower ones, drowning hazards are huge and the states that have the most swimming pools have the most drowning incidents occur, like Arizona.
[00:26:31]
Sunny Gault: We learnt a couple weeks ago that, its second cause of death with kids under 4.
Robert Lockheimer: It is, yes it is second cause of death and there are different ways of protecting your pool against drowning or from a toddler getting in to it. We are talking about little bit earlier there are safety barriers like netting, you can do covers or you can do removable pool fences and then there are different laws of California what you need to have on your gates that go to your back yard. They have to be self-closing and self-locking gates, that is your first barrier. And your second barriers like another barrier in the pool in the back yard. I personally do not recommend netting your pool as a safety barrier.
Sunny Gault: Netting is what?
Robert Lockheimer: It’s actually a net that covers your swimming pool. So that you don’t have the access to the pool, somebody can’t fall in. The problem is that in order to utilize your swimming pool you removing your safety barrier. So now that your safety barrier is gone now the pool is open. The best way is to do a pool fence, I don’t personally do pool fencing, but I work with the companies that do and the nice thing about pool fencing is as another barrier between your home and the pool. It allows to actually use your swimming pool, when your barrier is still present and it’s there actually very easy to remove when you’re done. When your child is old enough that, you don’t need the barrier up any more you basically can just pull up the stakes or the from the holes that you drill in your pool deck and you put plugs in to them and you barely you can see that they were there. So that is the safest barrier and most states have biggest drowning hazards, they are required to do a pool fence. You can’t even do anything else, cos it is the safest method.
Sunny Gault: You mentioned the fake grass and I had, my husband and I are considering that. We moved in to a house that basically had no back yard and we are considering well do we plant the grass do you have fake grass and we had heard cos our neighbors had fake grass that it can get super-hot.
Robert Lockheimer: Super-hot.
Sunny Gault: And so therefore might not be a good option.
Robert Lockheimer: Yes, if you are living there where you are getting lot of sun and it is hot, obviously the further you get in to east county it gets hotter because, you know, it is closer to the coast. That is absolutely true. The turfs do get very, very hot and lot of people that were pulling the lawns out and putting in the turf to save money on watering, are starting to learn that they are actually now spending more money on air conditioning because their front and back yards are hot, I mean they get over 100 degrees. So if you step on it especially infant with bare feet they could, or their hands they could get burnt; because their skin is so delicate compared to ours. That is something do very much consider, if there are no tree’s you know even to shade to shaded you’re gonna wanna be careful that the temperature of the lawn.
Sunny Gault: What if you are just watering your fake grass? [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: Ya [laughs] exactly to cool it down. There you go!
Sunny Gault: I just don’t wanna mow it. [Laughs]
Danelle Dutoit: So if we’re too overwhelmed to try and do of all this yourself and you don’t wanna use the service; how does that work?
Robert Lockheimer: There are couple different services around. They seem to come and go quite a bit as I said, I have been in this business for 15 years we are not going anywhere we actually have locations internationally and throughout the country. So we are continuing to grow. A safety consultant can come out to your home, we do an evaluation, we walk through the entire home, we make recommendations and suggestions as to what we would do to help baby proof the home. We then, put everything in to a laptop and you can actually see an itemized estimate of everything that we recommend to do and you as a customer, you can pick and choose to do as little or as much of that work as they would like to have done. And we typically do the work for customers the same day that we are there. So we don’t schedule another appointment, come out again, we actually carry all the materials in our truck with us and can do do the work for you that day.
[00:30:19]
KC Wilt: Okay Robert I am so curious as to as how your house looks like. I know you have a little on it. I wanna go see how you have baby proof your house.
Robert Lockheimer: Well right now my house is not baby proofed, because about a year ago I took everything down because my youngest is 5. So but, my wife is due again in February; so we will be baby proofing again an about a year from now. [Laughs]
KC Wilt: So I can come over and I can see what you have done? [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: Sure you could see what we’ve done [Laughs] Absolutely!
KC Wilt: Awesome, Thank you so much Robert Lockheimer for helping us learn homes and baby safe. If you want more information on baby safe homes, go to today’s show on our episode page on our website or visit https://www.babysafehomes.com. Also put the number in for Poison Control in your phone, please. Its 1-800-876-4766, we want you to be safe in all areas.
[Theme Music]
[Featured Segment: Ask The Esperts]
Anita: Hi Parent Savers, my name is Anita and I’m calling from San Diego, California. I was listening to your episode about sun screen and I had a question for your expert. I got in to a costly discussion with pre-school administrators about sun screen and I understand that you should re apply after 2 hours, so I don’t know issue’s value of delivering my child with sun screen on when she will only be in the class room for 2 hours and then they go outside, the teachers are putting sun block on the kids but they also say that we should have sun screen on them before we deliver them to school. So is there any truth to that? Thank you so much.
