Daily Life, Zachary

Why baby proofing is important

Today I was  with Zachary in his room while he played on the floor. One of his favorite activities is opening and closing the drawers to his changing table dresser. He has been doing this ever since he could figure out how to stand up. Now that he’s taller, he can open all three drawers at once because he’s able to reach the top drawer much more easily. I suppose I didn’t realize this would pose a problem. Anyway…

I was resting in the chair in Zachary’s room watching him alternate between playing with Maya and the dresser drawers. All of a sudden, after he tugged on one of the drawers, (it seemed like slow motion) I saw the dresser start to fall forward, right towards Zachary. He looked up at it with a totally confused look on his face.

I’m not sure how I managed to move so quickly (it was like I had superhuman powers), but I somehow flew out of the chair and pulled Zachary on top of me as the dresser crashed down and EVERYTHING spilled out! Of course Zachary started to cry and I wondered if maybe I didn’t make it in time and he was hurt. I put him down on the floor and started examining his legs, but there were no bumps, bruises or scratches. I realized he was just startled, because he soon got distracted when he caught sight of a bottle of Johnson’s baby wash which had fallen out of the top drawer and began playing with it, eventually dumping half of it out on the fallen changing pad. Thank goodness he was fine!

Also, thankfully, the dog was out of sight when the dresser fell, so no one was hurt. The dresser itself is a little bumped up but still intact.

Unfortunately due to the layout of Zachary’s room, the dresser can’t be anchored to the wall since the only wall with enough room to rest his dresser against, is a divider wall with no studs! Very obnoxious – Such are perils of living in an older home. However, I do plan to purchase babyproofing drawer locks ASAP so that he can no longer get the drawers open and throw the dresser off its center of gravity.

I’m looking at these magnet locks as well as these more standard locks, both of which have received great reviews on Amazon. Do you use any personally that you might be able to recommend?

8 thoughts on “Why baby proofing is important

  1. I’ve used the standard locks and remember they wore out or got less difficult to pull against as time went by. Maybe they are made differently now, but I think I’d try for the magnetic system. I remember babysitting for someone with a magnet on each cabinet. The little girl knew it required a key and that you turned it against the outside of the cabinets, but she didn’t know how to undo them. Heck, it took ME several tries to get it (without knowing what it was).

  2. scary!!! glad everyone is okay. something like this happened to my sister, nicole. we had a tall bureau and she was trying to climb up the dresser to get to the top drawer, and it fell on her. she was okay, and my mom recalls that after they pulled the dresser off her, nicole said “i guess i need to get stronger, mom!” haha

  3. I’m glad to hear that no one was injured by the dresser. Since you don’t have studs to mount anchors to, you could use wall anchors. They come in differant sizes and strengths. All you have do is poke a hole in the sheetrock and screw or tap one of these wall anchors in and then attach your dresser anchor to it. Here’s a link to Lowes http://www.lowes.com/pd_71537-2191-25310_0_?productId=1098803&Ntt=anchor&Ntk=i_products. If you go there or Home Depot and tel them what you’re looking for they will be more than happy to help you out. Good luck and take care.

    -Paul (Jessica’s Husband)

  4. Oh, man, I’ve heard of this happening before! So glad your son didn’t become a statistic! I can’t even imagine how badly your adrenaline must’ve been flowing. I’ve heard of this happening with tvs on top of small entertainment centers or tv stands. I wish I had some great advice or some product that I had previously used with my kids. I don’t. 🙁 I hope you are able to find something so you don’t have to worry all the time now.

    Have a wonderful Easter,
    Mimi following from FFF @ MBC
    http://marvelousmomreviews.blogspot.com (new review site)
    http://wovenbywords.blogspot.com (Christian site & trying to move giveaways to new site. *grin*)
    .-= Mimi´s last blog … In Christ Alone by Adrienne (Leisching) Camp & Geoff Moore =-.

  5. Super Mama! That happened to us too when the girls were little. I couldn’t find a product to help so we just watched them like hawks.

    Happy Easter!

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