Door stoppers on a budget

For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind ~ Eleanor Everet

When is the right time to start baby proofing your house?

Baby proofing the house comes in stages, as there is only so much a baby can do at every stage of growth. E.g., if they are just learning to sit or crawl, they can’t reach high enough to grab on to things from table tops etc. This is however different
when they start learning to stand and grab on to things for support, and when they learn to open doors. So there will be no need to go out and buy every kind of baby safety item you see at once, unless of course it’s on offer for a really good price (I mean who doesn’t love a good offer).

I think it’s very important that you understand what your parenting style is first of all.
Some people might be a little laid back and more traditional like our parents, and others might be overly cautious about everything including putting the kids in a bubble wrap (just kidding); although I was really tempted to put my sister in a bubble wrap when she was pregnant. Whatever your parenting style is, just be sure to always keep an eye on your babies.

There are great ways to baby proof your house on a budget and still be safe. Sometimes it is a challenge to get these baby proof items locally (Nigeria I mean). And when we do get them, they might be expensive and not user-friendly. One of my co-workers bought a baby safety starter pack off the internet one time, and when it was delivered, the manual and everything was in Chinese! 

I’ll start with one inexpensive item today: door stoppers! One major concern for a lot of parents is shutting doors and worrying about children’s tiny fingers getting caught between doors and hinges. A solution will be to use door stoppers to prevent doors slamming. See samples of stoppers below:

A basic one

Image source: amazon.com

A more fancy one

Image source: aliexpress.com

But if you’re having a hard time finding one to buy, you can make your own door stopper. You know those long flexible foams used to package pipes? Foam pipes. I’ve seen them a number of times in the market, mostly with plumbers. This is what one looks like:

Well, if you’re able to get your plumber to give you one, or somehow manage to get one, you just make a cut on one of them and fix on the edge of the door like this: 

Make a cut like this 

Fix on door like this

This serves the dual purpose of preventing the doors from slamming on children’s fingers, and banging so hard that it wakes sleeping babies after finally managing to get them to sleep. An alternative to foam pipes are pool noodles. If you can easily get that, all the better. I hope that as time goes on, we can begin to share ideas on simple and very affordable ways to keep our children safe.

Always remember that even the most vigilant child proofing product is no substitute for your watchful eyes. So, never turn your back on your baby J

Now over to you. Do you have any budget ideas to keep home safe for kids you would love to share with us?

The Baby Analyst.

Not a doctor, just a financial analyst who loves kids J