Dr. Piggott: Hi Anita, this is Dr. Piggot, I am a Pediatric Dermatologist from Scripps Clinic. I think you have a great question and it’s an important one and I get all the time in the office. What I think is that even though, your child may not be going outside at school for 2 hours even the walk to car and drive to school in the car and sitting in the classroom there is still UV light that come the through windows. It might be little bit less when they are outside in the full borne sun light but the UV rays still come through the window and have risk of damaging your child’s skin. For example, I have lot of older patients as well and couple of them are actually employed as truck drivers and they get more sun screen on their left side of the body more than the right side of their body because they are in the driver’s seat and they are getting all the UV rays through the car glass. And for them I even sometimes recommend tinting the windows but anyways that’s one of the main reasons to put on the cream, even though child is not physically outside. As a recommendation for the teachers, I definitely recommend sun screen with SPF 30 or higher. That’s the important thing. Whether you use the chemical blocker or physical blocker is up to you. But I really like the zinc oxide and titanium dioxide components and then when the teachers are applying the sun screen, a good real fun is to use about a golf ball size amount for each application. And definitely do it head to toe; and do the wide broom hat, you know, long sleeve protective clothing’s as well.
KC Wilt: That wraps up todays episode; we love to hear from you. If you have any question for experts about today’s show or the topics that we discussed, call our parent savers hot line 619-866-4775 or send us an e-mail to through website https://www.parentsavers.com or the Facebook page. We will answer your question in an upcoming episode. Coming up next week we are talking about technology, I-Pads, I-Phones and your toddler. Thanks for listening to parents savers. Empowering new parents, Everywhere.
[00:33:49]
[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and materials contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and [should not be considered facts. For such information in which areas are released to be accurate, it’s not intended to replace or substitute for professional, medical and advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating healthcare problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified healthcare provider.
[00:34:36]
End of Audio
Episode Transcript
Parent Savers
“Baby Proofing Your Home”
Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.
[Theme Music]
Robert Lockheimer: Today is come, where child is in to everything. They are playing with the cling supplies, pulling everything out of the pantries. Your life feels like your constantly saying no don’t touch that, as you try to follow a hurricane of destruction. That’s what life can be like when you got a baby on the move. I’m Robert Lockheimer founder of Baby Safe Homes, here to talk about ways to keep your kids and house safe and baby proofing your home. This is parent savers episode 17.
[Theme Music/Intro]
K.C Wilt: Welcome to parent savers, broadcasting from Birth Education Centre of San Diego. I am your host, K.C. Wilt and you can now take the parent savers with you wherever you go. Our apps are now available in the Amazon android market and iTunes apps store. So they have great features like the ability to start your favorite episodes as well as instant access to all most recent episodes and social networking sites. Another way, to get great parenting information is also to subscribe to our parent savers newsletter featuring exclusive behind the scenes content from our show, special give aways, discounts and more. So for more information, visit our website https://www.parentsavers.com. I am a new parent, my son Carson is 20 months old and I am joined by three new parents here in the studio.
Sunny Gault: Hi everyone, I am Sunny Gault I am 34 years old and I am the host and producer of our sister show Preggie Pals, which is all about pregnancy. I have 2 children, both are little boys. One is actually, one just turned 2 years old yesterday, so I am officially in terrible two’s. But it started at 18 months so I feel like I am, you know, already a pro. And then, I have a little boy who is 3 months old.
Danelle Dutoit: And I am Danelle Dutoit. And I am 32 years old. And I have 2 little boys. One, 2 and half and one 6 years old.
Michelle Franklin: I am Michelle Franklin, I am 36 and I have one girl who is 9 and half months old and we need baby proofing, yeah. [Laughs]
[Theme Music]
[Featured Segments: From Our Listeners]
KC Wilt: Kimberly Palmer was recently featured on Parent Savers episode 9 to discuss how to save money as a new parent. We are at a contest, so we want to congratulate Elena Mac and Sarah Jacobson for winning her baby platter. Congratulations to all who entered, for the latest give a way’s, check out the contest page on our website.
Caller: Hi Parent Savers this is Kate in San Diego, California and I just want to say, I am really enjoying the new episodes especially like the ones on, when to call the doctor when she has entered infection and the sunscreen. I mean, these are things that we think about everyday even if it is not the first timer having kids and it’s just really nice to have that help out there. So keep up the good work. We’ll be listening.
[Theme Music]
KC Wilt: Dear Parent Savers, we have Robert Lockheimer, founder of baby safe homes here to talk with us about child proofing our homes. So let’s start from the beginning, why do you think it’s important to baby proof our homes.
