Lessons Learned
Little MPB has now been to the emergency room 5 times in his life. Five times!! He’s not even 2, in fact, he’s not even close to being 2. How is this possible?!
I’ve begged him to keep himself healthy, even if just for a few solid months. We don’t need or want another 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) degree temperature. We’d love if he didn’t maybe swallow a magnet and we’d desperately prefer not to take an ambulance ride again. Heck, at this rate, we’d really just appreciate not spending a long weekend at the Children’s Hospital – as an aside, why does he do these things on long weekends?
I have to say, I’m thankful we have access to care for him. Even if my mommy heart desperately needs a break from his antics.
I also have to say, after this most recent visit tot he hospital, I learned a few more parenting things:
- I am the more calm parent. No-one ever guessed this would be the case, but it turns out, when compared to Mr. MPB I am the much more relaxed parent. (Even Mr. MPB would agree with this statement, albeit reluctantly).
- I am a mom to a very active toddler. We’ve known this since he started rolling over at 7.5 weeks. He has two speeds – go, go, go and sleep. And yet, we feel like something has switched in his brain over the last week and he’s become more adventurous/risky/stupid and this is really just the start of his climbing. We are very likely in for at least a few more years of panic inducing / death defying antics from this kid. Thank god for hair dye to hide my ever increasing white hairs (I’m not going grey, I’m going white, stark white).
- Toddler proofing is entirely different then baby proofing. Our “baby safe” living room, was immediately toddler proofed after our trip to the hospital yesterday.
- Furniture was re-arranged to prevent scary high climbing.
- Our floor is hardwood, so the foam play mats have been re-arranged to line the bottom of high areas that Little MPB could potentially fall from (EMS said that foam and fuzzy/thick carpets are best to break kids falls and help reduce the severity of in-house injuries).
A carpet was purchased to go under the coffee table, as Little MPB loves to climb and dance on top the coffee table. We decided to purchase a nice(r) carpet for this area as a long term element – I never, in my entire life, thought I’d own a shag carpet, but I actually love it.- All the shelves have now been properly secured to the walls. As we no-longer had the necessary parts, we even went to Ikea on university move-in weekend to get replacement wall attachment parts – they gave them all to us for free.
- As for Little MPB’s bedroom, we will be securing his dresser and his bookshelf to the walls. He has never climbed out of his crib, but we need to be prepared for the inevitable.
- A gate is going upstairs, either in the hallway before the stairs or at his doorway. (We are reluctant to put it in the hallway because we both injured ourselves in the past walking into it in the middle of the night).
We are trying not to put Little MPB into a bubble – he’s a little kid who just wants to be a little kid. But we also realize that there are simple steps we can take to help keep our little climber a bit more safe from injury.
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My Perfect Breakdown 
hahaha. Welcome to toddler dom 🙂
Its crazy insane what these kids can do..
Another tip, toddler proof toilet seat and doors. I found A giving a “bath” to Thomas the tank Engine in the toilet bowl.. You know where the train goes next… (yeah, in his mouth).
It was my finest moment of not gagging.. Needless to say, A’s mouth was over brushed again, and I just dragged him fully clothed(both of us) in to the shower and started stripping him off in the shower..
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Yup, I kind of figure his fall was like a giant welcome to toddler dom sign. 🙂
We’ve always just kept the bathroom doors closed unless we are in them with Little MPB. He cannot open doors yet, so we haven’t worried too much about the toilet. But you are right, we should look into toilet-proofing too as I have no desire to experience toilet dipped toys being licked! Thank you so much!
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We had a weekend of buying baby proofing supplies that need to be installed now. You have me wondering if I should just go straight to toddler proofing!
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Our baby proofing was more limited then many of our friends because our house was already dog proofed (i.e. nothing unsafe within reach of a 90lbs dog’s mouth) and baby proofing wasn’t much different. We did put locks on cupboards, we keep bathroom doors closed, their are gates to keep Little MPB in the safest room in the house and prevent him from climbing stairs unsupervised. All of that is still useful now, but definitely toddler-proofing has taken us to a whole new level.
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It’s such a difficult balance to strike – letting them be adventurous and play freely, while keeping them safe. The carpet is something we may have to invest in, too. And the baby gates are death traps for adults (I have fallen on my face multiple times with the tension kind that have a bar across the bottom) but oh so necessary at the top and bottom of stairs.
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Good grief, he’s got a track record like Wallace’s! What if you make the gate in the hallway lit by a night light or covered with reflective tape? Then it will more likely be seen at night. Another toddler pro tip: secure scissors and writing implements.
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Oh gosh, how do you handle the constant injuries and illnesses?!
Thanks for the tips! We do tend to keep pens and such away from Little MPB, but since we both work from home they are usually lying around somewhere that he can find.
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Get that kid into rock climbing 😂 at least with that he has a harness and safety rope!! Or maybe gymnastics so he learns how to fall safely…
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Hahaha!! We totally registered him for baby gymnastics!
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You sound well and truly organised so yay for that. I used to have a gate in Saxon’s door to try and stop him from coming out after going to bed (once he was out of the cot). The very first night I ran into it in the middle of the night. Awful. After that, I used to close it for sleep time and then open it when I went to bed and that stopped any accidents. Not sure if any of that is useful to you but thought I’d pass it on just in case!!
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Eeek! That was so scary to hear. Glad he is doing okay! And good suggestion about putting up foam mats. We have some thin ones from Walmart and a couple of thick ones from Ikea that I think we need to start using again. We have a little daredevil over here too 🙂
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