DIY Childproofing
The rails under our dining room table are super sharp. I worry that our grandson is going to split his head open! Any advice?
Ooof, yeah. While I’ve never been a “childproof your home into a padded cell” type of parent, that most definitely looks like a bloody head injury waiting to happen.
While the childproofing aisle of any big box baby store will likely sell something that promises to pad and round out the edges of furniture, in my experience those products tend to be pretty overpriced and not terribly effective. We tried a few different products for table/counter corners that always fell off too easily, or could be removed by the very small curious child they were intended to product. They were all soon banished to the back of our kitchen junk drawer. (Which also had the remnants of a plastic childproof drawer latch screwed into the top of it, a latch that my husband broke literally the first time he opened the drawer after installing the stupid thing.)
For a rail that deep, I’m wondering if a pool noodle would work? Cut it to size — leaving an inch or two extra on each end — then slice it open halfway through, right down the middle. Insert the cut edge over the rail and secure to the underside of the table with duct tape. Not the prettiest or most camouflaged of solutions, but cheap and temporary, just until you’ve made it through the wild drunken stampede of the toddler years. Possibly a hardware or craft store might sell some kind of rubber tubing or foam block that would also work, but you’ll want something pretty substantial in thickness to prevent both injuries from the sharp edges AND the random blunt head bump from the side angle. Yeah, I’m feeling like a pool noodle would be a good choice here.
Commenters, feel free to correct/update me on any specific childproofing gadget and brand that you would recommend for this table (it has been a few years since my youngest’s head finally cleared the undersides/corners of our furniture). Or if you don’t have one, why not share your own best/personal ingenious DIY childproofing hack?
Photo source: Depositphotos/chrisbrignell
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