Robert Lockheimer: Well, obviously as parents we all want our homes to be safe for children and most accidents occur in the home. So, making your home a safe environment for your children to grow up and playing is a very important thing to do as a parent. So, above 15 years ago, when I had my first child and started seeing him crawling and walking around, it became very apparent to me that there are a lot of safety issues in our home and want to take care of them. So, it came apparent to me that there weren’t a lot of great products available in all the retail stores. It was very hard to find things that worked correctly and to be installed correctly. Just started to doing lot of research and ended up getting certified as in advanced child proofing safety consultant.
KC Wilt: There is a certification for that.
Robert Lockheimer: There is a certification for that and here I am today 15 years later having baby proofed thousands and thousands of homes.
Michelle Franklin: So, what age should we start baby proofing?
Robert Lockheimer: The thought of baby proofing really should begin as soon as or even before you bring your baby home. Really start look around your home looking for little things that your baby is gonna start putting into their mouth. When they are infants, it’s not quite as important because they are not reaching and grasping for things. They don’t have the motor skills for that, quite yet. But as soon as they start grasping for things, even on the changing tables or whether laying down or you’re playing with them you wanna start looking around for small objects that they can pick up and put in their mouth and they can possible choke on. So it really starts right, when you bring them home.
KC Wilt: Oh so I mean, I can imagine myself in 9 months pregnant on the grouch and I figured out, so may be when he just, cos when they come I mean, Oh Gosh! Once you have 2 or 3 then you are chasing everybody around. But with to me maybe your first one, you know, give yourself a break and maybe in the first month they come home you and your husband after you’ve, you know healed from berthing everything else, kinda figured out.
[00:05:08]
Robert Lockheimer: Absolutely right, like I said why would you bring in your baby homes or really not mobile at all and they are not having motor skills to do any grasping or grabbing or touching. We really encourage people to really start looking at baby proofing your home between 6-9 months.
KC Wilt: It’s like serious baby proofing.
Robert Lockheimer: Serious baby proofing because that’s when most children start to crawl so as soon as they start to crawl they already have the motor skills to grasp things, pick things up and put things in their mouth. And now they’re mobile on top of it. So that’s when we typically recommend you, we really start serious thinking about doing this serious baby proofing things like the gates and latches and strapping fridge to the wall, things like that.
KC Wilt: How long it does it last? I mean,when do you get your home back?
Robert Lockheimer: That’s a great question and that’s different for every child because, some, yeah, you never get your home back and I am sorry. [Laughs]. The baby proofing stages do go away. I felt comfortable removing gates and things like that nature from my stairs at about 2 and half -3 years old and it wasn’t so much that they weren’t able to go up and down in stairs on their own it was, do you really want them to go up and down in the stairs on their own and realistically most kids start figuring the baby proofing products out at about 24 months. The gates tend to last a little bit longer. Most children will learn to climb over gates before they learn to open them.
Danelle Dutoit: What would think would be the most important aspects of baby proofing? Should we do the gates and the drawer locks or what are the key ones we should be doing right away?
Robert Lockheimer: The things right away to really start thinking about you can do it, almost right away, we are talking about bringing baby home is start really thinking about putting all of your chemicals and medicines things like that up and out of reach of your babies and toddlers. Because, even if you do put caramel latches and do gates and you do barriers and locks, there’s gonna be a day when your little ones going to figure those out, and that’s the day you don’t and not want to be around and they get in to some kind of chemicals or they get in to some medications. That’s really one of the most dangerous aspects because of the curiosity level and most children’s medicines now-a-days are flavored. So they don’t see it as a medicine so, if they are able to get in to it and they can get in to it and taste good, so they can drink a lot of it or take them in just lot of it and actually, obviously very dangerous, fatal.
KC Wilt: Well I was just saying, not all of these gadgets if you will are few well are created equally because I’ve noticed especially with the latches for the drawers, most horrible. And some, my son, you know, who is 2 years old can figure out and some he can’t. I find it very difficult and we are in a difficult phase now because it’s like well, you know we still have the stuff that we need to protect him from that latch no longer works, cos he knows how to press down on that, but there is another latch that he still doesn’t, you know. So what is your advice for that we have to go through, you know, the whole gamut of, you know, we need this we don’t need that or you know which are advice for parent who don’t want to break their bank and do this?
