How to Baby Proof a Fireplace

Question by Shannon L – Gavin’s Mommy:
How have you baby-proofed your home?
My son is 5 1/2 months old and we can tell he’s just days away from crawling. He’s made a huge advancement in his rolling in the past few days and is now doing an army crawl, but moving backwards. So my husband and I know that we’ve got to baby proof the home now. We know to get all the cabinets locked as well as covering all the unused wall outlets.

But my question is we have a Television console that is open, no doors. So all our gaming consoles, DVD player, DVR, etc are all exposed as well as all the cables in the back. My husband is in IT so he’s meticulous about keeping the cables organized and they’re all neatly zip-tied together, but I worry about my son getting back there. I keep a close eye on him, but you always hear the stories that begin, “I just turned around for a second…” So how would you go about making the Television console baby proof? Would you advocate just getting a new console that would close? I am not sure we have the money to do that right away, but it’s something we could save for. My son’s safety comes first.

Also, we have a fireplace with a brick hearth. Has anyone used the fireplace safety pads that you can buy at Babies R Us? Are they worth it or is there a superior product out there? Here is the pads I am speaking about: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3240295
Just wanted to add that we keep our decor pretty simple, so no knick knacks and such.

Thanks for the tip on using the gate in front of the tv console. I think we might try that. I do not think we’re going to go overboard baby proofing, I think a lot of it has to do with common sense, like shutting the door like many of you have mentioned.
Michelle – I know exactly how you feel. It’s a little overwhelming!

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