Robert Lockheimer: Well, as you said your ode is about 2 years old. So that little one is getting in to the point where they’re going to start figuring things out and opening things up and getting in to things and there aren’t lot of latches at that age on the market that once they start figuring it out that they work for very much longer. You are right though that there are much better quality latches and there are really poor quality latches; and the challenge for most parents quite frankly is that there are very few good quality latches available to the retail public and a typical home that I baby proof will need or require more than one style of latch to actually do the job properly. It’s really all depended on how the cabinetries are made in the home. So one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of parents make is that they take one latch and they think it works well and they think it’s cool and they try to use it throughout their entire home, and what you end doing is in same kind with thing with the gates as you end up taking round pegging and try to stick them in square holes and hope it gonna works, and a lot of times it’s not gonna work. So I actually carry five different latches with me when I go on to someone’s home. And the cabinetries and how that cabinet is build or the how that drawer is built really dictates latch that I have to use. So often times I put one latch in the cabinet and our mom says oh I really like those, it’s really great; but you didn’t put in the drawer I say, this latch won’t work in the drawer and drawer latch won’t work in the cabinet . I mean, they will work, but will not work properly so they are not as effective as the problem.
KC Wilt: So, basically parent proofing the house too [Laughs].
Robert Lockheimer: It takes most parents about a week to get used to the latches and then they almost become second nature.
Michelle Franklin: And then they have guest in their house, they go I can’t open the silverware.
KC Wilt: That happens all the time, no the guest trying to leave my house, so like, you know I can’t open this door there is a thing on the door and I said it is parent proofed too, you know.
Robert Lockheimer: And one of the things I remember when you’re doing cabinet latching is a lot of the parents that I work with that they say well I want to leave the cabinet open in kitchen so that they have a place to play. It’s just tupperware, nothing dangerous, or I want them to play with the pots and the pans. I work with most of the pediatricians throughout San Diego. I am one of the only companies, or i am the only company that's referred by both Scripps and Rady Children's Hospitals and when I talk to pediatricians and we sit down and we discuss issues that are going on. Most will tell you that they don’t recommend to leave the cabinet open in the kitchen for your children to play with because what you’re teaching them is that the kitchen is a place to play. So your encouraging them to come in to an environment that’s not safe for them to be in and then people say well pots and pans are, they are not dangerous; so why can’t they play with them. Well they are not until they are on stove top. And then they think it’s their toy and it’s full of boiling water or you’re frying an egg or you’re making beacon and they grab the handle and they pour something hot on top of them and now they are burnt. So it’s not so much with the object that they are really playing with, it’s at times dangerous. It’s how they see the object and then they make it to their toy and play with it.
[00:11:00]
Sunny Gault: Can I ask a question about baby proofing toilets and what’s your opinion about? [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: Good question. Yes, toilets are primarily wanna be baby proofed for drowning hazard and some people put chemicals in the toilets every time they flush and they sanitize the toilet. So that’s the other danger there. Toilet that we strongly recommend putting a toilet lock on is one in the baby’s bathroom and where the baby bathes. So that every time the baby’s coming in and out of bath tub or even a toddler, the toilet locks works up to about for 18 months to 2years that they are not just lifting the lid getting their hand and toilet and stuff like that. The other bathrooms often times we don’t put toilet locks on but we have other options to keep them out of those rooms. We have locks that can go on to doors that are permanent. So when you want the door to be locked, you slide it on the side on the door and it actually keeps the door from opening up and then when you don’t want to use it any more you just slide it back off the door and you can hang on the door knob and that way the baby can’t get in and out. The nice thing about that specific style of lock is that once you have older children so, like you’re when your 2 year old starts potty training, you can put the lock at a level where your 3 year old can reach and get in unlock it and lock it, get in and out of the door. But maybe your 9 month old or your 18 month old can’t reach and get in and out of the door. So that’s the way around toilet locks. The philosophy of Baby proofing is really either you baby proof the room or you keep the child out of the room and a lot of families, do the latter because, it gets expensive to try to baby proof your entire house. Frankly, there are room’s that you can’t baby proof. You cannot baby proof a home office. There’s no way to do it. There is too much stuff in a home office that you can’t get rid off and so have it be a home office. Too many codes, paper clips, staples things like that. Home gyms cannot be baby proofed; there are too many dangerous things in there. So we can eliminate those rooms. And then a lot of homes that I do you know car mob valley area and San Diego area some of the growing areas where there is family room, kitchen types of areas. We do lot of barriers for families so that you’re not necessarily putting a gate at the bottom of your staircase. What we are doing is we are putting gates to gate the baby into areas like the family room area or kitchen family area. Then we baby proof that area, just like she said, as best we can and then the rest of the house, formal living room, formal dining room and where the staircase is, they are not allowed out there unless mom or dad are actually with them. So we actually try to go on and minimize the baby proofing by making baby safer areas and zones rather trying to turn your entire house upside down because it’s almost impossible to do that.
Sunny Gault: Yeah, we just moved in to a new house and we have what’s called an” Open Floor Plan”, you mentioned the kitchen that goes in to the family room which is fabulous, I love it for entertaining; but in my last house, I could just, you know, put a little baby gate up so it can go in to the kitchen and now, you know; there is no baby gate big enough, you know.
Robert Lockheimer: Well there, actually is just to know that they make baby gates. I mean, I can put baby gate up as large as you needed to go. They have them better out there and they are designed to do that. They get very expensive and they are not extremely attractive but for those homes that do have very large openings, I have done 15 foot case. And they have doorways and so that you can get through them and that they are removable. So that when you don’t need them or when you entertain, you can take them out.
Sunny Gault: Ahh, they are removable! You could do a fit? Cos I thought it if it’s that big, you know, there’s no way to support it properly so therefore would have to; you know, go in to the walls.
Robert Lockheimer: It does go in to the walls, it mounts to the walls but the mounting system that way it mounts to the wall you can unclip the gate from the mounting system and the whole gate other than the little mount that stays in the wall. Remains, yeah. So that actually brings about other quick things that I wouldn’t mind touching on our the baby gates, because a lot of people out there, I was actual talking with a customers before we came in about baby gates to see such, you have to screw everything in to the wall and I said biggest misconception that moms and dads have is that lets put pressure gates because that we are not gonna ruin our walls. I have seen more homes ruined their walls with pressure gates than a properly mounted gate.
[00:15:06]
KC Wilt: Properly mounted gate but it puts some holes in the walls.
Robert Lockheimer: The holes that you’re talking about if done properly I personally put a hole in a wall as big as tip of a pen. So it’s no more than hanging a small picture.
KC Wilt: How does that support the gate, if it’s that small?
Robert Lockheimer: If it’s screwed and if it uses proper hardware and you are screwing it in stud in a wall, it will support the gate and an adult. I mean I can stand on the gates in my home.
KC Wilt: What about the one that has you know wall one sided and banister on the other, do you put in to the banister?
Robert Lockheimer: We actually have clamping system that clamp to your banister pose so that we don’t have to put in any holes on your banister so clamping system goes on to the banister pose and we mount the moulding to the clamping system and then we mount all the gate hardware to that moldings, so when you take it out there is actually no intrusion at all into the banister pose.
KC Wilt: To back track the record, how do we baby proof for an infant?
Robert Lockheimer: Well, again infants are tough I mean, once the baby starts crawling you really want to get down on their level and look at life the way they see it. You want to look at that they see under the couches, under the beds, under the tables they like to go out for little things that gets that fall down there. Paper clips or you know any small items you wanna kinda see the home from you baby’s level, and remove things that are small enough for them to get into their mouth and swallow and choke on it, is the biggest hazard at that age. They are typically don’t have the motor skills to really open up the cabinets or get in to the things at that age. Once their motor skills are more developed then you have to start baby proofing even further.
Sunny Gault: I actually have question, because we have a large dog who drinks a lot of water and so I certify this fear cos I have heard of it before, you know, that you have any water in the dog dish a baby can drown but then I don’t really know how to give my dog the water. He can’t get in to the toilet cos they have these latches on.
Robert Lockheimer: Well, that is one of the biggest challenges for a little family that we work with and really the only thing that we can recommend on we go on homes is to put the bowl it’s not just the water bowl, it’s the food bowl too. Cos lot of dog don’t finish their food and the food becomes the choking hazard. So is to put the bowl the water bowls and the food bowls in an area that the child doesn’t have access to. And that again is why we sometime set up areas of the home to baby proof, rather than the giving a baby an entire home to roam in.
KC Wilt: Well thanks; when we come back we talk about ways to child proof our crawlers as they turn in to walkers. Plus we get some tips on making your yard kid friendly too. We will be back shortly.
[Theme Music]
KC Wilt: We are back with Robert Lockheimer talking about baby proofing our homes. So Robert, you just talked about infants and crawlers. What should we look for when it comes to toddlers and I have actually another question we’ve been talking about proofing when is it become teachable, when do you just say ‘no’, don’t touch the pots and the pans? I’m gonna not child proof this cabinet but you’re not allowed to touch it. So what about that and what do you think?
Robert Lockheimer: That works well at different ages with different children. And I think that actually that had has more to do with how well the parents stay behind teaching their kids now. Because lot of times I mean your kids are constantly pushing even at an age of 2 of how much they can get away with, so it becomes a lot of recent my experience that I have 4 boys, and it’s a constant pushing your limits. So, it depends on how strict you can be with the barriers that you set up and I think and then whatever punishment or ramifications are for not doing it. I think that baby proofing allows, what I found is that baby proofing allows parents to have things that really are no’s to become no’s and that the things that aren’t, that don’t need to be no’s on a daily basis or an hourly basis cannot be no’s because everything becomes a no and no means absolutely nothing. We can baby proof things we can’t do for an affordable price with not a lot of intrusion in to the home and doing lot of damage then things like the oven or the stove knobs or the fire place when you’re say No and you can make it mean No; Mean more than everything being in No and then it just becomes worth it talking to them.
KC Wilt: It’s true, we actually live with my parents my, not my in laws but my husband’s in law. So, is lot of space and lot of room, that’s why we live there. They have gone half the year and they have all these spaces and the phone is at my son’s level, and from the very beginning my son would go over and grab the phone. My dad would yell at my son and I would get frustrated, because it is not my son’s fault for grabbing the phone, it is at his level. He is thinking it is at his level so he’s gonna play with it. Exactly what you said I say no no no no no no what is it mean when you really, I really wanna know. So I can’t blame him for getting in to the things and that’s where I have to step back cos a parent been like no; it’s my fault for keeping it out, it’s my fault for having at in his level that he can play with.
[00:20:09]
Robert Lockheimer: While I know there’s lot of parent groups that do, you know, like to re directing children behaviors so your kinda like re-directing, kinda works the same with that too where they are gonna after something you can try to re direct them and put their interest in to something else, but if continually becomes something of interest and it’s something that is hazard or something that you don’t want them to get in to; as an adult the easiest thing for you is to just remove that item and then it doesn’t become an issue any more. Because you have to ask yourself how much of a battle do you want them to become when they are child every single time you’re in that area with them.
KC Wilt: And you are No to be No, when you say it?
Robert Lockheimer: You do, and it is hard enough for to mean No anyway.
Danelle Dutoit: What are the different types of devices used to baby proof?
Robert Lockheimer: The most common things that we do when we go on people’s homes are baby gates, cabinet latches, strapping furniture to the walls.
KC Wilt: Strapping furniture to the walls, how does that work?
Robert Lockheimer: Well, actually falls is the number one cause of injury in the homes. Falls includes a child falling from something or something falling on to a child. So I don’t even know how long it’s been now but 9 months ago or so, a little 3 and half year old died in Cardiff because she pulled the television on top of her.
Sunny Gault: I heard about that.
Robert Lockheimer: She was crushed, so it’s a fall hazards. So attaching TV’s you know; large heavy television sets, dressers, furniture, book shelves, armoire that are heavy.
KC Wilt: But not like the couch?
Robert Lockheimer: That they climb on it and be pulled over. Not a couch. So falls is the number one danger in the home. They are the number one cos of the injury and obviously because of the weight of something is, it can kill.
KC Wilt: Plus the stuff in it.
Robert Lockheimer: Right and the stuff in it. So, those are the most common things; things that people don’t think about the way do a lot of, once I point them out and they realize what it is the little door stops that the people have it in their homes so I tips on them, biggest choking hazards in your house.
Sunny Gault: My son from the get go, he was itty bitty. He was pulling those off from everywhere.
Robert Lockheimer: Ya, you pull those off and you put them in to their mouth and they will choke on them. You swap those out.
Sunny Gault: What do you swap them out for?
Robert Lockheimer: A child safety door stopper is a solid white door stop you can actual pick ‘em up at from home depot. And you just swap them out, so that there is no pieces or parts that can come off. A lot of electrical safeties what we do for; to try to prevent electrocution hazards.
Michelle Franklin: What do you recommend for a like outlet covers cos you know there is so many different kinds; like, cover the whole outlet or just the little plug inside?
Robert Lockheimer: The outlet covers are good but you want to be careful about the other covers is that a lot of plugin devices now-a-days come with the little transformer on end of it. Cell phone chargers, the baby monitors, the warmer’s all that stuff has little transformer in the end. If you have the transformer in the end that covers won’t work because the covers won’t fit over the transformers. So the next best thing is to put on a plate, you replace the actual electrical outlet plate with self-closing plate. So that the baby unplugs it they snap shot automatically, that way they can’t plug it back in. The outlets that actually have something plugged in to them are more dangerous than the outlets that are opened because you’re already giving them something to put right back in to the outlet.
KC Wilt: Yeah, then it is a metal. I have heard that babies can walk up to outlets that are open and really there is no harm in. Even they can’t get anything in it. But if they have got metal, I mean even their toy you know, unless it’s metal that’s where it causes damage.
Robert Lockheimer: That’s correct, if you have plugged in your giving them something that fits perfectly in to the outlet. So and you have to be careful about the outlet plugs that we used for decades and decades, the plugs that are solid that you stick in the outlets they are actually a suffocation hazard because lot of times parents will take those out to use the outlet and will leave it on floor, they leave it on the chair and the baby’s come and when the toddler comes and they take it, they stick it in their mouth, then they can suffocate. So we actually don’t recommend those for the areas that the child is going to be in the most; we do this self- closing outlets plates for those areas. The rest of the house like we are talking about formal living room and dining room places like that, if you want to do the plugs but you have to be with them in those areas. Those are fine for those areas. But those are primary things that we, you know, do when we go in to baby proofing the home.
Sunny Gault: Ok, so I have a 2 year old and a 3 month old. Obviously, my 3 month old is not going around poking it a holes or anything like that, yet what we do with our older children who have those older toys that they can’t play with? But, you know also we also wanna keep that away from our younger children who, it’s not appropriate for?
Robert Lockheimer: Absolutely it’s a great question most of the homes that I go in to I do recommend doing the removable door locking mechanisms because, By the time your 2 year old or younger one is old enough to start getting in to your older child through mere older child‘s able to undo the lock; this type of lock . So, it’s really keeping them out of those areas and setting up the areas for your older children that they can play in, with those toys like the Lego’s or you know the dolls or the clips and stuff that have little objects and then they have other areas where the older child can play with the younger child for age appropriate toys, so that they can play together by keeping the non- age appropriate toys either in a separate room or in that older child’s room so that you can keep them separated and not necessarily have to baby proof that older child’s room, because It’s gonna be nearly impossible to do.
Sunny Gault: It is basically containing the toys!
Robert Lockheimer: Containing, yup! You are keeping the baby.
Sunny Gault: I am started to think, we need to contain our kid, do you start with bubbles with our kid in. [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: That would make a lot easier I would say that for sure, I wish we could. Yeah.
Danelle Dutoit: Now that we have baby proofed inside our house, how do we baby proof the back yard and make sure everybody safe back there as well?
Robert Lockheimer: Ya the out-door is actually very difficult , if not impossible to baby proof you have to be with your children when your outside with because anything out there can be a potential hazard I mean a stone can be picked up and put in their mouth and shoved another piece of bark or plant that they or maybe a toxic plant for a child or even broad leaf plants if they would tear a piece of a leaf off of a plant and put in their mouth and it blocks their oesophagus and they can suffocate on that. Obviously, when you get in to the swimming pools and when you get in to it, spiders and insects and even rattles snakes are in our back yards I saw, we live in environment where those things actually exists. Outdoors we really just have to be on top of our kids and make sure that they are not getting in to those things because there is no way to prevent or get rid of all that, unless you flatten your backyard, you know a fake lawn and then you’re done, because that would be almost a safest environment. If you do have swimming pools, swimming pools need to be protected from the lower ones, drowning hazards are huge and the states that have the most swimming pools have the most drowning incidents occur, like Arizona.
[00:26:31]
Sunny Gault: We learnt a couple weeks ago that, its second cause of death with kids under 4.
Robert Lockheimer: It is, yes it is second cause of death and there are different ways of protecting your pool against drowning or from a toddler getting in to it. We are talking about little bit earlier there are safety barriers like netting, you can do covers or you can do removable pool fences and then there are different laws of California what you need to have on your gates that go to your back yard. They have to be self-closing and self-locking gates, that is your first barrier. And your second barriers like another barrier in the pool in the back yard. I personally do not recommend netting your pool as a safety barrier.
Sunny Gault: Netting is what?
Robert Lockheimer: It’s actually a net that covers your swimming pool. So that you don’t have the access to the pool, somebody can’t fall in. The problem is that in order to utilize your swimming pool you removing your safety barrier. So now that your safety barrier is gone now the pool is open. The best way is to do a pool fence, I don’t personally do pool fencing, but I work with the companies that do and the nice thing about pool fencing is as another barrier between your home and the pool. It allows to actually use your swimming pool, when your barrier is still present and it’s there actually very easy to remove when you’re done. When your child is old enough that, you don’t need the barrier up any more you basically can just pull up the stakes or the from the holes that you drill in your pool deck and you put plugs in to them and you barely you can see that they were there. So that is the safest barrier and most states have biggest drowning hazards, they are required to do a pool fence. You can’t even do anything else, cos it is the safest method.
Sunny Gault: You mentioned the fake grass and I had, my husband and I are considering that. We moved in to a house that basically had no back yard and we are considering well do we plant the grass do you have fake grass and we had heard cos our neighbors had fake grass that it can get super-hot.
Robert Lockheimer: Super-hot.
Sunny Gault: And so therefore might not be a good option.
Robert Lockheimer: Yes, if you are living there where you are getting lot of sun and it is hot, obviously the further you get in to east county it gets hotter because, you know, it is closer to the coast. That is absolutely true. The turfs do get very, very hot and lot of people that were pulling the lawns out and putting in the turf to save money on watering, are starting to learn that they are actually now spending more money on air conditioning because their front and back yards are hot, I mean they get over 100 degrees. So if you step on it especially infant with bare feet they could, or their hands they could get burnt; because their skin is so delicate compared to ours. That is something do very much consider, if there are no tree’s you know even to shade to shaded you’re gonna wanna be careful that the temperature of the lawn.
Sunny Gault: What if you are just watering your fake grass? [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: Ya [laughs] exactly to cool it down. There you go!
Sunny Gault: I just don’t wanna mow it. [Laughs]
Danelle Dutoit: So if we’re too overwhelmed to try and do of all this yourself and you don’t wanna use the service; how does that work?
Robert Lockheimer: There are couple different services around. They seem to come and go quite a bit as I said, I have been in this business for 15 years we are not going anywhere we actually have locations internationally and throughout the country. So we are continuing to grow. A safety consultant can come out to your home, we do an evaluation, we walk through the entire home, we make recommendations and suggestions as to what we would do to help baby proof the home. We then, put everything in to a laptop and you can actually see an itemized estimate of everything that we recommend to do and you as a customer, you can pick and choose to do as little or as much of that work as they would like to have done. And we typically do the work for customers the same day that we are there. So we don’t schedule another appointment, come out again, we actually carry all the materials in our truck with us and can do do the work for you that day.
[00:30:19]
KC Wilt: Okay Robert I am so curious as to as how your house looks like. I know you have a little on it. I wanna go see how you have baby proof your house.
Robert Lockheimer: Well right now my house is not baby proofed, because about a year ago I took everything down because my youngest is 5. So but, my wife is due again in February; so we will be baby proofing again an about a year from now. [Laughs]
KC Wilt: So I can come over and I can see what you have done? [Laughs]
Robert Lockheimer: Sure you could see what we’ve done [Laughs] Absolutely!
KC Wilt: Awesome, Thank you so much Robert Lockheimer for helping us learn homes and baby safe. If you want more information on baby safe homes, go to today’s show on our episode page on our website or visit https://www.babysafehomes.com. Also put the number in for Poison Control in your phone, please. Its 1-800-876-4766, we want you to be safe in all areas.
[Theme Music]
[Featured Segment: Ask The Esperts]
Anita: Hi Parent Savers, my name is Anita and I’m calling from San Diego, California. I was listening to your episode about sun screen and I had a question for your expert. I got in to a costly discussion with pre-school administrators about sun screen and I understand that you should re apply after 2 hours, so I don’t know issue’s value of delivering my child with sun screen on when she will only be in the class room for 2 hours and then they go outside, the teachers are putting sun block on the kids but they also say that we should have sun screen on them before we deliver them to school. So is there any truth to that? Thank you so much.
Dr. Piggott: Hi Anita, this is Dr. Piggot, I am a Pediatric Dermatologist from Scripps Clinic. I think you have a great question and it’s an important one and I get all the time in the office. What I think is that even though, your child may not be going outside at school for 2 hours even the walk to car and drive to school in the car and sitting in the classroom there is still UV light that come the through windows. It might be little bit less when they are outside in the full borne sun light but the UV rays still come through the window and have risk of damaging your child’s skin. For example, I have lot of older patients as well and couple of them are actually employed as truck drivers and they get more sun screen on their left side of the body more than the right side of their body because they are in the driver’s seat and they are getting all the UV rays through the car glass. And for them I even sometimes recommend tinting the windows but anyways that’s one of the main reasons to put on the cream, even though child is not physically outside. As a recommendation for the teachers, I definitely recommend sun screen with SPF 30 or higher. That’s the important thing. Whether you use the chemical blocker or physical blocker is up to you. But I really like the zinc oxide and titanium dioxide components and then when the teachers are applying the sun screen, a good real fun is to use about a golf ball size amount for each application. And definitely do it head to toe; and do the wide broom hat, you know, long sleeve protective clothing’s as well.
KC Wilt: That wraps up todays episode; we love to hear from you. If you have any question for experts about today’s show or the topics that we discussed, call our parent savers hot line 619-866-4775 or send us an e-mail to through website https://www.parentsavers.com or the Facebook page. We will answer your question in an upcoming episode. Coming up next week we are talking about technology, I-Pads, I-Phones and your toddler. Thanks for listening to parents savers. Empowering new parents, Everywhere.
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[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and materials contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and [should not be considered facts. For such information in which areas are released to be accurate, it’s not intended to replace or substitute for professional, medical and advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating healthcare problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified healthcare provider.
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